Amir Nassihi > Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP > San Francisco, United States > Lawyer Profile

Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP
ONE MONTGOMERY TOWER, SUITE 2700
120 KEARNY STREET
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104-4505
CALIFORNIA
United States

Work Department

Class Action & Appellate Litigation

Position

Partner and Co-Chair, Class Action & Appellate Litigation Practice Group

Career

Amir is the national co-chair of Shook’s Class Action Practice Group and co-leads Shook’s Automotive Industry Group. His practice is primarily dedicated to defending companies in class actions and aggregated litigation. In that area, Amir is recognized as one of the leading products class action lawyers in the U.S., and regularly speaks on strategies to defend high stakes class actions.

Amir has led the defense of over 150 class actions throughout the U.S., including successfully leading the defense of class actions with multibillion dollar exposure. He has defended national and international class actions in the U.S., Australia, Canada and Israel. In the U.S., Amir has led teams to successfully dispose of class actions in California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas and Washington.

In securing positive results, Amir has helped pioneer favorable law in a number of areas, including personal jurisdiction challenges in class actions, class waiver arbitration clauses, developing limitations on consumer fraud and common law fraud theories, and curtailing injunctive relief classes. Amir has also helped develop the law to limit the impact of challenging state consumer protection laws such as California’s Unfair Competition and False Advertising Laws (Business & Professions Code § 17200 and § 17500).

Based on his class litigation acumen, Amir serves in a national class counsel role for six product manufacturers and distributors. He also regularly defends other companies in regional and specialty class action roles.

Beyond traditional class actions, Amir also serves as lead counsel in mass and aggregated litigation, including JCCP and MDL proceedings, and in managing class opt-out litigation and mass arbitrations.

Memberships

  • American Bar Association, Tort, Trial & Insurance Practice Section; Litigation Section
  • Bar Association of San Francisco
  • California Minority Counsel Program
  • Defense Research Institute

Education

  • L.P.C. Legal Practices University of the West of England, Bristol 1998
  • LL.B Law University of the West of England, Bristol 1997

Lawyer Rankings

United States > Dispute resolution > Product liability, mass tort and class action - defense: automotive/transport

Drawing upon a ‘superior depth of knowledge’ within the auto industry, both in terms of emerging liability theories and products/emerging technologies, Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP‘s California-centered practice is well-positioned to represent automotive companies across a wide range of product liability, class actions and consumer fraud claims. Displaying ‘a willingness to invest in client relationships’, the team has established longstanding relationships with high-profile manufacturers, including Volvo, Kia and Honda, regularly picking up work in some major national class action disputes. The team has also effectively moved with the market and has deep knowledge of the ever increasing technological advances in the sector, including as it relates to highly autonomous vehicles. Consequently it is very adept at dealing with expert witnesses and at explaining complex scientific/technological issues with clarity to juries. As part of her broad product liability expertise, Orange County-based Janet Hickson often handles work in the auto space and has achieved successes for clients in dispositive motions as well as at a final trial stage. Dividing his time between Los Angeles and San Francisco, Frank Kelly  has had considerable success over the years in the Californian courts, as well as further afield across a range of high-stakes product liability matters, including in the defense of automotive manufacturers accused of causing catastrophic injury and wrongful death. In San Francisco, Amir Nassihi  has developed deep expertise handling class action matters throughout the litigation continuum and along with Hickson and Kansas City-based trial lawyer Robert Adams , heads up the overarching automotive and machinery litigation team.