California Legal Awards 2025: Attorney of the Year Finalist Bobby Henssler

The Recorder
Reprinted with permission from ALM.

June 25, 2025

Bobby Henssler says that he has always felt aligned with “the spirit of the underdog.”

His fondness for the archetype can be traced back to childhood, when he was a self-described “late bloomer,” he said. That affinity has served him throughout his career as both a federal public defender and a partner in Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd’s San Diego office, where he has helped secure some of the largest securities class action recoveries in U.S. history.

Most recently, the veteran securities litigator led a team of Robbins Geller attorneys in clinching a $434 million settlement from sportswear company Under Armour last November—the second largest securities-fraud settlement ever in the Fourth Circuit, according to Institutional Investor Shareholder Services.

Henssler also represented former shareholders of HCA Holdings as lead counsel in a $215 million settlement that remains the largest securities class action recovery ever in Tennessee, which was reported on by Law.com’s Litigation Daily, and has achieved significant recovery victories in securities class actions against retail giant J.C. Penney and the world’s largest alternative asset firm, Blackstone Inc.

“Moving to Robbins Geller, doing plaintiff’s work in particular, what we do—helping investors fight corporations who have allegedly committed corporate fraud—it’s really even more of a ‘David and Goliath’ situation than being a public defender,” Henssler said in an interview.

“Our clients really are so brave in stepping up, and that’s inspiring. They’re stepping up to challenge power, to challenge corporate America in the securities fraud cases that we do.”

‘She Was So Brave’

Born and raised in rural New Hampshire, Henssler first moved to San Diego to earn his Juris Doctor at University of San Diego School of Law—and immediately fell in love with Southern California, where he has lived ever since.

After graduating from law school, he worked at Robbins Geller’s predecessor from 2001 to 2006, then pivoted to a three-year tenure as a federal public defender in criminal cases including financial fraud, narcotics trafficking and alien smuggling—a fast-paced, rewarding experience, he said, that taught him how to think on his feet and prepared him for a long-term career of going to bat for the little guy.

“You also get to do trial work: helping folks who, for the most part are—in my experience, anyway—not bad people; They’re just poor people who made bad decisions and got themselves in a bad spot,” he said.

He described a case in which he represented a woman arrested at the border crossing from Tijuana to San Diego. Though video cameras documented a Border Patrol agent putting her in a choke hold and causing her to lose consciousness, she was charged with assaulting a federal officer, he said.

“She was so brave,” he recalled. “And our advice was this: ‘You didn’t do anything wrong. We should take it to trial.’” At trial, where she faced a maximum six-month prison sentence if convicted, Henssler and his team secured a “not guilty” verdict for their client before the magistrate judge.

“If anything, it was the way other way around,” he said. “It was a really proud moment . . . and this young woman was so brave to stand up for what was right.”

‘One of the luckiest lawyers in America’

Henssler cites the Under Armour settlement as one of the most memorable highlights of his career, which he praised as a “team win for our firm.” The Robbins Geller team settled the case just three weeks shy of a scheduled trial.

The shareholder class action, which alleges Under Armour deceived investors about product demand, dates back to 2017. In 2019, the case was dismissed without leave to amend in Baltimore federal court and appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

“These cases are incredibly challenging,” said Henssler. “The law is set up so that the corporations get the benefit of the doubt at every turn.”

Their luck radically changed, he said, when The Wall Street Journal reported an investigation of the sports apparel company by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which exposed that it had “engaged in the exact same misconduct that we had alleged.”

That’s when the Robbins Geller team executed a “rare maneuver,” he said—they asked the judge to issue an indicative ruling that would resurrect the case if remanded to the appellate court.

“Finally, after dismissing us twice, the court allowed the case to proceed into discovery,” Henssler said. “We did discovery for a couple years, prepared the case for trial, and, and we were ready to go. We had a great trial team ready to present the case to a Baltimore jury. . . . Defendants decided to resolve the case. And then it was a very favorable result for the class. . . . The SEC ultimately settled with the company years before we did for $9 million. And we were able to recover $434 million for investors.”

Twenty-five years into his career, Henssler said he feels like “one of the luckiest lawyers in America”—and looks forward to mentoring the next generation of securities fraud litigators.

“I truly love what I do,” he said. “It’s a joy to get to pursue these securities fraud cases for our clients and to really try to right a wrong.”

Henssler, who was awarded the distinction of California Lawyer of the Year in 2022, is a finalist for the 2025 Attorney of the Year, alongside Theane Evangelis of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Gary Lincenberg of Bird Marella. The California Legal Awards will be held Wednesday in Los Angeles.

Reprinted with permission from the June 25, 2025 edition of Law.COM © 2025 ALM Global Properties, LLC. This article appears online only. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited. For information, contact 877-256-2472 or asset-and-logo-licensing@alm.com. # REC-6262025-66327

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