Bao M. Vu

SAN FRANCISCO - Bao M. Vu, a partner at Stoel Rives LLP, heads the firm's active Proposition 65 practice, providing representation and compliance counseling to a wide range of consumer products clients in the food, nutritional supplement, oil and gas and industrial commodities industries.

He was born in the U.S. to a single mother. She was on one of the last flights out of Vietnam as the war ended in 1975. He grew up wanting to be a lawyer. "I always thought I would be a prosecutor doing criminal law," Vu said. "But my environmental and commercial law classes were more challenging." He joined Stoel Rives soon after graduating from UC Davis School of Law, where he was the managing editor of the law review and won the Witkin Award for academic excellence. "Complex legal and scientific issues keep me on my toes and make work fun."

Some of Vu's practice involves pushing back against plaintiff groups who seek to expand Prop. 65, the state's anti-toxic pollutants statute passed by voters in 1986.

In one ongoing case, plaintiffs sued numerous manufacturers, distributors and retailers of air fryer cooking devices on industrywide, first-of-their-kind claims that the fryers--despite being free from Prop. 65-listed chemicals--require a warning label because their use sometimes creates the listed chemical acrylamide, a substance commonly found in baked and fried foods. Council for Education and Research on Toxins v. Ace Hardware Corp. et al., 21STCV39713 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Oct. 27, 2021).

Vu, retained to be lead counsel for defendants Conair LLC and Cosmo Products, LLC, coordinated efforts within the industry to form a joint defense group and draft pleadings challenging the wide reach of the action and resisting CERT's attempt to sweepingly broaden Prop. 65's scope.

"We're trying to keep that expansion from happening," Vu said. "There would be ramifications for toaster ovens, frying pans and other cookware. This is an effort to push the law beyond what was intended." The case is currently in the demurrer phase.

In a separate case, a plaintiff group sued numerous manufacturers, distributors and retailers of socks made primarily of polyester with spandex, alleging novel allegations that the Prop. 65-listed chemical BPA can migrate from the product into wearers' bodies. Center for Environmental Health v. Easy Spirit LLC et al., CGC-22-598022 (S.F. Super. Ct., filed Oct. 13, 2021).

"This claim has never been asserted in clothing products," said Vu, who is lead counsel for defendants Gina Group LLC, GMA Accessories Inc., Jefferies Socks LLC, K-Swiss, Inc. and Shalom International Corp. "It caught the industry by surprise. We dispute the science behind their complaint, and we have moved to strike parts of the complaint as overbroad."

Off duty, Vu is an active board member of the AIDS Legal Referral Panel, which offers low-cost assistance to persons living with HIV/ AIDS. At his firm, he is chair of Stoel's firmwide culture committee and a member of its diversity, equity and inclusion committee. "I'm really proud of my work in these areas," he said.