Washington, D.C. Partner Stephen D. Brody, of O'Melveny & Myers LLP, has been appointed co-chair of the firm’s Product Liability and Mass Torts Group.
With more than 20 years of experience, Brody works on a variety of complex, aggregated litigation with a primary focus on product liability, pharmaceutical, and health care matters, including state attorney general investigations and litigation. He has defended class actions and state AG cases involving pharmaceutical marketing, consumer fraud, state Medicaid reimbursement, health insurance plan benefits, preferred provider agreements, and 401(k) fees and retirement plan investment selection. He also has an active appellate practice, and has recently handled appeals in the 4th, 8th, 10th, 11th, and D.C. Circuits, and in state appellate courts in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Jersey, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Before joining O'Melveny, Brody was the Acting Director of the Tobacco Litigation Team at the U.S. Department of Justice. In that role, and in his prior role as Deputy Director, he led a team of 35 Justice Department lawyers through four years of discovery on three continents and a nine-month civil RICO trial against major cigarette manufacturers in one of the largest civil cases ever brought by the DOJ. Brody led the government's prosecution and represented the interests of almost 20 executive branch agencies. The case resulted in a 1,653-page opinion from the district court awarding judgment for the United States against all defendants in a decision that was upheld on appeal.
Brody is a faculty member for the National Trial Advocacy College at the University of Virginia School of Law. He also is a frequent speaker on state attorney general investigations and litigation and product liability issues. He serves on the Board of Trustees of the Legal Aid Society of Washington, D.C., and previously served on the Board of Directors for the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. Brody also is a member of the International Association of Defense Counsel and the Defense Research Institute.