Our record of taking bet-the-company cases to trial – and winning – often helps us secure favorable settlements for our clients. For ExamWorks in a trade secrets misappropriation case (argued via Zoom) against former employees, we successfully obtained a TRO and preliminary injunction against the defendants – two rare forms of relief in California, which has one of the strongest public policies in favor of employee mobility.
Industry leaders respect our team’s nuanced understanding of complex issues and products. For example, Credit Suisse trusts us to handle its multibillion-dollar RMBS litigation stemming from the global financial crisis, work that yielded a precedent-setting decision from the New York Court of Appeals that will change the future of RMBS litigation and earned our team Litigators of the Week by The American Lawyer.
We have served as a go-to firm for Johnson & Johnson in high-exposure talc-related matters, including defending thousands of personal injury lawsuits, product liability cases, major consumer class actions, and cases brought under Proposition 65. We identify and analyze overarching case trends and emerging issues to develop trial strategies, maintain a consistent defense and secure desirable results in some of the most difficult jurisdictions across the U.S.
We work with our clients and co-counsel to evaluate each case, deciding when to settle and when to fight, with a view to the impact of these decisions on the client’s nationwide docket.
The world’s leading chemical, pharmaceutical, medical device, automotive and manufacturing companies turn to us to handle their most sensitive matters, frequently involving careful international coordination or complex multidistrict litigation. The NCAA relies on our trial lawyers for progressive and emerging legal solutions in concussion litigation across the nation.
We represent the interests of policyholders exclusively. We bring our courtroom experience to vigorously litigate coverage claims when necessary, but our approach emphasizes creative out-of-court solutions to obtain the best recoveries while minimizing the cost and disruption of the courtroom.
Our team knows the insurance business from every angle and can help you with every kind of claim. We leverage our vast experience to address the cutting-edge coverage issues facing policyholders today: cyber and data breach coverage, the unique business risks facing high-growth technology companies, and some of the most complex insurance disputes in the financial services area. We have represented leading players in some of the most at-risk industries, such as representing Premera Blue Cross in a lawsuit related to defense coverage under a commercial general liability policy following a data breach affecting 11 million customers, an issue of first impression under Washington law.
Our team has successfully defended more than 400 class actions in federal and state courts across the United States. We focus on early dismissals and favorable settlements, but are ready to go to trial when it makes sense to do so.
Our record includes victories in a variety of claims: from traditional breach of warranty, product liability, employment and securities class actions to novel false labeling and massive Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) cases. For a public university system we’re handling multiple class action cases brought by students seeking fee and tuition refunds following the shift to remote instruction in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We offer clients global coverage, with a team that includes nearly 100 litigators in Europe and Asia. We handle closely watched matters all over the world involving everything from multibillion-dollar financial industry cases to disputes over power stations in Africa and investments in China. For example, we scored a €1.5 billion win on behalf of Hitachi Rail S.p.A. before the Regional Administrative Court of the Lazio Region of Rome in a lawsuit filed by the French competitor Alstom Ferroviaria Spa. We are one of the most experienced firms in representing foreign-owned enterprises in U.S. litigation. We secured multiple wins for China National Building Materials Group, a directly state-owned enterprise, in one of the largest ongoing multidistrict product liability cases in the U.S., and are representing a major technology company against claims that its purchase of lithium ion batteries subject it to alleged forced labor statute violations in sub-Saharan African mining activities.
We also have a team of international arbitrators who represent clients in high-stakes arbitration proceedings in multiple languages under all the major arbitral rules. We are named in the Global Arbitration Review’s GAR 30 year after year, and were singled out for wins for solar investors in their ECT cases, specifically obtaining a €41 million ICSID award for German investor SolEs Badajoz against Spain, and a €7.4 million SCC award for Danish client Athena against Italy – the first time the state had been held liable over its renewable energy reforms.
The high quality of our service is matched by our commitment to efficiency. Clients benefit from our seamless coordination across offices and jurisdictions, as well as our state-of-the-art, internally cultivated cost-saving tools. These include Orrick Case Stream, our proprietary case management system, and Orrick Analytics, one of the most sophisticated document review services in the market.
We are sought after for our sophisticated litigation support housed in our Global Operations and Innovation Center, which garnered recognition as The Financial Times Most Innovative Law firm in North America 2016-2018, runner up 2019-2020 and Most Digital Law Firm 2020.
Johnson & Johnson in numerous unprecedented successes, trial wins and significant settlements for J&J in its high-profile talc litigation for many years, including a Prop 65 case in California that the plaintiffs dropped shortly before trial with an order to reimburse J&J for close to $600,000 in legal fees. In another significant win, the Orrick team convinced a federal judge to dismiss with prejudice a consumer class action alleging that J&J misled consumers in connection with its marketing of talc products.
NCAA as national trial counsel in its student-athlete concussion litigation. In this role, we are coordinating and executing strategy, and successfully defending the NCAA in courts across the country, including in California, Indiana, Oregon, Hawaii and Washington, D.C. In these cases, we defend against allegations of negligence, breach of express and implied contract, fraudulent concealment, and in some cases, loss of consortium.
Marathon Oil Company as national coordinating counsel in claims by both government and private entities relating to climate change as a result of the production and sale of fossil fuel products. These cases, which assert a variety of claims under private and public nuisance theories as well as products liability doctrines, are pending in a variety of courts across the country.
Credit Suisse in defending all their outstanding RMBS litigation claims brought by investors, RMBS trustees, monoline insurers, government agencies, and state regulators. We won a “Market Moving Reversal” precedent-setting decision from the New York Court of Appeals, that significantly reduces Credit Suisse’s damages exposure in RMBS litigation. For our work on this matter, the team was named Litigators of the Week by The American Lawyer.
Premera Blue Cross in a lawsuit related to defense coverage under a commercial general liability policy following a data breach affecting 11 million customers, an issue of first impression under Washington law.
KBC Bank, one of the largest banks in Belgium, in a high-profile $1.5 billion RICO case against Lazare Kaplan International, Inc. The headline-grabbing matter spans years of battles with Lazare and involves an alleged international conspiracy to steal tens of millions of dollars of diamonds and proceeds from their sale.
DISH Network at trial in one of the highest-stakes telemarketing cases in the nation, which was brought by the United States government and the states of California, Illinois, North Carolina and Ohio seeking civil penalties upward of $23 billion. That team also defended DISH in a consumer TCPA class action that went to trial in federal district court in North Carolina.
Oracle as lead trial counsel in its ongoing copyright infringement action against Google, arising from Google’s development of Android. The case has been described as one of the most important copyright cases of the decade, if not the century. The damages claimed exceed $9 billion.
Public University System in numerous class action cases brought by students in federal and state courts seeking fee and tuition refunds following shifts to remote instruction in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
ExamWorks Group in a misappropriation of trade secret case. Several ExamWorks employees including the two executives left the company after stealing detailed spreadsheets that identified over 150,000 of ExamWorks’ clients and doctors, pulling significant trade secrets and confidential information in order to start a competing business.
Chinese National Building Material Group, the largest gypsum-board producer in the world, and related entities as lead counsel in the federal MDL litigation regarding allegations of defective drywall manufactured in China. The litigation involves buildings and individuals allegedly harmed as a result of post-Hurricane Katrina construction.