Biglaw, Lateral Moves, Litigators, Litigatrix, Partner Issues

Musical Chairs: Litigators Leaving Goodwin Procter for Latham & Watkins

Three leading litigators are leaving their current law firm for Latham & Watkins. Who are they?

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GOODWIN PROCTER — BIO — KENNETH PARSIGIAN

KENNETH J. PARSIGIAN — PARTNER

PRACTICES

Products Liability & Mass Torts
Appellate Litigation
White Collar Crime & Government Investigations
Class Actions & Mass Litigation

Ken Parsigian, a partner in Goodwin Procter’s Litigation Department, represents clients in both civil and criminal matters, with a primary focus on complex mass tort and RICO litigation. Mr. Parsigian also advises clients on compliance with state, federal and international laws and regulations concerning product safety, import-export procedures and anti-money laundering programs. He is chair of the firm’s Products Liability & Mass Torts Group and chair of the Pro Bono Committee.

WORK FOR CLIENTS

For more than a decade, Mr. Parsigian has served as Lead Counsel for Philip Morris USA and Philip Morris International, and National Coordinating Counsel for the tobacco industry in more than 60 mass tort and RICO suits across the country and internationally, involving claims for more than $100 billion in damages, including nationwide class actions and other aggregated suits by union health and welfare funds and insurers seeking to recover medical costs for injuries suffered by hundreds of thousands of individual member and patients. Mr. Parsigian recently won a four-month trial for Philip Morris in St. Louis where 37 hospitals were seeking to recover more than $500 million in uncompensated care costs that they claimed were attributable to smoking. Mr. Parsigian was named Litigator of the Week by the American Lawyer for his role in the St. Louis trial.

Sponsored

Mr. Parsigian has also won dismissals and appeals for Philip Morris in multi-billion dollar suits by foreign governments seeking to recover the costs of providing medical treatment to millions of their citizens who smoke; nationwide consumer class actions based on claims of deceptive marketing; and suits by governments, seeking to recover lost tax revenues based on claims of smuggling and money laundering.

Mr. Parsigian also served as national counsel for Deloro Stellite Company Inc. in more than 90 products liability suits, including individual cases and class actions in Texas, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana and Illinois.

Mr. Parsigian has argued appeals in the First, Second, Third, Sixth and Eleventh Circuits, as well as in state appellate courts in Massachusetts, Florida, Tennessee, Delaware and Michigan. Other mass tort work has included cases for Eli Lilly, Estee Lauder, Playtex, Curtice Burns, CBS, Zoll Medical, CR Bard and Boston Scientific.

In addition, Mr. Parsigian was Associate Independent Counsel in the Iran Contra investigation conducted by Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh, where he headed the investigation of former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese.

Prior to joining Goodwin Procter in 1988, Mr. Parsigian clerked for the Hon. Stephen G. Breyer on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

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PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Mr. Parsigian is a member of the Product Liability Advisory Council (PLAC) and has spoken and authored articles on mass tort issues for the Manhattan Institute, ATRA, Defense Research Institute and Washington Legal Foundation, and taught Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education courses in civil litigation and professional responsibility classes at Boston University School of Law. He serves on the Board of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and maintains an active pro bono practice.

BAR AND COURT ADMISSIONS

Mr. Parsigian is a member of the Massachusetts bar, as well as the bars of the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Second, Third, Sixth, Eleventh and Federal Circuits, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

RECOGNITION

In 2009, Mr. Parsigian was awarded the American Bar Association’s John Minor Wisdom Award for Professionalism and Public Service. He is listed in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, The Best Lawyers in America, The Lawdragon 500, The World’s Leading Litigation Lawyers and The World’s Leading Product Liability Lawyers.

GOODWIN PROCTER — BIO — U. GWYN WILLIAMS

U. GWYN WILLIAMS — PARTNER

PRACTICES

Products Liability & Mass Torts
Carbon Markets & Climate Change
Class Actions & Mass Litigation

Gwyn Williams, a partner in the firm’s Litigation Department, specializes in products liability litigation, consumer class actions, and mass tort claims. Ms. Williams has also handled a variety of cases in the areas of energy and business litigation. She has practiced before state and federal trial and appellate courts and administrative agencies around the country.

WORK FOR CLIENTS

Ms. Williams has extensive experience in the defense of mass tort and product liability claims, and other types of personal injury/wrongful death claims. This experience has encompassed the defense of manufacturers of a wide range of pharmaceutical products and medical devices. Ms. Williams served as trial and coordinating counsel for Teva Pharmaceuticals in significant product liability and consumer class action litigation involving the drug propofol. She has represented a major pharmacy chain as national mass tort counsel, defending the issue of pharmacy liability for allegedly defective drugs such as “fen-phen,” OxyContin and hormone replacement therapy. These cases have involved class action and a variety of products liability issues in state and federal jurisdictions around the country, including in federal multidistrict litigation (MDL). Ms. Williams has also been actively involved in the defense of tobacco litigation on behalf of Philip Morris International and Philip Morris USA, including consumer class actions and aggregated smoking and health claims brought by union health funds and governmental entities. Her consumer class action litigation also includes cases involving a variety of consumer products, work in the consumer financial services sector and experience with a wide variety of state and federal consumer protection statutes.

