High-volume, high-risk: The stakes in mass torts can be enormous, with bet-the-company exposure and potential consequences for operations and reputation. Our team specializes in bringing these matters to resolution, through aggressive legal advocacy, trials and strategic resolution.

Mass Torts, Class Actions & Product Liability

Trial-tested ability to drive results in mass litigation.

Mass Torts, Class Actions & Product Liability

Overview

Munger, Tolles & Olson is known for delivering innovative, trial-ready defense in mass torts, class actions and product liability cases. We address high-risk litigation with tailored national strategies, agile crisis response and courtroom experience that few firms can match. We work closely with clients to assess their exposure, stabilize emerging risks and design defense strategies that align with immediate legal needs and long-term business priorities. We understand that our clients need to solve these problems, and we work on a strategy to do that rather than march through the standard cadence of litigation.

Our team defends companies in some of the country’s most high-profile mass torts and class actions, from coordinated wildfire and environmental claims to consumer product litigation to cases involving pharmaceuticals, medical devices, e-cigarettes, social media, mass shootings and more. We advise clients through all stages of federal multi-district litigation and state-coordinated proceedings, from jurisdictional challenges to bellwether trials and global settlements.

We routinely achieve dismissals at the pleading stage and denials of class certification. When a trial is necessary, clients rely on our deep courtroom experience, often turning to us to serve as trial counsel after certification or late in the litigation to lead strategy and trial execution. Our trial-readiness also helps drive better resolutions long before trial.

Our clients include major pharmaceutical, technology, energy, and consumer products companies facing claims that threaten core business operations. Whether resolving claims quietly through settlement or defending them aggressively at trial, we bring discipline, creativity and seasoned judgment to every matter.

Clients

We represent a wide range of clients, including:

Abbott Laboratories
AbbVie, Inc.
Activision
American Standard
BNSF Railway
Chevron
Electronic Arts
Google
Halyard Health Inc.
Intel
Juul Labs, Inc.
MGM Resorts International
Microsoft
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)
Netflix
Occidental Chemical
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E)
Plains All American Pipeline
Shell Oil
Snap, Inc.
Solvay Pharmaceuticals

Experience

Key recent representations include:

Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. and subsidiaries as lead counsel in civil litigation and several class actions regarding the August 2023 devastating Maui wildfires, including the Lahaina Fire, which was the deadliest U.S. wildfire in over a century.
A tobacco company in putative class action and individual lawsuits pending in Florida, California, Washington, D.C. and Connecticut regarding alleged injuries purportedly caused by addiction to marketing of its line of nicotine pouches.
Snap, Inc., in ongoing multidistrict litigation and a California state court coordinated proceeding, alleging injuries to minor users from alleged “addiction” to social media. Recently, in the California state court litigation, the defendants, which include Google, a social platform and a video platform, won a dismissal without leave to amend of four test cases brought by school districts on public nuisance claims.
Juul Labs, Inc. in state and federal courts. There were over a thousand suits, including consumer class actions, suits by public entity plaintiffs such as school boards and suits by individuals alleging personal injury. The company has settled with 48 states and territories.
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) on high-stakes cases challenging PG&E’s alleged role in California’s historic wildfires, including in criminal investigations and charges arising out of catastrophic wildfires.
- Dixie Fire (the largest in California history). Handled investigation and negotiations resulting in declination of all criminal charges and litigated to successful resolution thousands of individual claims, subrogation claims, and public entity claims.
- Kincade Fire. Handled investigation and preliminary hearing, resulting in stipulated judgment dismissing all charges.
- Zogg Fire. Handled investigation and preliminary hearing, resulting in order dismissing most charges, followed by stipulated judgment dismissing all remaining charges.
Plains All American Pipeline in multiple civil lawsuits, a criminal trial, and government enforcement actions arising from a crude oil spill near Refugio State Beach in Santa Barbara County in May 2015. We tried the criminal case to verdict, avoiding any conviction for a “knowing” violation; tried a civil case until settlement after seven weeks of trial; defeated certification of two classes; and reached settlements with two other classes in the Central District of California.
MGM Resorts International and Mandalay Bay in obtaining a favorable settlement arising from the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas. The settlement, a result of an innovative legal strategy, occurred before discovery, used almost entirely insurance funds, saved years of litigation and resulted in virtually global peace.
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as lead counsel in a putative class action brought by three former track and field athletes alleging failure to protect student-athletes from sexual abuse. MTO filed a successful motion to dismiss in the Northern District of California.
Electronic Arts in nationwide products liability cases regarding the design of video games, in which the defendants defeated a petition to consolidate the cases before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.
Wells Fargo in numerous cases that sprang from the opening of unauthorized accounts by Wells Fargo personnel — one of the biggest and most high-profile challenges the bank has faced. MTO negotiated a $142 million class action settlement resolving customers’ civil claims.
A national pharmacy chain in an imminent appeal of an adverse verdict on a public nuisance theory of liability in In re National Prescription Opiate Litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio and the Sixth Circuit.
Intel in obtaining a settlement in a certified class action brought on behalf of several million purchasers of computers containing the first version of the Pentium 4 processor alleging violations of the Unfair Competition Law.
Transocean, a drilling company, as lead trial counsel in civil litigation and criminal investigations arising from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. After a months-long trial, we obtained a verdict that, under the drilling contract, Transocean was not grossly negligent and, therefore was (1) fully indemnified by BP for compensatory damages and (2) not liable for punitive damages. BP bore indemnity obligations for the millions of barrels of oil discharged from the Macondo well. In actions brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, Munger Tolles secured a favorable settlement.