Arturo J. Gonzalez

San Francisco

Practice: litigation

Specialty: intellectual property, trial, commercial litigation

As national trial and coordinating counsel for a leading manufacturer of nutritional supplements - now mired in litigation in more than 50 different state and federal courts - Gonzalez is trying to sort out the disparate claims against the company's products.

"We're in mediation now, trying to figure out a way to resolve the cases," he said. "The plaintiffs are alleging every ailment that you can imagine."

At issue is Iovate, the manufacturer of Hydroxycut, a line of nutritional supplements that initially triggered a warning by the Federal Drug Administration in 2009.

Iovate voluntarily recalled Hydroxycut and retooled the products that are now back on the shelves, said Gonzalez, who serves as co-chair of his firm's litigation department.

Meanwhile, plaintiffs are alleging that Iovate is liable for breach of warranty and for violations of state consumer protection laws because the product allegedly poses serious health risks. In Re Hydroxycut Marketing and Sales Practices Litigation, 09-MD-2087 BTM (CAB), (S.D. California).

To date, there have been more than 177 cases filed across the United States, 102 of them consolidated into multidistrict litigation proceeding in the Southern District of California, while the others have been coordinated into individual state court proceedings in California, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Gonzalez also represents the major retailers, suppliers and distributors of the Hydroxycut products.

- PAT BRODERICK