Seth D. Rothman

Seth D. Rothman is a litigation partner at Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP, who focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation, arbitration, products liability and mass torts.  Seth has more than 30 years of experience representing clients in courts throughout the country, in arbitrations, and before other tribunals. He has been involved in high stakes matters on behalf of leading pharmaceutical companies, financial institutions, and multinational corporations. Seth is Co-Chair of the firm’s Asia Pacific Practice Group and has significant experience representing Japanese clients in international arbitrations and U.S. litigation.

Seth is also Chair of the firm’s Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Practice Group and the co-Chair of the Information Governance & eDiscovery Practice Group.  He regularly advises clients on data privacy, cybersecurity, incident response, data collection, cross-border transfers, compliance, ediscovery, litigation preparedness, and document management. He writes and speaks regularly on these topics.

Asia-Pacific/Japan

• Representation of a Japanese chemical company in various disputes, acquisitions, and IP licensing matters
• Representation of a Japanese manufacturer of auto parts in connection with class action litigation in the United States
• Representation of a diversified Japanese industrial company in an international arbitration against an Indonesian power plant owner
• Representation of a Japanese manufacturing company pursuing global claims arising out of a worldwide recall of auto parts, including U.S. litigation against the supplier of the parts
• Representation of a Japanese trading company in an international arbitration against a major U.S. manufacturer of aerospace equipment
• Representation of a Japanese retailer in complex litigation and an international arbitration arising out of the bankruptcy of Barneys New York
• Representation of the U.S.-based subsidiary of a Japanese manufacturer in court proceedings and arbitrations involving dealership issues

Commercial Litigation, Banking and Financial Services

• Representation of the Trustee in the SIPA liquidation of one of the country’s largest broker-dealers and related litigation involving approximately $5 billion in assets
• Representation of a foreign bank in litigation arising out of a $280 million credit facility
• Representation of a foreign bank as administrator of the estate of Jamaican reggae singer Bob Marley in litigation involving RICO and fraud claims
• Representation of a world-renowned entertainer and media personality in a breach of contract action
• Representation of an international manufacturing company in an arbitration involving breach of contract issues

Product Liability and Mass Tort

• Served as chair of the FDA regulatory team and as national coordinating counsel for a leading pharmaceutical company in one of the country’s largest personal injury litigations
• In multidistrict litigation that included consumer class actions and personal injury cases against two major pharmaceutical companies, Seth headed the team that obtained the dismissal of all the personal injury cases
• Served as chair of the medical expert team in nationwide litigation involving a major U.S. tobacco company

Data Privacy, Cybersecurity and eDiscovery

• In the SIPA liquidation of one of the country's largest broker-dealers, Seth led the team that collected the company's books and records, a massive amount of information that included more than 227 billion transaction records and more than 143 terabytes of data.  Seth also oversaw the building, from the ground up, of a fully functioning data center that re-created the broker-dealer’s operational abilities  
• Seth has served as national discovery counsel and on national steering committees in major pharmaceutical litigations. He led the team that handled end-to-end eDiscovery in what was, at the time, believed to be the largest document-intensive pharmaceutical case in the country
• Seth has advised accounting firms, businesses, e-commerce companies, financial institutions, governmental authorities, and law firms on various aspects of privacy law and cybersecurity, including GDPR compliance, U.S. state and federal privacy laws, cross-border transfers, internal privacy policies, website compliance, third-party processing agreements, consumer protections, incident response, data breaches, and ransomware attacks