Appellate Team Earns Litigator of the Week Honors for Blockbuster Win for J&J

July.22.2022

Congratulations to partners Josh Rosenkranz, Bob Loeb and Naomi Scotten for being recognized as American Lawyer “Litigators of the Week” for a major appellate win in talc litigation for Johnson & Johnson.

Earlier this week, a New York appeals court reversed a $120 million judgment in the first case to go to trial in the state involving a plaintiff’s claims that J&J’s baby powder products contain cancer-causing asbestos. The decision was the first to agree with our arguments that there is insufficient proof to support a connection between the company’s talc products and cancer.

The decision is the second time in the past year and a half that our appellate team has secured a major reversal in the J&J talc litigation. A New Jersey appeals court reversed a $117 million judgment last year in a case also recognized in a Litigators of the Week feature.

In this Q & A, Josh, Bob and Naomi outlined the importance of the win in New York for the hundreds of cases pending across the country and how our team also collaborated with trial counsel to reduce the original 2019 $325 million jury verdict to $120 million in posttrial motions.

“The collaborative model is a key to the success of our mass tort appeals – and any high-stakes appeal,” Bob told the publication. “We work right alongside trial counsel to maximize issue preservation and minimize any award, dividing our labors across the whole docket depending upon the stakes of the case and its potential impact on the full range of cases.”

Added Naomi: “The win in New York was a true home run – a flat out reversal without the chance for retrial.”

This marks Orrick’s seventh time this year being recognized in the Litigators of the Week feature, including two other times receiving top honors for our litigation wins for Credit Suisse and Sonos.

Read the full story on the J&J recognition

Related Lawyers

E. Joshua Rosenkranz Partner, Supreme Court & Appellate, Propriété intellectuelle

New York

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D:+1 212 506 5380
E: [email protected]

Practice:

Finance Sector
Supreme Court & Appellate
Propriété intellectuelle
Contentieux complexes & Résolution des litiges
White Collar, Investigations, Securities Litigation & Compliance
Antitrust & Competition
International Arbitration & Dispute Resolution

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E. Joshua Rosenkranz Partner

New York

Josh has been named American Lawyer's “Litigator of the Year” twice in addition to being a finalist for 2022. In 2012, the magazine dubbed him “the Defibrillator” based on his streak of appellate wins for companies that “appeared to be at death’s door,” and in 2017 it declared, he “still deserves the moniker we once gave him.”

In 2014, The Financial Times named Josh one of the 10 most innovative lawyers in the North American legal sector for his work “demystify[ing] the technical issues” and securing a victory in the blockbuster Federal Circuit appeal, Oracle v. Google. Chambers USA has reported, “He wins accolades for his ‘brilliant analysis and judgment.’ Clients appreciate how he ‘rethinks every case from the ground up,’ and add: ‘He can take the most complicated legal or technological issue and present it in a way that seems like common sense.’” Another edition of Chambers USA added: “‘His briefs are quite simply beautiful,’” and “clients describe his courtroom presence as ‘both commanding and accessible at the same time.’ He has the ‘perfect combination of persuasiveness, intelligence, wit, and deference.’”

Josh's practice covers a wide range of subjects, including intellectual property, financial services, securities, privacy, antitrust, federal preemption, insurance law, corporate governance, criminal law, and constitutional litigation. Among his recent clients are Cisco, Credit Suisse, Cox Communications, DISH Network, Genentech, Gilead, Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, Mozilla, Oracle, Sonos, and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Clients turn to Josh to win the highest stakes appeals, including appeals in cases that threaten the very survival of a business. For example:

He represented Microsoft in an international cause célèbre in the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the U.S. Government’s claim that it can serve warrants for emails stored overseas.
He represented DISH Network in one of the most high-profile patent appeals in the country, successfully overturning an injunction that threatened the company's life.
He has been lead counsel in multiple cases either defending or challenging verdicts over $1 billion.
He represented Facebook in the high-profile battle waged by the founder's Harvard classmates, the Winklevoss twins, who laid claim to the idea for Facebook, winning a ruling from the Ninth Circuit to end the lawsuit.
He won a landmark victory in a Supreme Court case that rescued the estimated $60 billion U.S. market of copyrighted goods manufactured abroad.
He represented 36 law schools in a high-profile Supreme Court case against the Department of Defense.

