Bukowski, Jonathan

Since joining GMSR in 2006, Kent has dedicated himself to civil appellate and writ practice, building on a decade of previous experience in civil litigation and criminal appeals. He has briefed and argued multiple appeals in the California Courts of Appeal and Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on a wide array of subjects—from complex business cases to civil rights actions—and has prepared a variety of writ petitions in California appellate courts.

Kent has also briefed cases in the Supreme Court of the United States. He teamed up with colleague Kent Richland to obtain a unanimous reversal in City of Ontario v. Quon (2010) 130 S. Ct. 2619, the first Supreme Court case in more than two decades to consider how the Fourth Amendment applies in a government workplace. He then authored the sole amicus curiae brief supporting certiorari in Filarsky v. Delia (2012) 132 S.Ct. 1657, the first Supreme Court opinion extending qualified immunity to private individuals.

Kent was chosen by The Recorder as one of its 2010 Attorneys of the Year and was named a 2013 Southern California Super Lawyer in the area of appellate practice.

Before joining GMSR, Kent first honed his legal research and writing skills as a federal judicial clerk in Nevada, and then served more than four years as a Deputy Attorney General—briefing and arguing criminal cases in the California Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal and in the Ninth Circuit. From there, he went to Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges, where, over the course of five years, he litigated complex civil cases and also worked to develop an expertise in civil appeals, briefing a variety of cases in state and federal appellate courts.

Kent formed a solid foundation for appellate work at UCLA School of Law, where he learned appellate advocacy from a former California Supreme Court justice. He also drafted several Ninth Circuit briefs as a summer law clerk for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Las Vegas.

In his free time, Kent serves as an inaugural member of the City of Glendale’s Trail Safety Patrol, in the mountain biking unit.