Charles Lifland

Partner

Charlie Lifland, a partner in O'Melveny's Los Angeles office, focuses on class action and appellate work in the fields of mass torts, antitrust and unfair business practices, securities, and punitive damages. He has handled complex business litigation and significant appeals in federal and state courts both in and beyond California. Significant cases include:

• Defense of mass tort litigation arising from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Charlie secured certification of a mandatory class for unitary resolution of all punitive damages claims, and was one of the company’s lead appellate counsel in In re Exxon Valdez (9th Cir. 2001) (vacating $5 billion punitive award), and Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker (U.S. 2008) (reducing final punitive award from $2.5 billion to $500 million). He was also lead appellate counsel for ExxonMobil in Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources v. Exxon Corp. (Ala. 2002) (vacating $3.4 billion punitive award), and Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (Ala. 2007) (reversing $3.5 billion punitive award after retrial).
• Defense of mass tort litigation arising from allegedly defective prescription drugs. Charlie is currently one of the lead national defense counsel for Merck in mass tort litigation over Vioxx®, and was lead appellate counsel in Merck & Co. v. Ernst (Tex. App. 2008) (reversing $253 million jury verdict from first Vioxx trial), and McDarby v. Merck & Co. (N.J. App. 2008) (reversing $9 million punitive award and multimillion dollar attorney fee awards). He was also lead appellate counsel in Bailey v. Janssen Pharmaceutica (Miss. 2004) (reversing $100 million jury verdict for 10 prescription drug plaintiffs), and Armond v. Janssen Pharmaceutica (Miss. 2004) (invalidating mass joinder of pharmaceutical personal injury claims), and has served as lead counsel on legal and appellate issues in similar cases in California and elsewhere. As part of this work, he has defeated nationwide class certification of medical monitoring and consumer refund claims and led successful challenges to unscientific expert testimony.
• Defense of mass tort litigation arising from allegedly defective medical devices. Charlie negotiated and secured judicial approval of a mandatory class settlement resolving thousands of lawsuits alleging personal injuries from silicone gel-filled implants. He defeated attempts by foreign plaintiffs to import a new round of mass tort litigation alleging injuries from triglyceride-filled implants, and he defeated nationwide class certification of claims alleging consumer fraud in the sale of saline-filled implants. Charlie has also advised both pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers on federal preemption and punitive damages issues.
• Defense of major commercial banks in multiple antitrust and unfair competition class actions alleging unlawful conspiracies and other illicit business practices in the setting of bank prime rates. Charlie obtained summary judgment for the banks on all claims. He also successfully challenged a $14 million damage award in a class action alleging excessive credit card late charges and overlimit fees, obtaining a $10 million appellate reduction and the right to credit $3 million of the remainder against class members’ bad debts. In another case, Charlie obtained reversal of a $70 million lender liability verdict.
• Defense of airlines, public utilities, technology companies, and other clients in actions alleging unlawful conspiracies, unreasonable restraints of trade, monopolization, trade secret theft, false advertising, and other unlawful, fraudulent, or unfair business practices, including class actions brought under California Business & Professions Code §§ 17200 and 17500, the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act, and similar unfair competition and consumer protection laws in other states.
• Defense of numerous companies and individuals in class actions and government litigation brought under federal and state securities laws and RICO, including litigation arising from the WPPSS bond default, the Drexel Burnham Lambert junk bond scandal, and the Orange County bankruptcy.
• Appearance as amicus curiae in the U.S. Supreme Court and the California Supreme Court on behalf of dozens of major U.S. corporations in cases challenging the constitutionality of disproportionate punitive damages awards. Charlie addressed the 2003 Spring Conference of the Product Liability Advisory Council on recently published research examining, from a psychological and behavioral perspective, how juries determine punitive damages. Charlie also represented the Brady Center to Prevent Handgun Violence in pro bono appellate litigation upholding the constitutionality of California’s statutory ban on assault weapons.

In addition to handling business litigation and appeals, Charlie has defended clients in criminal antitrust and securities investigations, and regularly counsels clients on compliance with federal and state antitrust and unfair competition laws. He was the 2003-2004 Chair of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Antitrust and Unfair Business Practices Section.

The Los Angeles Daily Journal profiled Charlie in a front page article entitled “Appellate Specialist Hits Vioxx Daily Double,” Los Angeles Daily Journal (June 2, 2008), after he received favorable decisions in two Vioxx pharmaceutical products liability appeals from appellate courts in two different states on the same day. More recently, the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journals named Charlie one of the "Top 100 Lawyers in California".

Charlie is also an Adjunct Professor at the UCLA School of Law, where he teaches an appellate practice clinic, and he serves on the Board of Overseers of the RAND Institute for Civil Justice and the Board of Directors of the Western Justice Center Foundation.

Professional Activities

Law Clerk, Honorable Mariana R. Pfaelzer, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (1982-83)
Adjunct Professor, University of California at Los Angeles School of Law, Ninth Circuit Appellate Practice Clinic
Board of Overseers, RAND Institute for Civil Justice
Board of Directors, Western Justice Center Foundation
Member, American Bar Association and California State Bar, Antitrust and Litigation Sections; Los Angeles County Bar Association, Antitrust and Unfair Business Practices Section (2003-2004 Chair); Defense Research Institute, Drug and Medical Device Committee
Speaker, "The Role of Empirical and Experimental Research in the Development of Constitutional and Common Law Limits on Punitive Damages" (RAND Institute for Civil Justice, November 2008); "Focusing on Fields with Significant Class Action Litigation and Successfully Utilizing Substantive Defenses" (ACI, October 2008); "Betting on the Supreme Court's Drug and Medical Device Preemption Trifecta: Riegel v. Medtronic, Warner-Lambert v. Kent and Wyeth v. Levine" (Andrews Publications; April 22, 2008)