Sean Morris represents clients in complex commercial litigation, with particular emphasis on mass tort, unfair business practices, and intellectual property and technology matters. Mr. Morris has served as lead counsel in several multidistrict litigations and class actions. He is head of the firm's Los Angeles office.
Among his significant cases, Mr. Morris successfully tried the California lead pigment litigation, in which public prosecutors asserted that former manufacturers of lead pigment should be held liable for the alleged health hazard created by the existence of lead paint on millions of private residences. He currently serves as co-lead national counsel in the opioid litigation, coordinating the defense of cases filed within the MDL as well as hundreds of matters pending in state court.
Experience
- Endo Pharmaceuticals as co-lead national counsel in a series of cases (including those combined within an MDL) brought by government prosecutors, third-party payors, and private individuals alleging fraudulent marketing and improper distribution of opioids for chronic pain and seeking billions in abatement costs, damages, restitution, and civil penalties.
- Atlantic Richfield as lead national counsel defending against claims brought by government entities and individual plaintiffs alleging injuries arising from lead paint on residential walls, including as co-trial counsel in successfully defeating public nuisance claims brought by California prosecutors seeking a $1.1 billion fund to abate all residential properties that contain lead paint.
- Dunkin' in class actions alleging false and misleading advertising regarding content of donuts and other products.
- BP/Atlantic Richfield as co-lead counsel defending against multiple personal injury, environmental, and property damage lawsuits by residents living near former lead manufacturing facility.
- BP as lead defense counsel in multidistrict class action in which plaintiffs alleged fraud and violation of state unfair business practice statutes based on the sale of gasoline by the volumetric gallon instead of using advanced temperature adjustment technology.
- Kroger in defending putative class action alleging unfair business practices for representations regarding the nutritional content of food products.
Perspectives
Recognition
Recommended for Intellectual Property: Copyright (2011)
Credentials
- JD, University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, 1996
- BA, University of California, Berkeley, 1993
- California
- New York
- Fellow, American Bar Foundation
- Founder and current board member, Reading to Kids, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization