Molly Moriarty Lane

For almost 20 years, Molly Moriarty Lane has worked at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP defending clients in class actions and other complex lawsuits across the U.S. and in California. She is the deputy leader of the firm's litigation practice group and co-chair of the firm's class action litigation practice. She is a former managing partner of the San Francisco office. She has handled over 100 class actions nationwide.

Even before Lane joined Morgan Lewis, the major insurer operating as Anthem Inc.--formerly WellPoint Inc.--was a client. "Health care insurers are often the targets of class actions, often on allegations of wrongful denial of claims," she said. "In fact, any consumer-facing company is in the class action crosshairs."

Plaintiffs in four separate classes have recently alleged claims arising from Anthem's denial of claims for behavioral health services. Banken v. Anthem Blue Cross Life et al., B290182 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed June 30, 2014); Ames v. Anthem Blue Cross Life & Health Insurance Co., BC591623 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Aug. 18, 2015); Bailey v. Anthem Blue Cross and Anthem Blue Cross Life & Health Insurance Co., 4:16-cv-04439 (C.D. Cal., filed Aug. 5, 2016); Oppel v. Anthem Blue Cross, BC518736 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Aug. 19, 2013).

Lane and her team persuaded the court to dismiss the claims in the Banken and Oppel cases, and those settled on an individual basis. The Ames case settled on terms favorable for Anthem, she said.

"Our strategy depends on the claims," she added. "For instance, several years ago, I had a client who was a defendant in a class action that I was fairly certain would gain class certification. But we thought the claims were not very strong, so we attacked the claims and got them knocked out on summary judgment."

With the Anthem cases that involved denials of claims for eating disorders, "too many facts were individualized for proper class treatment." In another set of cases, plaintiffs contended they were owed coverage for what Lane called "out-of-the box alternative therapies such as wilderness therapy or equine therapy." They attempted to sue as a class when the claims were denied. "We approached the plaintiffs' lawyers and convinced them these claims weren't worth pursuing in a class action, and they then sought to resolve them individually."

Lane dealt with a potential class action against client Uber Technologies, Inc. over its Postmates service by convincing the court that an arbitration clause required the matter be heard outside of the court system. Hicks v. Uber Technologies Inc., CGC21592316 (S.F. Super. Ct., filed June 17, 2021).

"The plaintiff claimed he was unaware that Postmates and Uber were connected, but we showed that the terms of use were quite clear," Lane said.

- John Roemer