Michael W. Bien

Michael W. Bien is a founding partner at the 30 year-old San Francisco litigation firm, Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP. He successfully litigated a series of major civil rights actions on behalf of incarcerated persons against prisons and jails over inadequate medical, dental and mental health care, disability discrimination, sexual assault, use of force and solitary confinement. He is co-lead counsel of the legal team that prevailed in Plata v. Brown in the United States Supreme Court in 2011 requiring a 20% reduction in California’s prison population. He has brought successful ADA cases against Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, sports stadiums, hospitals and movie theaters. Mr. Bien recently led a team that secured a nationwide preliminary injunction, based on the First Amendment, against President Trump’s ban of the Chinese super-app, WeChat. He frequently writes and lectures on criminal justice reform, civil rights, disability rights, prisoner rights, and antitrust law. He received his B.A. from Brandeis University in 1977 and his J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law in 1980. He has served on the Boards of various not for profits including Brandeis Hillel Day School, Camp Tawonga, the Mission YMCA, the Disability Rights Bar Association, and on the San Francisco Regional Council and International Council of the New Israel Fund.