Brunet, Michael R.

Profile

Michael R. Brunet is Of Counsel to the firm and an attorney in Cooper Levenson’s Gaming Law Practice Group.

Michael focuses his practice on gaming law, regulatory compliance, intellectual property, litigation, SEC/corporate governance, and bankruptcy (Chapter 11 reorganization). He is based in Las Vegas and Northern California where he is General Counsel of Graton Resort & Casino, the largest Native American casino in the Bay Area.

Michael’s background includes significant experience in hotel and casino transactional work with regional, national, and international clients in the hotel and casino, real estate development, and corporate industries.

Experience

Michael has served as both legal counsel to and executive management of over fifty hotels, casinos, bars, restaurants, and nightclubs, in more than ten U.S. and international jurisdictions.

Michael began his career as an associate attorney practicing in complex insolvency and reorganization and corporate law with a leading Las Vegas law firm.

He has served as in-house counsel to Station Casinos, Tropicana Entertainment, Affinity Gaming, and the Meruelo Group (Sahara Las Vegas, Grand Sierra Resort, Reno), and as General Counsel of The Light Group, Palms Casino Resort, and GameCo The Video Game Casino, and has acted as advisor to Drai’s Beachclub & Nightclub, to the senior secured lenders to Lucky Dragon Hotel & Casino, as well as the executive management of Yaamava’ Resort & Casino at San Manuel (Highland, California).

At Cooper Levenson, he has represented a diverse group of clients in iGaming and related transactions, including Spectrum Gaming Group, PropSwap, and 888 Holdings PLC.

Michael has directly handled intellectual property (copyright and trademark) matters for corporate clients as in-house counsel, including litigation, licensing, rights acquisition and clearance, and maintenance of an IP portfolio consisting of hundreds of active service marks.

He directly negotiated location and sponsorship agreements with major motion picture and television networks for appearances by the Company’s hotel and casino properties in TV shows and studio feature films; and negotiated and reviewed performance agreements for talent appearing at the Company’s entertainment venues including clubs, lounges and performing arts venues.

Representative Transactions

• Advised CEO of San Manuel Casino concerning prospective $40 million investment opportunity in i-gaming platform and $1 billion investment opportunity in land-based hotel-casino.
• Advised Snow Covered Capital, a senior secured lender to Lucky Dragon Hotel & Casino, through Lucky Dragon’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and through the acquisition of the property and re-sale for $36 million.
• As VP General Counsel of Palms Casino Resort, represented the company in numerous commercial transactions, including $312 million sale of the resort to Red Rock Resorts (Station Casinos).
• As AVP, Deputy General Counsel for Affinity Gaming, represented the company in commercial transactions for hotel casinos in Nevada, Iowa, Colorado and Missouri.
• As General Counsel for The Light Group, drafted severance and independent contractor agreements; represented the company in mediation and litigation of discrimination, harassment, and wrongful termination claims.
• As Corporate Counsel for Tropicana Entertainment, advised the company in commercial transactions for hotel casinos in Nevada, New Jersey, Mississippi, Louisiana, Indiana and Aruba.
• As Associate General Counsel for Station Casinos, represented the company in commercial transactions for operating hotel-casinos in Nevada and for the development and opening of $850 million Aliante Station Hotel & Casino, $1.1 billion Red Rock Casino Resort Spa, and proposed multi-billion development of Viva Resort Casino Spa Affiliations.

Education

Michael earned his B.A. in English from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with distinction. He holds a Master of Fine Arts from the American Film Institute. Michael earned his Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center.

Affiliations

• Member – Gaming Law Section Executive Committee – Nevada State Bar
• Member – Gaming Advisory Board – UNLV Boyd School of Law
• Member – State Bar of Nevada
• Past President and Board Member – Association of Corporate Counsel, Nevada Chapter