Nancy L. Patterson, a seasoned trial lawyer with more than 30 years of experience, has achieved notable victories for clients with a win rate of over 90%. She has tried more than 30 cases in state and federal courts across the United States and has arbitrated more than 30 additional cases relating to commercial/business, products liability/life sciences, employment, insurance coverage, personal injury, and employee benefits matters. These cases have included individual plaintiffs, multiple plaintiffs, and class and collective actions for a number of national and global companies. Nancy holds the distinction of being Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.
Nancy also has been ranked by Chambers USA annually since 2005, has been recognized in Super Lawyers each year since 2003, and has been named to US News/Best Lawyers since 2003.
Earlier in her career, Nancy focused on employment law matters and regularly litigated discrimination, retaliation, and sexual/racial harassment claims arising under Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Family and Medical Leave Act, and Texas Labor Code. She also has handled wage and hour individual and collective actions arising under the Fair Labor Standards Act and has had the rare experience of having tried two such cases to verdict. For the past 15 years, Nancy’s trial practice has expanded significantly to focus on complex commercial/business, pharmaceutical/products liability, insurance recovery, and personal injury litigation. She has been lead counsel in cases across the United States involving breach of contract, fraud, fraudulent transfer, false claims, public nuisance, and breach of fiduciary claims. She also handles complex negligence, personal injury, and defamation claims.
Notable among her representations are leading a multi-office team as trial counsel in achieving an unprecedented victory on behalf of an international food and beverage company in connection with a seven-year battle over funding of legacy product liabilities (including asbestos and environmental claims) by one of our client’s legacy subsidiaries. As claimant, our client asserted fraudulent transfer claims against another sizable publicly traded company based on a purchase agreement involving the legacy subsidiary. The arbitration, which took place at the American Arbitration Association’s International Centre for Dispute Resolution in New York, included testimony presented by 20 fact and expert witnesses, including the respondent’s former chief executive officer, chief financial officer, general counsel, and lead director. Topics included insurance coverage/policy interpretation, future asbestos claims liability estimation, and corporate governance. Following a two-week arbitration hearing, a three-arbitrator panel ordered various subsidiaries of the respondent to pay nearly $293 million into a trust to satisfy future estimated product liability claims against our client’s legacy subsidiary and to release another nearly $50 million to the trust from an escrow account controlled by the respondent. A state judge in Houston confirmed the arbitration award in 2018.
Nancy also served as a lead trial counsel in two high-profile trials representing publicly traded pharmaceutical companies/manufacturers of branded and generic opioid medicines in defense of claims pending in In re National Prescription Opiate Litigation, MDL No. 2804, the federal opioid multidistrict litigation pending in the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, and State of Oklahoma, ex rel. Mike Hunter, Attorney General of Oklahoma v. Purdue Pharma, et al.
In the Ohio case, Nancy was lead counsel in the initial Track 1 bellwether trial set for October 2019, which involved claims brought by Cuyahoga and Summit counties. The plaintiffs were seeking more than $1 billion in damages based on their claims that included public nuisance, fraud, and violations of the federal Controlled Substances Act. Nancy was part of the joint defense lead counsel team that conducted voir dire and jury selection for the case, which ultimately settled on the morning opening statements were to be delivered in Cleveland.
In the Oklahoma trial, Nancy was co-lead trial counsel in the first opioid case to proceed to trial in May 2019. Our aggressive and strategic approach to discovery, particularly expert discovery, revealed key weaknesses in the state’s legal and factual claims, which led the Oklahoma attorney general to ultimately drop all claims other than the public nuisance claim (which included dropping his jury demand). Thereafter, our team secured a settlement on the eve of a nationally televised 10-week trial.
Nancy now serves as lead trial counsel in opioid litigation pending in nine states, including cases filed by five state attorneys general and several dozen counties, municipalities, and hospital districts. These cases, which have trial settings through 2022, assert claims including public nuisance, fraud, fraudulent advertising, negligence, and violations of various state statutes.
Commercial/Business Litigation and Insurance Recovery Litigation
Employment Litigation and Internal Investigations
Business Competition/Trade Secrets Litigation
Personal Injury/Tort Litigation
Recognized, Leading US Corporate Employment Lawyer, Lawdragon 500 (2020–2022)
Recognized, Employment Law – Management, Houston; Labor Law – Management, Houston; Litigation – Labor and Employment, Houston, The Best Lawyers in America (2003–2006, 2008–2011, 2014–2023)
Recommended, Dispute resolution: Product liability, mass tort and class action - defense: pharmaceuticals and medical devices, The Legal 500 US (2020-2022)
Member, Practice Group of the Year, Insurance, Law360 (2020)
Lawyer of the Year, Litigation–Labor and Employment, The Best Lawyers in America (2017)
Top Woman Lawyer, Best Lawyers (2016, 2017)
Ranked, Labor & Employment, Texas, Chambers USA (2020–2022)
Band 1, Labor & Employment, Texas, Chambers USA (2018, 2019)
Ranked, Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business (2005–2017)
Ranked, Labor & Employment, USA, Chambers Global (2016–2020)
Member, Practice Group of the Year, Labor & Employment, Law360 (2017)
Winner, Texas Lawyer’s 2015 Texas Litigation Department of the Year for Labor and Employment
Recognized, Texas Super Lawyers (2003–2014)
Recommended, Labor and Employment Litigation, The Legal 500 US (2014)
Top 50 Women Lawyers in Texas, Texas Super Lawyers (2010)Copyright © 2023 Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP. All rights reserved.