Brian W. Shaffer is a litigator and trial lawyer with more than 20 years’ experience handling high-profile and complex business disputes of all types. Brian has prosecuted and defended a variety of large, multiparty construction claims and disputes, involving both government and private projects, in courts and arbitration tribunals throughout the country. Indeed, Brian handles a variety of contractual disputes, and clients frequently turn to him to handle their most important legal problems.
Brian also litigates multidistrict litigation proceedings and class actions, and regularly defends clients against consumer protection claims brought by state Attorneys General and private plaintiffs. His clients include leading companies in the construction, building products, energy, defense, aerospace, nuclear, life sciences, and technology industries.
Brian has tried to verdict jury, bench and arbitration cases involving product liability, breach of contract, fraud, and civil conspiracy in a number of different jurisdictions and before a number of different tribunals. Brian has handled post-trial proceedings and appeals in state and federal courts around the country, and has a strong record of success in these matters. In commercial disputes, Brian represents both plaintiffs and defendants. On the plaintiff side, Brian has secured seven- and eight-figure verdicts and other important relief; on the defense side, he has successfully defeated and resolved nationwide class actions and other “bet the company” litigation through vigorous defense efforts and creative approaches to settlement.
Courts regularly cite significant decisions Brian has earned for his clients. In one case where Brian served as lead counsel for a major pharmaceutical company in litigation involving the 340B drug discount program, his client earned a unanimous US Supreme Court decision. In another, he secured the dismissal of a nationwide RICO class action. Recently, he prevailed in the Third Circuit – after winning at trial – in a precedential ruling addressing the proper test for trademark ownership in a Lanham Act dispute between a manufacturer and its distributor.
Brian was an author of the ABA’s Model Jury Instructions: Construction Litigation (Second Edition), and is an adjunct Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. As part of his active pro bono practice, Brian represents persecuted individuals seeking asylum in the United States.
Government Programs and Construction Projects Litigation
Products Liability/Mass Torts
Civil Fraud/Consumer Protection/False Claims Act
Recognized, Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Defendants, Philadelphia, The Best Lawyers in America (2014–2019)
Named 2014 Pennsylvania Product Liability Department of the Year by The Legal Intelligencer
Member, American Bar Association, Litigation Section
Member, Order of the Coif
Adjunct Professor, University of Pennsylvania Law School
Copyright © 2019 Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP. All rights reserved.