Walsh Pizzi O'Reilly Falanga LLP

Honorable Freda L. Wolfson, U.S.D.J. appointed Joel A. Pisano, a retired United States District Court Judge, as Special Master to oversee the discovery process and any related disputes in more than 2,000 cases alleging that Johnson & Johnson’s talcum powder causes ovarian and uterine cancer.

The Court commented that Judge Pisano “is well-qualified because he has, in the past, sat an MDL judge, that he has a background as a magistrate judge, and that he served numerous years as a district judge.”

The full article is available here. For more information, please contact Judge Pisano at (973)757-1100 or jpisano@walsh.law

Walsh’s Joseph L. Linares was installed as President of the Young Lawyers Division (“YLD”) of the Hispanic National Bar Association (“HNBA”) on September 9, 2017, at the organization’s 42^nd Annual Convention in Kansas City, Missouri.  As President, Mr. Linares will oversee YLD groups within HNBA’s 19 Regions nationwide, and also will hold a seat on HNBA’s Board of Governors.  For the past 2 years, Mr. Linares served as a YLD Board Member and a member of the HNBA’s Finance committee.

The Hispanic National Bar Association is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, national membership organization that represents the interests of Hispanic legal professionals in the United States and its territories.

Mr. Linares concentrates his practice on litigation, handling disputes concerning contracts, intellectual property, employment, and torts as well as corporate/business law and transactional work. In addition to servicing established corporate clients, he also provides counsel for non-profits, small businesses and start-up ventures.  For more information, please contact Joe at (973) 757-1025 or jlinares@walsh.law.

Walsh Pizzi O’Reilly Falanga is pleased to announce that M. Trevor Lyons, a partner in the firm, has been included in the list of Best Lawyers® 2018 in the subject matter specialty Labor Law – Management.

In addition, Liza M. Walsh received a listing in the 2018 Best Lawyers® directory for Commercial Litigation and ERISA; Tricia B. O’Reilly for Commercial Litigation; and Stephen V. Falanga for Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights and Insolvency and Reorganization Law.

The selection of attorneys for inclusion in the Best Lawyers® directory is based on a comprehensive peer-review process, capturing the insights and opinions of leaders in the legal field and applying it towards their peer’s accomplishments.  The complete methodology is available here.

For further information, please contact M. Trevor Lyons at mlyons@walsh.law, Liza Walsh at lwalsh@walsh.law, Tricia O’Reilly at toreilly@walsh.law and Stephen Falanga at sfalanga@walsh.law or any of them at (973) 757-1100.

At the IADC Annual Meeting in Quebec on July 11, 2017, Peter J. Pizzi, CIPP/US, moderated a panel on Smart Products: Evolving Liability And Coverage Issues.  “Connected cars,” which are on the road today, merge the driver’s digital world and means of transport. Self-driving vehicles, still years away from use by the general public, hold the potential to revolutionize the way people and goods move around. Smart products challenge traditional ideas of tort and product liability and the insurance coverage that should apply, loom as the cyber criminal’s new frontier, and pose privacy challenges. This panel explained these phenomena, explored regulatory challenges, potential litigation frontiers, and insurance industry responses.  The panel assembled by Pizzi included Alma Murray, Privacy Counsel at Hyundai Motors USA, Tim Goodwin, a former NHTSA regulator now with Babst Calland, Kate Browne, a Senior Vice President and insurance “futurist” at Swiss Re, and Rob Smith, a products liability litigator with Lorance Thompson.

The International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC) is comprised of approximately 2,500 invitation-only, peer-reviewed members and their clients, devoted to the advancement of the civil justice system and the legal profession generally.

For more information about the panel and Walsh’s technology and privacy law practices, please contact Peter Pizzi at (973) 757-1011 or ppizzi@walsh.law

The May 2017 edition of Abogados, The Hispanic Bar Association of New Jersey’s bi-annual publication, featured an article by Walsh’s Joseph L. Linares and his take on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals precedential opinion on inflated tuition claims. The proposed class consisted of Widener University School of Law students claiming that the institution misrepresented post-graduation employment statistics resulting in an inflated tuition price in violation of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act and the Delaware Consumer Fraud Act.

The full article is available here.

For more information, please contact Joseph L. Linares at (973)757-1100 or jlinares@walsh.law

The May 2017 edition of Abogados, The Hispanic Bar Association of New Jersey’s (HBA-NJ) bi-annual publication, featured a spotlight on Walsh’s Hector D. Ruiz, highlighting his involvement, leadership and future plans within the Association.  Ruiz spoke highly of the HBA-NJ stating: “I quickly realized the importance of this organization in providing information and support to its members as well as to the Latino community at large.  I was equally impressed by the sense of comradery and community, as well as the dedication to the HBA-NJ and its mission.  Accordingly, I will view my Presidency through this lens; that is, being the organization of first resort for our members and the community.”

The full QA is available here.

For more information, please contact Hector D. Ruiz at (973) 757-1100 or hruiz@walsh.law

On May 4, 2017, Hon. Kevin McNulty, U.S.D.J., granted the motion to dismiss filed by Sanofi, Sanofi US Services Inc., Sanofi-Aventis U.S., LLC and three individual defendants, in a purported class action asserting violations of various state consumer protection and unfair practice statutes, unjust enrichment, conspiracy, and aiding and abetting. The Court found that the allegations were “general and conclusory,” and that plaintiffs failed to plausibly allege any facts demonstrating causation or injury.  The Court found “further amendment would be futile,” and therefore dismissed all claims with prejudice.  Liza M. Walsh, Tricia B. O’Reilly, and Katelyn O’Reilly worked as part of the defense team in preparing the successful moving and reply briefs.

The opinion is available here. For more information, please contact Liza, Tricia or Katelyn at (973)757-1100.