Nathaniel Bruno

Nathaniel (Nate) Bruno serves as senior counsel and vice president of Blackstone alumni services with Alliance Defending Freedom. In this role, Bruno coordinates efforts to provide attorneys who are commissioned as fellows through the ADF Blackstone Legal Fellowship with opportunities to participate meaningfully in strategic legal cases and projects that aim to protect and advance religious freedom, as well as in other Blackstone alumni engagement and affinity-building events and initiatives.

Prior to joining ADF in January 2016, Bruno was a partner at the international law firm of Sheppard Mullin LLP, where he practiced intellectual property litigation and was co-leader of the firm’s intellectual property practice group that consisted of more than 70 attorneys. He achieved numerous excellent results for clients through trial, motion practice, alternative dispute resolution, and effective negotiation. Bruno also served for many years on his prior firm’s pro bono committee, leading efforts to provide access to justice for people unable to pay for counsel. His pro bono services included successfully suing a criminal pimp in a groundbreaking lawsuit under California’s civil human trafficking prevention statute, and personally handling or supervising more than 30 adoptions of children out of the Los Angeles County foster care system.

Bruno received his juris doctor magna cum laude from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 2003. He was commissioned as an ADF Blackstone Fellow during law school in 2001. Bruno earned his B.A. in Political Science and Mass Communications from the University of California, Berkeley in 2000, graduating with high distinction. Bruno also holds a master’s degree in theological studies (M.A.T.S.) with high distinction from the Liberty University Rawlings School of Divinity. His professional office is ADF’s Washington, D.C. location, and he is licensed (solely) in the District of Columbia, Virginia, and California.