Josh was the founding president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, one of the country’s foremost public interest firms. Over the course of eight years, he was the Brennan Center’s chief strategist on litigation and public policy advocacy. Before that, Josh founded the Office of the Appellate Defender, a public defender office specializing in criminal appeals.

Robert Loeb Partner, Supreme Court & Appellate, Litiges en matière de faillite

Washington, D.C.

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D:+1 202 339 8475
E: [email protected]

Practice:

Finance Sector
Supreme Court & Appellate
Litiges en matière de faillite
Contentieux complexes & Résolution des litiges
Energy
Litigation & IP
White Collar, Investigations, Securities Litigation & Compliance

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Robert Loeb Partner

Washington, D.C.

The breadth and depth of Bob's appellate experience, and his consistent track record of success in high-stakes matters, are why clients, including top tech and energy companies, trust him with their most important cases.

The National Law Journal’s Litigator of the Week column recently recognized Bob’s appellate major wins in energy and product liability cases for Broadreach Power and Johnson & Johnson. Bob’s recent victories also include Fifth Circuit wins for energy clients Cheniere and Eni. In the Cheniere-Midship case, Bob obtained an emergency stay from the court of appeals of the regulating agency proceedings and, then after oral argument, achieved a full victory. And for Eni, Bob convinced the Fifth Circuit to vacate a $300M judgment against Eni in a dispute with another energy company. These types of big wins in the most challenging cases show why both Chambers and Legal 500 rank Bob among the Country’s top appellate advocates.

Bob has argued before the Supreme Court multiple times (including a 9-0 victory regarding application of the Fourth Amendment to rental cars), and has filed hundreds of briefs in the Supreme Court. He has also handled cases in highest state courts in California, New York, Maine, Kentucky and New Jersey.

Before joining Orrick, Bob served as one of the leaders of an elite appellate group at the Department of Justice. There, in addition to major national security, commercial, and administrative law, Bob supervised bankruptcy appeals. At Orrick, Bob has continued to handle big ticket bankruptcy matters, such as a billion-dollar dispute over whether DHL’s claim was discharged by United’s bankruptcy, appeals from the City of Stockton bankruptcy confirmation, and a Ninth Circuit matter involving the interplay of the Takings Clause and bankruptcy law.

Bob’s recent work includes matters for Johnson & Johnson, Avon, Microsoft, Eni, Cheniere Energy, Freeport LNG, Broadreach Power, LS Power, Exxon, Medidata, Renco, MSC Cruise Line, Golden 1 Credit Union, Credit Suisse, TravelCenters of America, Gannett, and the City of Stockton.

Naomi J. Scotten Partner, Supreme Court & Appellate

New York

See my bio

D:+1 212 506 5116
E: [email protected]

Practice:

Supreme Court & Appellate

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Naomi J. Scotten Partner

New York

Naomi represents clients in appellate and trial-level litigation in federal and state courts across the country. She has co-authored briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court, and federal and state courts of appeals and trial courts. She recently argued an appeal before the Ninth Circuit en banc, regarding the scope of a FOIA exemption. She has also argued appeals involving product liability, employment, and criminal law issues.

Naomi has deep experience in developing appellate strategy in multi-trial litigation that spans across jurisdictions. This work begins in the trial court, by working with trial teams to preserve key appellate issues. It extends through the appellate process, and includes strategic decisions about how and when to raise the highest-value issues, coordinating appellate strategy across multiple cases and law firms, and drafting streamlined briefs that highlight a compelling narrative with clarity and a careful attention to detail. Naomi is particularly skilled at boiling large records down to their core, making complex cases simple for busy courts.

Prior to joining Orrick, Naomi served as a law clerk for Judge Susan L. Carney of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Naomi graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she served as the Executive Director of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau.

Related Areas

Supreme Court & Appellate