Lisa M. Gilford

“It’s almost like a game of chess, or like a puzzle,” Gilford said of her complex litigation practice representing manufacturers in the pharmaceutical, automotive, communications, oil and gas, and chemical sectors, as well as educational institutions.

As concerns over the nation’s so-called opioid crisis persist, litigation against embattled OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP has been spreading from state to state.

Lead California counsel for the pharmaceutical giant, Gilford said the case requires close coordination with the analogous cases and, like a puzzle, “thinking through strategically how the case is progressing relative to other cases.”

In a case brought against Purdue by Orange and Santa Clara Counties in 2014, alleging the company falsely marketed opioids using third-party spokespeople to downplay addiction risk, Gilford and her team were able to secure a stay pending the release of Food and Drug Administration studies of the matter currently under way. But now the stay is being challenged.

The California team just recently received an amended complaint from the counties, which Gilford will be responding to in September with a number of motions from the defendants attacking the complaints.

“We hope that the courts will focus on the science and for patients to have adequate pain relief,” Gilford said. “We hope the courts will take their lead from the government agency responsible for regulating the industry.”

In a similar case brought by San Joaquin County, the city of Stockton and the Montezuma Fire Protection District, the plaintiffs are also seeking to hold the opioid manufacturer accountable for the costs of police, medical and other public health services.

It’s still in the early stages. The defendants, which include other pharmaceutical companies, have removed the case to federal court. Plaintiffs have responded by moving to remand it back to state court. Gilford believes the municipal entities “feel they’ll get a better, more favorable jurisdiction” there. San Joaquin v. Purdue Pharma LP, CV01485 (San Joaquin Super. Ct., filed July 28, 2017).

Gilford cut her teeth as an attorney on mass torts and said she found her passion for complex litigation stoked by serving as lead counsel to Toyota in its unintended acceleration multidistrict litigation involving class actions, personal injury cases and “just about every legal challenge you can imagine,” she said. She successfully obtained dismissal of the claims of plaintiffs from 14 different countries for the case that settled in 2014.

Moving to Skadden four years ago “has really allowed me to concentrate my practice on those large-scale, difficult actions,” she said.

— Lila Seidman