Bart H. Williams

Williams of Proskauer Rose, said he hopes that in the near future the firm can reopen its Los Angeles offices, where he's managing partner.

"We plan to do it in a skeletal way as soon as the governor loosens things up. We'll limit capacity to 25 percent at first. I've been in a couple of times since March. My key card still works."

Williams is a member of Proskauer's seven-person executive committee. As a commercial litigator, he has served as a counselor and trial lawyer for corporations in industries including media and entertainment; financial services; consumer products; telecommunications and technology; pharmaceutical and aerospace. He has represented celebrities, government officials and corporate executives.

He's currently advising NBCUniversal Media LLC in connection with claims by actor Gabrielle Union over workplace issues on the competition talent show "America's Got Talent." In June, Union filed a Department of Fair Employment and Housing complaint, often a prelude to a lawsuit. "She says the environment on the show was hostile to Blacks and women," Williams said. "We are preparing to defend against claims she might bring if she sues." The DFEH issued a right to sue letter on June 4.

Williams represents a private equity investor defendant in claims by the founders of the sports gaming site FanDuel that they were squeezed out of a big payday in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision cleared the way for states to legalize sports gambling in 2018. Eccles v. Shamrock Capital Advisors LLC, 651223/2020 (S. Ct. of N.Y., Co. of N.Y., filed Feb. 25, 2020).

"It's a pretty big deal," he said. "The founders claim their stake in the company was improperly diluted by the investors."

Or as Williams and colleagues put it in their motion to dismiss, filed May 29, "in a blatant act of Monday morning quarterbacking," the plaintiffs want the court "to rewrite a deal closed two years ago."

For client Johnson & Johnson, Williams will return to the trial court in the case of plaintiff Eva Echeverria, whose $417 million jury verdict over claims that the company's talcum powder caused her fatal cancer was largely reversed by the trial judge. The reversal was affirmed last year by a state appellate panel, which found that punitive damages were unavailable in the case but that a J&J subsidiary breached a duty to warn. Johnson & Johnson Talcum Powder Cases, B286283 (2d DCA, filed Nov. 14, 2017). A new trial will decide the issue of personal damages.

Williams also scored a win for Johnson & Johnson at a Daubert hearing in federal court in New Jersey that imposed significant restrictions on testimony by plaintiffs' experts in cellular biology, material science and general causation. In re: Johnson & Johnson Talcum Powder Products Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, 3:16-md-02738 (D. N.J., transfer order filed Oct. 4, 2016).

"If you're a skilled trial lawyer, you can master enough science to expose weaknesses in expert testimony," Williams said.

-- John Roemer