The following is an excerpt from Practice Perspectives: Vault's Guide to Legal Practice Areas.
Erin Bosman co-chairs Morrison Foerster’s global litigation department and founded and co-heads the firm’s artificial intelligence group. Clients in the technology and life sciences industries value her business strategy and litigation acumen, particularly with respect to new technology and uncertain legal landscapes. She provides comprehensive counsel throughout the product life cycle, focusing on high-stakes litigation and mass torts. The Legal 500 continues to recognize Erin as a Leading Lawyer in Dispute Resolution: Product Liability, Mass Tort and Class Action. She is a three-time recipient of the Product Liability Lawyer of the Year, an America’s Women in Business Law Award from Euromoney. She was also named a Top Healthcare Lawyer by the Daily Journal. Erin is a member of the Product Liability Advisory Council.
Victor Lopez is an associate in the complex litigation and advisement group of Morrison Foerster’s New York office. His practice focuses on complex civil litigation and cross-border internal and government-facing investigations, and he has particular experience in matters involving Latin America. Victor has represented government contractors, financial institutions, and multinational companies in consumer and shareholder class actions, complex commercial disputes, mediations, and government investigations (including enforcement actions led by the DOJ, SEC, and the Federal Reserve). He has represented clients before federal and state courts.
Describe your practice area and what it entails.
Erin: My practice covers the product life cycle, focusing on high-stakes litigation and mass torts. I counsel clients throughout the product life cycle, from advising them in product development on how to mitigate product liability exposure to high-stakes litigation and product recalls. Clients look to me to coordinate their overall product liability strategy, and I serve as trial and national coordinating counsel in class action cases and multi-jurisdictional and multidistrict proceedings. I also maintain a robust advisement practice, drawing on my litigation experience to counsel clients on product development, risk assessments, product labeling, and risk mitigation strategies to help them avoid and defeat product liability claims. Finally, I advise clients on crisis management and guide them through product recalls.
Victor: In my practice, I handle all sorts of complex commercial disputes on behalf of our clients. These can include class actions, business disputes, arbitrations, and international disputes, to name a few. On a day-to-day basis, I help manage litigation, whether it be motion practice, court hearings, discovery, or other needs of a case.
What types of clients do you represent?
Erin: I represent clients in a variety of industries, including consumer technology, digital health, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals. My clients also have innovative products in the technology and AI sector, such as autonomous vehicles, sensors, robotics, and AI-enabled consumer devices.
Victor: We represent all types of clients. Most recently, I’ve been helping represent Apple in a class action suit. However, in the past, I’ve represented individuals, public companies, government contractors, manufacturers, tech companies, and Fortune 10 companies.
What types of cases/deals do you work on?
Victor: I work on class actions, business disputes (in federal and state courts), arbitrations, and international disputes. Occasionally, I also work on government and internal investigations (e.g., inquiries led by the DOJ, SEC, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the Federal Reserve).
How did you choose this practice area?
Erin: I started out as a mass tort lawyer litigating aviation and pharmaceutical cases. I loved the complexity of having to manage hundreds or thousands of cases at a time combined with the intellectual challenge of learning the science and technology that goes into determining causation and damages in those cases. Over time, I also started counseling clients who wanted to avoid product liability risk. That part of my practice has grown, and the counseling practice allows me to develop true partnerships with my clients and help them achieve their business goals.
Victor: I’ve always known I wanted to be a litigator. I went to law school knowing that I enjoyed arguing and persuasive writing. When it came down to picking a practice group, complex litigation was an easy choice. I also have zero interest in transactional work.
What is a “typical” day like and/or what are some common tasks you perform?
Erin: I spend a lot of time talking with clients about their legal issues, whether it is a litigation matter or an advisement matter. I also spend a lot of time with associates discussing cases and mentoring them. I was fortunate to have phenomenal mentors who pushed me to step outside my comfort zone through each stage of my career. They were willing to help me build practices in the fields that I found fascinating. As a partner and practice group leader, I have worked to model to my teams that you should love what you do. If you don’t, it is time to make a change. I am dedicated to being the mentor to my teams that I was fortunate enough to have.
Victor: I don’t know that there is a typical day. Yesterday, I had to finalize and file an answer to a class action complaint in federal court, work on a client presentation, and draft a motion to extend a deadline, and I had a couple of meetings about the status of some of my cases. More “common” tasks include updating clients on the status of a case, drafting motions, and managing discovery.
What training, classes, experience, or skills development would you recommend to someone who wishes to enter your practice area?
Erin: So much of what we do is learning and teaching on the job, so I would really focus on finding value from things you can’t learn at a law firm, like doing a judicial externship or clerkship or working on a law review. The relationships that you develop will be invaluable as you develop your career. They’re things that you can’t go back and learn once you start working at a law firm. That said, if you have time and interest, I recommend taking Administrative Law. Researching and interpreting regulations is one of the hardest things that we ask our junior associates to do, and it’s something that is hard to just figure out by doing research on Westlaw.
Victor: I would recommend taking Evidence, Federal Courts, an advanced course on civil procedure, and a Securities Regulation course (even if you’re not interested in transactional work or securities because a lot of our clients are public companies that are subject to SEC regulation; it’s helpful to know the lingo).
What do you like best about your practice area?
Victor: It’s fun. Discovery can be a pain, but it’s also incredibly interesting to uncover facts that undercut the other side’s argument/theory of the case. It’s also very collaborative; I am rarely (if ever) handling anything on my own. That helps take the pressure off and allows me to focus on the task at hand rather than on whether I think I’m doing a “good” job.
What are some typical tasks that a junior lawyer would perform in this practice area?
Victor: At MoFo, there really aren’t any junior-level tasks. Depending on the needs of the case, document review is likely, but so is brief writing, handling depositions, presenting to clients, making court appearances, and even arguing motions.
How do you see this practice area evolving in the future? Victor: Litigation is litigation. But what makes it fun and interesting is that the world, and thus our clients and their businesses, is constantly changing. That means new theories of liability, new factual scenarios, and new arguments to develop. Rarely am I applying the law to the same set of facts.
What do you feel are the benefits of taking a generalist approach in litigation versus pursuing a more specialized practice?
Erin: Nowadays, we do ask our attorneys to pick a specific area of litigation to focus on. It helps our associates develop their personalized brand both inside and outside the firm. That said, I would encourage young attorneys to keep an open mind about taking assignments outside of their specialty. You might pick up a new area of interest or find additional mentors who you want to work with.
Victor: It’s exciting. You never know what type of case will fall on your desk or where it could lead.