Our litigators never give up — we know there’s always a way to get to the right result in a case and it is our job to get there.
Morrison Foerster is the destination firm of choice for complex litigation and advisement to industry leaders in consumer products, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, technology, environmental, aviation, and transportation. Our team has a long and successful track record in defending large class actions, multiparty serial tort litigation, mass tort litigation, international arbitration, and commercial disputes.
Our clients, whether they are Fortune 100 corporations or early-stage tech companies, know they can trust us to handle not just their complex litigation needs, but also to navigate company crises—and above all, to protect their brands. From former government officials to experienced trial and appellate lawyers, to former in-house forensics professionals and crisis management counsel, our team has the right experience to jump in at any stage of a matter’s lifecycle.
Our lawyers are well equipped to assist clients with all aspects of advertising or marketing campaigns: from conception to legal and regulatory review, to preparing the necessary talent, to enlisting the right agency, to joint marketing and other agreements, to execution, and ultimately, if necessary, to litigation.
We advise clients on substantiation; comparative advertising and direct marketing issues; and “Slack-fill,” “Green,” “Free,” “Made in the USA,” and many other types of claims that are subject to unique regulatory requirements. We advise on digital advertising issues, entertainment-related agreements, celebrity endorsements, and SAG/AFTRA issues. Our lawyers defend clients before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general and in arbitration before the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. We regularly handle matters in U.S. federal courts related to false advertising practices under the Lanham Act, as well as lawsuits alleging deceptive or false advertising claims throughout the U.S. state courts, including under the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act. In addition to having many years of experience before the NAD of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, we represent our clients before the National Advertising Review Board (NARB) and the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU).
We advise clients across multiple industries in advertising, consumer products, financial services, environmental, FDA regulations, and privacy + data security, helping them navigate complex regulatory situations and partnering alongside our clients as their business grows. Our team of lawyers stays on the forefront of legal developments that affect our clients, keeping them informed through timely updates our blogs and client alerts. We leverage that intellectual agility to develop creative solutions for some of the world’s leading technology clients to help them stay ahead.
Our Class Actions Group is a one-stop shop for industry leaders in consumer products, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, established and emerging technologies, financial products and services, and more. Our team has a long and successful track record handling many high-stakes cases that threaten a company’s brand reputation, business model, and bottom line—whether for a new startup or a household name. Clients value our litigation acumen and ability to thrive in the unknown when defending large class actions. We are adept at handling litigation simultaneously and at all levels, including U.S. federal and state actions, state attorneys general, regulatory inquiries, and more. Working closely with our clients, we successfully steer cases to favorable outcomes, whether it be winning at trial, defeating class certification, obtaining motions to dismiss, resolving in pre-litigation, or handling other complex matters that may arise.
Morrison Foerster is renowned for its strong track record in complex commercial disputes. We are consistently ranked as one of the top litigation practices in the United States. The group handles high-stakes business disputes at the trial and appellate levels and before leading arbitral tribunals around the world, with more than 350 litigators across three continents. Our success is rooted in combining our trial expertise and our deep knowledge of our clients, their risk profiles, and their business and litigation objectives to advance client interests effectively and cost-efficiently.
Morrison Foerster has a long track record of defending companies in high-stakes consumer class actions and related regulatory proceedings. We represent clients that are defending claims by private litigants for unfair competition, false advertising, and unfair and deceptive trade practices and investigations and regulatory enforcement actions mounted by state and federal authorities, including the FTC, attorneys general, and district attorneys.
We have achieved successful litigated outcomes by defeating class certifications, succeeding on summary judgment, or achieving trial victories in state and federal courts across the country. Our lawyers also have significant experience in defending consumer class actions in California and New York, which are hotbeds of consumer litigation activity.
Our success in representing clients against consumer class actions has earned us recognition by The Legal 500 as a “first tier” law firm in the category of Product Liability and Mass Tort Defense: Consumer Products. Our lawyers are recognized by prestigious local and national publications, including Chambers, The Legal 500, and Best Lawyers in America.
