Eric K. Blumenfeld

Eric Blumenfeld is counsel in the New York office of Hughes Hubbard & Reed.  His practice focuses on complex civil litigation, commercial litigation, and products liability litigation.  Eric applies his training as an engineer to lawsuits involving science and technology.  He also has substantial experience in using technology to make litigation more efficient, particularly in mass-tort and multi-district litigations.  Eric has practiced extensively in New York and New Jersey at the trial and appellate level and in federal courts across the country.

• Defend and advise an international testing services provider in a lawsuit in which the plaintiff, a major North American toy distributor, is seeking more than $100 million in damages for a nationwide recall of a product that sickened several children in 2007
• Defend an international testing services provider against injured plaintiffs and a national retailer in a series of six lawsuits involving substantial injuries caused by a tabletop tiki torch and related torch fuel.  To date, we have secured dismissals on dispositive motions in three of the cases.
• Defend a leading US veterinary pharmaceutical manufacturer in a lawsuit involving a license agreement
• Represent an international manufacturer of home appliances and home electronics to enforce a master services agreement with a vendor and to defend against the vendor’s claims of employee raiding
• Defend an international pharmaceutical manufacturer in nationwide litigation involving a prescription diet drug
• Defend a leading auction house in litigation involving a guarantee agreement between the auction house and the purchaser of an art work
• Represented the SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of MF Global, Inc. by designing a system to process more than 27,000 customer claims in one year’s time and by heading a team of attorneys to implement the claims review
• Represented the Jersey City Museum as first chair at a trial against the City of Jersey City and secured a declaratory judgment confirming that the Museum owned all of the works in its collection
• Defended an international testing services provider and secured pre-answer dismissals of two lawsuits involving fatal injuries resulting from garments catching fire
• Defended a leading US pharmaceutical manufacturer in nationwide litigation involving a prescription anti-inflammatory drug, in part by helping to coordinate and analyze the affirmative discovery of approximately 60,000 claimants
• Successfully defended a large pharmaceutical manufacturer by co-authoring the brief in In re Vioxx Litigation, 928 A.2d 935 N.J. (2007), a seminal case clarifying the doctrine of forum non conveniens, in which New Jersey’s Appellate Division affirmed the client-defendant’s right to litigate the claims of foreign plaintiffs in their country of residence
• Successfully defended one of the largest law firms in New Jersey by co-authoring the brief in Borteck v. Riker, Danzig, Scherer, Hyland & Perretti LLP, 844 A.2d 521 (N.J. 2004), in which the New Jersey Supreme Court held that the defendant law firm’s retirement plan was enforceable under Rule of Professional Conduct 5.6
• Successfully defended the corporate trustee of a charitable testamentary trust in In re Estate of Katz, 2004 WL 104578 (N.J. App. Div. 2004), which protected trust funds from a challenge by the testator’s daughter