Class Action Law & Procedure in Canada & the United States

David Biderman, a partner in Perkins Coie's San Francisco and Los Angeles offices, focuses his practice on mass tort litigation and consumer class actions. He heads the firm's Consumer Products & Services Litigation group. He has represented a wide variety of companies in state and federal courts in California for 30 years. On consumer class actions, David represents packaged food companies, coffee companies, dairy companies, footwear companies and others whose nutritional or health claims have been challenged. He also has represented search engines and other online companies. He has a record of favorable results for clients. He successfully tried a major consumer fraud class action on behalf of one of the world’s major search engines in a case involving online gambling advertisements. For that same client, he negotiated a favorable settlement of a class action challenging its online advertising pricing. He represented a major coffee retailer in defeating a class action on standing grounds. He also has litigated pre-emption defenses arising out of food labeling and obtained a dismissal for a client whose nutritional statements were challenged. For fifteen years, David managed the firm’s full-service product liability team responsible for defending over 1,000 toxic tort cases pending in Los Angeles and Northern California state courts. These cases entailed ongoing trial activity at various levels for several trials set each month. The highly experienced and well-coordinated team has handled thousands of asbestos toxic tort cases for a variety of clients, including Fortune 500 companies from such industries as consumer products, aerospace manufacturing, household goods, dry cleaning and industries that generate electromagnetic fields, such as electric utilities and operators of wireless communications systems. David speaks and writes regularly on class action issues. He has presented to the American Bar Association (ABA), the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel, the Product Liability Advisory Group and others on consumer class actions. David has served the courts through the Civil Litigation Subcommittee of the California Judicial Council, on special committees formed by the state courts to address toxic tort litigation, and as a member of the ABA’s American Jury Project. David is recognized by clients and by professional organizations for his client service and work ethic. He has been named a 2017 Law360 MVP of the Year for Food & Beverage and has regularly been listed as a “Super Lawyer” in Los Angeles or San Francisco. He has been recognized by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association and Los Angeles Business Journal as a “Top Rainmaker.” He has published articles in the National Law Journal, the Los Angeles Daily Journal, the Defense Research Institute’s member publication, For the Defense, and the Washington Legal Foundation.

Emmanuelle represents clients in the telecommunications, retail, banking, and insurance industries. She has developed expertise in the fields of consumer law, product liability, human rights and freedoms, and privacy law. Every year since 2015, Emmanuelle has been listed in the Class Action Litigation Section of the Best Lawyers in Canada®, and every year since 2016, she has been recommended for her work in class actions in the Canadian Legal Lexpert® Directory. Emmanuelle is a member of the Planning Committee, of the Osgoode Professional Development National Symposium on Class Actions. She is the former President and an active member of the Executive Committee of the Class Actions Section of the Canadian Bar Association (Québec Division). She also works with members of the Barreau du Québec’s class action committee on various questions regarding class action matters. She is listed as a “Litigation Star” in The Definitive Guide to Canada’s Leading Litigation Law Firms & Attorneys (Benchmark Canada) since 2017, and was named Litigator of the Year – Rising Star by Le Monde Juridique Magazine in 2014. She has been listed in the Corporate and Commercial Litigation section of the Best Lawyers in Canada® since 2019.