Our group maintains one of the most sophisticated and sought-after environmental practices in the country. We are experienced in litigating cases across the full spectrum of environmental law, and we provide comprehensive counsel across all U.S. environmental laws and regulatory schemes and state law equivalents. We take on the most complicated environmental challenges our clients face and navigate extremely technical scientific and factual issues in administrative and judicial arenas to deliver successful outcomes. Our team’s combination of prior government service, scientific background, and knowledge of industrial and manufacturing processes gives us an unparalleled ability to help our clients avoid litigation and government enforcement, and to advocate effectively when necessary.
Morrison Foerster’s arbitration lawyers represent clients in commercial arbitration cases around the world, conducted under all major institutional rules, as well as in litigation before U.S. state and international courts relating to arbitration. We represent private and public corporations, investors, sovereign states, and state-owned enterprises in international and domestic arbitration matters, helping them resolve major disputes across the firm’s key sectors and all types of commercial relationship.
Morrison Foerster has extensive experience handling multidistrict and coordinated litigation matters of all kinds, including mass tort, securities, privacy, and cybersecurity. We vigorously and aggressively defend our clients’ positions, while maintaining a strategic outlook on exit strategies and the impact on our clients’ businesses.
Our team represents some of the world’s largest and most-innovative manufacturers in the pharmaceutical and medical device fields. We serve as counsel in state and federal jurisdictions throughout the United States and have tried numerous jury cases to verdict in state and federal courts. Our representation of pharmaceutical and medical device clients includes mass tort litigation, legislative efforts to limit liability, warning and labeling requirements, risk assessments, recalls, provision of treatment during clinical drug studies, consumer fraud, and violations of the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act. Our lawyers are well grounded in the sciences important to these industries, holding more than 40 Ph.D.s and M.D.s, and 20 master’s degrees, in relevant sciences. Our Product Liability Practice Group gives our clients the legal and technical skills needed to address the most complex product challenges confronting the pharmaceutical and medical device industries.
Our in-depth experience covers the full spectrum of privacy litigation, including class actions involving U.S. federal and state privacy laws, as well as regulatory and attorney general investigations and enforcement. Our privacy litigators have been widely recognized as preeminent counsel in defending against claims brought under the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), and other statutory and common law privacy claims. We have more than 60 lawyers in offices in the United States, Europe, and Asia who have worked on privacy and cybersecurity matters on behalf of hundreds of organizations, including nearly half of the Fortune 50 and companies across all sectors.
Morrison Foerster’s Product Liability and Counseling Group is a one-stop shop for product manufacturers and resellers. Clients turn to us to protect and defend not just their products but also their brands. We help our clients navigate complex regulatory environments through all phases of the product lifecycle, and we provide timely advice about regulatory compliance, product labeling, and litigation risk assessment—both pre- and post-market. We guide clients through product development, complex product recalls, and crisis management; we counsel on indemnification issues; and we advise on acquisitions involving ongoing product liability claims. While we aim to minimize the risk and impact of litigation on our clients’ products, sometimes litigation is unavoidable. When lawsuits are filed, we stand by our clients and advocate for the best possible outcome. Our trial lawyers have tried hundreds of cases to judges and juries, arbitrators, and administrative bodies. If a case goes up on appeal, our award-winning appellate lawyers are ready to take on our clients’ most challenging legal issues.
Morrison Foerster provides practical advice about and innovative solutions to the challenges and opportunities faced by retailers that help them thrive in this rapidly evolving industry. We work cross-practice with other groups to serve our retail clients in several areas, including consumer class actions, unfair competition, false advertising, privacy and data security, employee-related litigation, trademark and patent infringements, corporate transactions, information technology and Fintech, and real estate disputes. Our firm serves the world’s largest brick-and-mortar and online retailers, including Best Buy, Costco, Gap, eBay, RH, Safeway, and Target.
Morrison Foerster regularly tries cases in state and federal courts across the U.S., before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), in international courts, and in arbitration, in matters of the utmost importance to their clients. Our trial experience covers a vast array of commercial cases, including breach of contract, trade secrets, product liability, and consumer disputes, and criminal cases, including securities and commodities fraud, healthcare fraud, FCPA violations, CPSA violations, wrongful death, and other complex charges. Our diverse team of experienced trial lawyers can handle a matter from the outset or parachute in close to trial. Our trial lawyers belong to the most elite organizations for trial lawyers, including the American Board of Trial Advocates and the American College of Trial Lawyers. Three of our lawyers have been inducted into the California Trial Lawyers’ Hall of Fame—more than any other law firm.
