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Attorneys
A Business Leader, Innovator and Defender of Investor Rights
Bruce was a Partner from 2004-2008 in the firm’s San Francisco office and is currently Of Counsel. His responsibilities include securities case evaluation and analysis, legal and financial, as well as directing the firm’s institutional investor and client outreach. Mr. Leppla was part of the litigation team on the McKesson, America Online, Broadcom, Qwest and Brooks Automation cases, with varying responsibilities that included case initiation, complaint preparation, and preparing and deposing expert witnesses on accounting and finance issues.
Bruce brings a unique set of skills to the firm’s financial fraud practice. A lawyer for over 30 years, he has also enjoyed distinguished careers in the fields of finance, real estate and technology. From 1983 to 1998, Bruce served as the CEO and President of Redwood Bank, a San Francisco-based commercial bank, which he grew into one of California's most successful regional banks and sold in 1998 at a substantial premium to a national bank. From 1993 to 1998, Bruce served as a Director of the California Bankers Association. During that period, he also served as a Guest Lecturer on real estate finance and law at U.C. Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.
In recent years, Bruce has served as Chairman and Founder or Co-Founder of Leppla Capital Management LLC, a real estate and investment securities advisory and brokerage business; Susquehanna Corporation, a real estate development and management company operating in Kyushu Prefecture, Japan; the Stitzel-Leppla Company, a high fashion real estate development firm whose principal project was The Pacific Center, San Francisco, CA; C.B.I.S., a technology company offering online employee benefit programs and administration; Trusted Systems Laboratories (operating system security software); and Pantheon Research Corp., a consumer products company. He has raised over $135 million for his various start-up ventures.
Bruce has written extensively on securities law issues, serves on the Editorial Board of Wall Street Lawyer, and is a frequent speaker at both U.S. and European institutional investor conferences, including, recently, conferences of the Union Internationale des Avocats in Frankfurt and Istanbul.
Bruce is the co-author of 11 United States and international patents in electronic commerce technology and commercial product design, including the foundational patent "A Method for Storing and Retrieving Digital Data Transmissions," U.S. Patent No. 5,659,746, issued on August 19, 1997.
