Brad Brian of Munger Tolles and Vanessa Bryant

It's easy to tell when someone wants publicity for filing a lawsuit—they issue a press release or tweet or hold a press conference, or maybe just pass on a copy of the complaint with a "you-didn't-get-this-from-me-but-I-thought-you'd-find-it-interesting" (hint hint) note.

But what if a famous plaintiff wants to minimize attention? That can be much trickier to pull off. For a lesson on how to do it well, you might look to Vanessa Bryant and her ace litigation team led by Munger, Tolles & Olson chair Brad Brian.

On Monday, the widow of basketball legend Kobe Bryant filed a 27-count wrongful death lawsuit against the operator of the helicopter that crashed on January 26, killing her husband and their 13-year-old daughter Gianna, along with seven others. 

Or at least that's what the Los Angeles Times and TMZ reported—but neither linked to the actual complaint in their reports, nor did other reporters who followed their coverage (or at least not that I could find, and believe me, I looked). 

No problem, I thought. I'll just get it from the Los Angeles County Superior Court online docket. 

Or not. The complaint didn't show up in multiple searches.

"It's still being processed," a court spokeswoman told me.

Yes, the court has e-filing, she said, but complaints are reviewed before they're posted to make sure they have all the proper documents, and that takes a day or two.

Huh. 

"But given the intense public interest, maybe you might expedite it?" I asked.

"No," she said firmly, sounding like someone who'd been asked this 100 times already. "We don't do high-profile cases any faster than other cases."

Still, I was interested in writing about the suit against Island Express Holding Corp. and Island Express Helicopters, which (per the Los Angeles Times) alleges that the pilot failed "to use ordinary care in piloting the subject aircraft" and was negligent.

I reached out to Brad Brian at Munger Tolles. He was one of The American Lawyer's Litigators of the Year in 2016, feted for his work on behalf of Transocean in the BP oil spill. "Brian led a squad of dozens of lawyers from multiple firms to victory when a federal judge pinned most of the blame on BP and indemnified Transocean, dramatically reducing its exposure," the profile gushed.

"He must like Am Law, he'll help me out," I thought.

Or not. He didn't respond to my email.

So I tried badgering the Munger Tolles PR rep. I called his landline and his cell phone, I emailed and I texted, asking if not for a comment, then at least for a copy of the complaint. 

Crickets.

I also tried co-counsel Gary Robb of Robb & Robb, a Kansas City, Missouri, helicopter and airplane crash boutique that boasts of winning more than $1 billion in verdicts and settlements for aviation disaster victims. Robb literally wrote the book on helicopter crash litigation, called "Helicopter Crash Litigation."

I've even spoken to him before, covering a record $100 million helicopter crash settlement that he won in 2018—the largest pre-trial settlement ever of a single personal injury case.

"Mr. Robb has no comment," the Robb & Robb receptionist said. 

"OK, but would it just be possible to get a copy of the complaint?" I asked her.

"Mr. Robb has no comment," she repeated. "Mr. Robb has no comment."

Look, I know that I'm a little fish and this is a big story, and maybe everyone was just really busy—but I don't think that's what was going on. My hunch is that this was a masterfully executed strategy to minimize attention to the lawsuit.

First, consider when it was filed—the same day as Bryant's memorial service, which featured speeches by Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal and performances by Beyoncé and Alicia Keys. 

There was no obvious legal need to file the suit—reportedly 72 pages long—so quickly. The accident happened less than a month ago. It's not like the statute of limitations was about to run out. But filing it on Monday guaranteed it would be eclipsed by stories about the memorial service.  

Limiting access to the actual complaint starved the coverage further. Because the document was not available on the court's docket, it seems likely that someone leaked it to the Los Angeles Times and TMZ.

But then apparently no one else could get their hands on a copy, which meant other reporters were reduced to repeating what had already been said—an unappealing prospect. 

A savvy lawyer would know there's a lag between filing a complaint in Los Angeles County Superior Court and having it show up on the docket, and could make use of that delay. Because what reporter wants to write about a suit a day or two after the news has already been broken? Yawn.

To be sure, Vanessa Bryant's wrongful death suit was always going to be news. But if the goal was to make as small a splash as possible (and limit nasty tweets questioning her motives) her lawyers succeeded admirably. 

And if that wasn't the goal, well, could you just email me the complaint already?