- Julie Y. ParkPartner
- Ben SummerfieldPartner
- Katie L. ViggianiPartner
- Julie Y. ParkPartner
- Ben SummerfieldPartner
- Katie L. ViggianiPartner
Experience
Serve as orthopedic device manufacturer’s national product liability counsel, providing broad based support on product development and product safety issues, in addition to serving as lead counsel in product liability litigation matters.
We have represented Fitbit before the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) since 2014. MoFo currently represents Fitbit before the CPSC on reporting requirements for their products, and advises on new product development and risk mitigation, including media and public relations counseling, assisting with the coordination of product testing, and advising on product warnings and labels. Additionally, we have served as lead counsel for Fitbit in five class action lawsuits and in over 300 personal injury lawsuits arising from the recall, all of which were favorably resolved. We are lead counsel defending Fitbit against their first consumer class action case. Plaintiffs brought suit on behalf of California and Florida purchasers alleging that Fitbit’s activity trackers did not track sleep as advertised. Erin’s approach to this case focused on the intersection of litigation strategy with Fitbit’s business needs. In March 2018, we negotiated a settlement of this case that has received preliminary approval from the court. On the eve of oral arguments, the customers filed a motion asking the court to preliminarily approve a settlement that would resolve the three-year-old litigation. Under the deal, Fitbit agreed to provide every class member a $10 cash payment and a transferable, non-expiring $5 voucher that can be used on Fitbit’s website. Under the settlement that was approved in October 2018, each class member will receive $12.50, which represents 83% of the best-case damages amount they might have been awarded had the case gone to trial. Class counsel have asked for more than $7 million in attorneys’ fees. We have also been lead counsel for Fitbit in two consolidated cases alleging that Fitbit’s heart-rate monitoring does not work as advertised. The heart-rate monitoring class actions spawned securities class actions against the company, and we coordinated the interplay between both sets of cases. The judge granted Fitbit’s motion to compel arbitration, sending 12 of the 13 named plaintiffs to arbitration. This case raises novel issues regarding the scope of arbitration agreements and class action waivers.
We are defending MyLife Inc. in two putative class actions that allege unlawful appropriation of the plaintiffs’ identities and the identities of thousands of other Illinois residents in its advertisements without written consent. Motions to dismiss both cases are fully briefed and pending.
Lead counsel for a network of fertility clinics in class action and mass tort litigation arising out of a cryostorage tank failure at one of the clinics.
We secured a victory for Gap in an identity theft class action case filed by a former job applicant who made claims against the retailer after a third-party vendor’s laptop, containing personal data, was stolen. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California held the clothing retailer was not negligent in its handling of the data and granted summary judgment to Gap, as well as to third-party vendor Vangent Inc., dismissing negligence claims.
We are representing a major financial institution in an MDL proceeding that consists of 1) a class action brought on behalf of every merchant in the United States who accepts Visa and MasterCard payment cards alleging price-fixing and tying claims and 2) more than 10 actions by a number of large merchants making parallel claims. Fact discovery is complete. Motions to dismiss and motions for class certification are pending. We also are representing the same financial institution in several other payment card antitrust cases.
After a four-week jury trial, we won a defense verdict on behalf of JDSU and three former executives on all claims in a class action alleging securities fraud and insider trading. Plaintiffs had sought damages of approximately $20 billion, one of the largest damages claims ever presented at trial in the United States.
We represented McKesson in a nationwide RICO class action lawsuit alleging unlawful price fixing to inflate the average wholesale price of hundreds of brand name prescription drugs. We obtained dismissal at the pleading stage, demonstrating that plaintiffs failed to allege any anticompetitive effect from the alleged conduct.
Defended digital media company in privacy class actions alleging email content was scanned to develop targeted advertising in violation of California state wiretapping laws.
Represented a major pharmaceutical company in MDL proceedings and state-consolidated cases in which more than 200 plaintiffs claimed that pamidronate, an injectable drug used in the treatment of certain cancers, causes a degenerative condition of the jaw. On January 30, 2012, we obtained dismissals from all remaining plaintiffs in the MDL. The MDL court found that plaintiffs’ claims boiled down to failure to warn claims and, therefore, were preempted under the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Mensing. In addition to MDL proceedings in the Eastern District of New York, we represented our client in New Jersey mass tort proceedings.