Melissa Mills is co-chair of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati’s Complex Litigation practice and a partner in the firm’s Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., offices. An accomplished trial lawyer, she has tried dozens of cases to verdict across a wide spectrum of legal areas. 

Melissa has led and played a central role in a broad variety of complex litigation matters. She recently served as trial counsel defending YouTube and Google in the first landmark social media addiction bellwether trial in Los Angeles. She obtained a complete victory on behalf of a large public technology company sued by its former CEO, who sought over $100 million in damages and was awarded nothing following a contested proceeding wherein the arbitrator rejected every claim. Melissa served as part of the trial team representing Vanessa Bryant in her historic victory on federal civil rights claims against Los Angeles County for sharing photos from the helicopter crash that killed her husband, Kobe Bryant, and their daughter, Gianna. Melissa’s other work at the firm has included leading the trial team preparing to defend a technology executive against variety of federal tort claims; advancing a complex anti-monopolization action on behalf of an insulin manufacturer; and favorably resolving, weeks before trial, a multidistrict antitrust case on behalf of a major international corporation.

Before joining the firm, Melissa served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California for more than a decade, investigating and prosecuting a wide array of sophisticated corruption and national security crimes. She led a sweeping criminal investigation into bribery and corruption at the highest levels of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, and she prosecuted a sophisticated web of racketeering and corruption-related offenses involving local politicians, lobbyists, and developers—all work that resulted in numerous convictions, including of several senior and elected officials. Following a complicated and sensitive cross-border investigation, she also obtained the trial conviction of a high-level international arms dealer for conspiring to transfer and to use anti-aircraft missiles, among other arms-trafficking offenses. Melissa’s many other criminal cases included the capital murder of a Transportation Security Administration officer, domestic and international terrorism, espionage, trade-secret theft, export-control and sanctions violations, and other serious crimes against the United States. Her work frequently intersected with the intelligence community, and she maintained a TS/SCI security clearance.

Before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2010, Melissa practiced in the Los Angeles office of Gibson Dunn with a focus on white collar crime, anti-corruption, and compliance matters. Previously, she was an active-duty officer in the U.S. Marine Corps stationed in Quantico, Camp Pendleton, and Fallujah, Iraq. During her service in the Marine Corps, she prosecuted and defended hundreds of criminal cases, trying numerous jury trials to verdict. While deployed, she traveled throughout Iraq investigating and prosecuting crimes by U.S. servicemembers. In Iraq, she prosecuted the first two U.S. jury trials in a combat theater since the Vietnam War, one of which was interrupted by incoming rocket fire. She completed her military service in 2006 at the rank of Captain.

After graduating from law school, Melissa clerked for the Honorable A.S. Effron of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. She began her legal career in The Hague, where she served on a team investigating and prosecuting genocide and other war crimes before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Melissa is a member of the board of directors of the Wilson Sonsini Foundation and also serves on the board of directors of Free to Run, a nongovernmental organization that seeks to empower women and girls through sport in post-conflict areas. She has completed an Ironman triathlon and more than two dozen marathons.