Ms. Williams served as national counsel for a manufacturing defendant in the welding rod products liability litigation. She represented the company in more than 400 federal and state court cases filed in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Texas, Utah and West Virginia. The federal cases were consolidated in a federal MDL, and Ms. Williams was appointed by the court to serve as liaison counsel for a group of manufacturing defendants.

Ms. Williams provides products liability counseling to clients on matters such as the content and dissemination of product warnings, disclaimers of warranties and indemnification strategies. She has also performed products liability risk assessment (including assessments of the magnitude of potential asbestos liability) for private equity firms, operating companies considering acquisitions and pension fund investment advisers.

In addition, Ms. Williams has considerable experience in energy-related litigation, including in the defense of governmental and citizen-suit enforcement actions under the major federal environmental acts, as well as their New York and Massachusetts counterparts. For the northeast region, she and a Goodwin Procter team handle the majority of the litigation arising out of nuclear operations by the huge energy concern, Entergy Nuclear, Inc. Her work includes (i) the strategic defense of Entergy’s nuclear facilities facing scrutiny of their cooling water intake structures under §316(b) of the Clean Water Act and other statutes; (ii) challenges to federal and state rule-making affecting Entergy; and (iii) litigating on Entergy’s behalf in state courts and administrative tribunals, concerning Entergy’s nuclear power production facilities and the release of cooling water. Ms. Williams has argued to the highest courts in Massachusetts and Vermont on behalf of Entergy.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Ms. Williams is a member of the Boston, Massachusetts and American Bar Associations. At Goodwin Procter, she serves as the co-chair of the firm’s Knowledge Management Steering Committee and heads the Litigation Department’s knowledge management efforts.

MEDIA

Ms. Williams has been a frequent speaker on issues relating to mass torts and consumer class actions. She has also been a contributing author for the 50 State Survey of Consumer Class Action Law, published by the American Bar Association.

BAR AND COURT ADMISSIONS

Ms. Williams is a member of the Massachusetts bar, as well as the bar of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. She is admitted to the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the D.C. Circuit, and for the First, Second, Fifth, and Ninth Circuits. Ms. Williams is also admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court. She has appeared pro hac vice in numerous jurisdictions.

RECOGNITION

While in law school, Ms. Williams was a member of the Boston University Law Review.

GOODWIN PROCTER — BIO — B.J. TRACH

WILLIAM J. TRACH — PARTNER

PRACTICES

White Collar Crime & Government Investigations
Business Litigation
Securities Litigation & SEC Enforcement
Gaming, Gambling & Sweepstakes

William Trach, a partner in the firm’s Litigation Department, focuses his practice on white collar crime, government investigations, and complex civil litigation. From 2007 to 2010, Mr. Trach was a federal prosecutor in the District of Massachusetts. An associate at the firm from 2005 to 2007, he rejoined Goodwin Procter in 2010.

WORK FOR CLIENTS

Mr. Trach’s practice has included representing individuals and corporations in a variety of criminal and civil matters, including securities fraud, bribery and RICO cases. In addition, his practice has included a variety of complex civil litigation and regulatory work, including representation of the country’s largest mortgage lender in a fraud and breach of contract suit brought by a financial guaranty insurer, and representation of a large nuclear power company in various matters, including state investigations, regulatory proceedings and federal litigation.

MEDIA

In 2006, Mr. Trach moderated a Harvard Law School panel on criminal sentencing hosted by the Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Prior to rejoining Goodwin Procter, Mr. Trach was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, assigned to the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Unit. As an AUSA, he conducted more than a dozen separate investigations resulting in the indictment of over thirty defendants on charges including drug-trafficking conspiracy, money laundering and identity theft. Mr. Trach tried numerous cases, including the murder-for-hire trial and conviction of a defendant charged with attempting to hire a hit man to murder several witnesses against him in a separate federal fraud case.

After graduating law school, Mr. Trach was a law clerk to the Honorable Sandra Lynch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

BAR AND COURT ADMISSIONS

Mr. Trach is admitted to practice in Massachusetts, and before the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

RECOGNITION

While at law school, Mr. Trach was the Articles Editor of the Harvard Law Review, for which he published a note entitled “The Constitutionality of Determinate Sentencing in Light of the Supreme Court’s ‘Elements’ Jurisprudence,” which has been cited by numerous courts and commentators. He was also awarded a John M. Olin Fellowship in Law and Economics.

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