Arnold & Porter and the Opioid Discovery Controversy
Thursday, April 7
12:30 p.m.
Panelists:
Moderator: Professor Anthony Sebok, Co-Director, Jacob Burns Center for Ethics in the Practice of Law, Cardozo Law School
Maria Glover, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
Paula Schaefer, Art Stolnitz Professor of Law, University of Tennessee College of Law
Gerard Stranch IV, Branstetter, Stranch & Jennings, Nashville, TN
In April 2021, in a case involving liability for wrongful opioid sales practices, a Tennessee state court found that Endo Pharmaceuticals’ discovery misconduct was so egregious that it ordered a default judgment of $2.4 billion. Similar conduct by Endo led a state court in New York to appoint a former judge as referee to address allegations that Endo had deliberately misled the court. In 2022, a second Tennessee court ordered another default judgment against Endo, saying, “It's the worst case of document hiding that I've ever seen. It was like a plot out of a John Grisham movie, except it was even worse than what he could dream up."
This virtual program will summarize publicly available material to provide a balanced account of what Endo and its attorneys, Arnold & Porter, were found to have done and investigate whether the conduct at the heart of this discovery controversy reflects deeper problems with how law firms today approach large “bet the company” litigation. It also will explore whether the remedy secured by the plaintiffs – default judgments --was appropriate. Finally, the program will explore what role legal ethics can play in reducing the risk that parties will engage in the type of discovery misconduct disclosed in the opioid litigation.
