Charles L. Kerr is the Managing Partner of the New York office of Morrison & Foerster and is the former head of Morrison & Foerster’s New York Litigation Department. Mr. Kerr is also the co-chair of the firmwide Product Liability Practice Group. His practice focuses on commercial litigation, complex business litigation and regulatory enforcement on behalf of both companies and financial institutions. Mr. Kerr has particular experience in cases involving complex financial matters, insurance coverage and product liability. In the area of financial litigation, Mr. Kerr has represented and acted as lead trial counsel for a large commercial bank in a multi-jurisdictional fraud case involving money laundering and has represented financial institutions in regulatory investigations and related enforcement actions. He has also litigated complex insurance coverage matters in both federal and state courts and in international arbitration proceedings in Europe and the United States. Mr. Kerr has also tried product liability cases for major manufacturers and advises clients in the United States and overseas on product liability and related issues. He regularly appears in federal and state courts throughout the United States, at both the trial and the appellate levels.

Mr. Kerr is a member of the New York Bar. He is a member of the New York State and American Bar Associations, the New York County Bar Association and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. In 1998, he was awarded the Thurgood Marshall Award by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

Mr. Kerr received his J.D. degree from New York University School of Law, cum laude, in 1982. Mr. Kerr was a Note and Comment Editor for the New York University Law Review and was elected to Order of the Coif. He served as a law clerk to the Honorable James Hunter, United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, during 1982 and 1983.

• One of two Court-appointed Liaison Counsel for the defendants in a consolidated Multi-District Litigation involving over 100 wrongful death actions arising out of the collision of two jet airliners over the Brazilian Amazon.
• Trial counsel for EchoStar in a billion-dollar breach of contract action arising out of an Affiliation Agreement for the distribution of High Definition television programming.
• Lead trial counsel for the Bank of America in a $650 million fraud case brought by the Liquidators of BCCI. The Liquidators claimed that the Bank had aided and abetted the management of BCCI in connection with an international money laundering conspiracy between BCCI and one of its largest banking clients. After several years of pre-trial proceedings and discovery, the matter was successfully settled through mediation.
• Trial counsel for the owner of a satellite in two international arbitrations involving claims for insurance coverage under various launch insurance policies for a satellite that failed shortly after launch.
• Lead trial counsel for a large insurance company in a multi-party insurance coverage matter involving thousands of underlying claims for asbestos and silica-related bodily injuries.