Megan O'Neill

Areas of Focus: Appellate Practice; Class Action Defense; Complex Commercial Litigation and Arbitration.

Megan O’Neill co-founded DTO Law and leads the firm’s Litigation practice. Ranked in Chambers USA 2026, named by Forbes as one of “America’s Top Women Lawyers,” and recognized by Lawdragon as one of the “500 Leading Litigators in America,” she is a litigator and strategist who keeps the client’s business objectives at the center of every case.

Megan never loses sight of the practical question a company faces in litigation: what is best for the business? She pairs decades of experience in high-stakes matters with a candid, direct style, earning client trust by speaking plainly about what they face and how to reach their goals.

Megan considers herself a generalist, having spent over a decade litigating a variety of bet-the-company cases at a large firm. While she now handles everything from breach of contract and fraud claims to trademark infringement disputes, she is most often recognized for her work in the class action space. In recent years, she led the defense of class actions for clients such as HP, Unilever, John Paul Mitchell Systems, General Mills, Albertsons, and Walgreens, and she is regularly invited to speak at and chair conferences focused on class action defense. She is equally at home at an appellate podium and in the trial court, having handled appeals before the Second, Third, and Ninth Circuits and the California appellate courts and tried several cases to verdict.

Megan’s teams frequently secure victories at the outset of a case on a motion to dismiss, either ending the matter or sharply reducing both potential liability and cost of defense. In one example, she led the team defending a major retailor in a putative class action alleging that the company's "retinol" rinse-off products were marketed in a manner that purportedly misled consumers regarding their characteristics. The court agreed with DTO's arguments that the Plaintiff relied on implausible assumptions about consumer expectations, granting the motion to dismiss.

Stanford Law School, J.D.

Lafayette College – Race and Gender Studies & Spanish, B.A., summa cum laude

Federal Bar Association, Member (Current)

The Litigation Series: Consumer Goods Litigation Forum, Defense Bar, Steering Committee (2023-2026)

Litigation Counsel of America

- Trial Law Institute, Member (Current)

- Diversity Law Institute, Member (Current)

- Order of Veritas, Barrister (Current)

- Order of Certus, Advocate (Current)

DRI | Association of Lawyers Defending Business, Member (Current)

LCLD

- Executive Council (2021-2026)

- All-In Campaign, Chair (2024-2026)

- All-In Campaign, Vice Chair (2023)

- Pathfinder Facilitator (2022-2023)

- Coaching Circles, Chair and Vice Chair (2021-2023)