Bruce R. Lederman retired from the partnership in December 1999. During the course of approximately 25 years with Latham & Watkins, Mr. Lederman's representative clients have included Hughes Communications, Inc., a satellite subsidiary of the Hughes Aircraft Company, where his responsibilities as chief outside legal counsel included the creation of, and sale of satellites to, Japanese Satellite Corporation, a joint venture of Hughes, Mitsui and C. Itoh in 1985; structuring and negotiating on numerous satellite deals including the acquisition of all Western Union satellites in 1989; the acquisition of IBM's satellite subsidiary, STLC, in 1990; the negotiation, sale, and structuring of transponders used by the cable industry on Galaxys I, III, I-R and V-R, 1981 to retirement. During the course of those negotiations, Mr. Lederman dealt on numerous occasions with every major cable programmer in the industry. He was the primary outside legal adviser to DIRECTV, Inc., a company formed to launch a billion-dollar direct broadcast satellite (DBS) industry.
Mr. Lederman was the co-founder of Latham & Watkins' communications practice, which is now one of the largest and most distinguished in the country. Mr. Lederman served as Law Clerk to Senior US District Court Judge Irving Hill Central District of California 1967-1968.