This new generation of tech litigation draws on old precedent from industries like pharma, firearms, tobacco and environmental torts, while spanning new theories of product liability, public nuisance, negligence, consumer protection and privacy. Innovators face high-volume dockets, heightened potential for class actions, mass torts and mass arbitrations – and the regulatory scrutiny, policy pressure and reputational risk that follow close behind.
Orrick’s Tech Litigation team is at the forefront of defending clients against this next generation of litigation and contentious regulatory enforcement. And we use our firsthand experience in the courtroom to advise clients not only on these known risks, but on the risks that lie ahead. Together, we develop strategies around product design and launch, complex litigation defense, and public policy – all to help our clients capture market opportunities, mitigate risk and achieve enterprise objectives.
Our litigation clients range from the most disruptive start-ups to global tech leaders, including four of the Magnificent 7. We represent market-leading players in social media, online gaming and edtech in online safety; AI frontier labs in IP and complex technology disputes; fintech and health tech in consumer protection class actions; and high-tech manufacturing and data centers in chemical and environmental matters.
We bring to the table decades of experience in traditional tort and product liability leadership representing Fortune 500 companies in sectors including consumer goods and industrial manufacturing, as well as cutting-edge AI, pharmaceuticals, digital assets, and cyber and data privacy litigation.
Orrick brings together embedded product counsel with Chambers-ranked litigators (Band 1: Product Liability & Mass Torts; Band 2: Artificial Intelligence; Gaming; Privacy & Data Security Litigation; State Attorneys General), an unsurpassed appellate team led by a three-time American Lawyer Litigator of the Year winner, a Chambers Band 1 financial & fintech regulatory and enforcement team, and a nationally recognized public policy team including a former state AG, former senior leaders at the FTC and CFTC, and former senior policy advisers at Magnificent 7 companies.
Courts are grappling with cutting-edge issues of AI litigation, including:
Orrick is on the frontier of AI technology and issues, including:
See more about our AI practice here
Our team draws on the experience of Chambers-ranked gaming and gambling practitioners to defend innovators in online and social gaming from allegations of addiction and illegal gambling. Our lawyers have led the evolution of the U.S. gaming sector for nearly 30 years, shaping gaming regulation and fostering direct engagement with regulators on licensing and investigations.
We have secured litigation results for gaming clients like Caesars Sportsbook and VGW, including for VGW defeating one of the first cases in a litigation-funded, nationwide campaign seeking to leverage state anti-gambling laws to recover alleged third-party losses from online gaming companies and prediction markets.
Read more about our Gaming & Gambling practice here
We advise both disrupters and leaders in this highly specialized fintech space, including two of the world’s leading prediction markets.
Our team includes a former Chief Trial Attorney of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees cryptocurrencies and has positioned itself as the exclusive regulator of prediction markets.
We have secured key wins as part of the wave of litigation-funded class actions against online gaming, prediction markets and their affiliates seeking recovery of alleged third-party losses under state anti-gambling laws.
Read more about our Blockchain & Digital Assets capabilities here
Companies offering online learning, teaching and testing platforms to children, teens and students face heightened data and safety risks and a shifting regulatory landscape, particularly with the widespread adoption of AI to power consumer-facing products and services. Our Chambers-ranked team represents some of the leading EdTech players and disrupters in the market on issues ranging from online safety, data privacy and cybersecurity, including product strategy, compliance, regulatory defense and litigation.
See more about our Online Safety practice here
As more cities adopt driverless vehicles and as robots and other automation proliferate in the workplace, home, or medical settings, courts will confront more cases addressing allegations of personal injury and business harms.
Orrick advises companies and funds in the robotics, drone and unmanned vehicle industries – including the largest drone manufacturer in the world (DJI) – on issues including:
See more about our Drones and Other Unmanned Vehicles practice here
Medical technology is undergoing massive transformation, with AI and unprecedented scale of data bringing new risks to clients in this highly regulated arena.
Orrick advises 12 out of the 20 largest biopharma companies and over 350 venture-backed companies in life sciences, healthtech and digital health. Orrick has litigated a full spectrum of issues for companies in this sector, including:
See more about our Life Sciences & HealthTech practice here
Orrick brings its track record in mass torts and product liability to advise clients facing this new generation of so-called toxic torts.
We have been selected as National Coordinating and Trial Counsel for many of our clients facing mass torts, including Fortune 500 companies in talc and industrial manufacturing class actions. We have secured wins – including at trial – in cases involving thousands of plaintiffs nationwide alleging exposure, poisoning, drugs and disasters.
Read more about our Mass Torts & Product Liability practice here
Orrick defends leading video gaming company Roblox in a wave of high-profile cases alleging addiction and online harms from its interactive platform, including gameplay and messaging features, in-game currency and game development platform. To date, Orrick has secured a string of wins that include dismissals and successful motions to compel arbitration. One recent class action alleges the novel theory that minor creators are exploited when they use the platform to develop video games.
Since 2022, Orrick has defended a leading social media, AI and technology company to manage and defend multiple areas of litigation, including its entire U.S.-based docket of individual user disputes – comprising thousands of lawsuits and demands over the past four years. Even in the face of the erosion of Section 230, our approach has enabled us to advance a proactive litigation strategy, press consistent, effective and efficient defenses, and build a bank of helpful precedent across almost all 50 states and D.C. We leverage data from the docket to inform business practices. We continually work closely with our client’s in-house legal operations team to develop our shared knowledgebase and evolve the way we collaborate, including through incorporating the next generation of legal technology.
We have secured successive wins in our defense of leading interactive entertainment and social gaming company, VGW, in a series of class actions and lawsuits which allege VGW’s games constitute illegal gambling. Orrick helped VGW defeat claims brought by an entity that formed shortly before litigation to bring claims under an Ohio statute, which purported to allow “any person” to recover third-party losses from illegal gambling whether or not they themselves were the “loser.” This early win was a key milestone amidst a litigation-funded wave leveraging similar state-level statutes across the country against VGW, prediction markets and their vendors and affiliates. We have won motions to compel arbitration in federal jurisdictions from California to Alabama to Delaware to Massachusetts, successfully enforcing VGW’s terms and sharply cabining its exposure to individual claims.
With the erosion of Section 230, the evolution of products liability and nuisance law, and increasing, bipartisan pressure from lawmakers and regulators, social media and video gaming companies face acute, escalating risk – particularly where their services are delivered to kids and teens.
Our clients include:
We have a track record of success defending product liability, public nuisance, negligence and other tort and contract theories alleging:
See more about our Online Safety practice here