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.
Experience
- Atlantic Richfield as lead national counsel defending against claims brought by government entities and individual plaintiffs around the country 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.
- Major Pharmaceutical Company 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.
Perspectives
August 26, 2021
The Chemical Compound, Summer Edition
Environmental Edge: Climate Change & Regulatory Insights
February 2, 2021
The Chemical Compound—February 2021
Legal Updates on High Priority Chemicals and Important Chemical-Regulatory Developments
October 29, 2020
The Chemical Compound—October 2020
Legal Updates on High Priority Chemicals and Important Chemical-Regulatory Developments
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Recognition
The Legal 500 US
Product liability, mass tort and class action: toxic tort - defense (2021)
Recommended for Intellectual Property: Copyright (2011)
Recommended for Intellectual Property: Copyright (2011)
BTI Client Services
"BTI Client Service All-Star"–Complex Commercial Litigation (2020)
Daily Journal
"Top 100 Lawyers in California" (2019)
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Credentials
Education
- JD, University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, 1996
- BA, University of California, Berkeley, 1993
Admissions
- California
- New York
Activities
- Fellow, American Bar Foundation
- Founder and current board member, Reading to Kids, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization