A creative and forceful litigator, Pad Foran focuses on complex civil litigation — primarily fraud, trade secret, and professional liability matters — in California and across the country. Among his many other legal victories, Mr. Foran has argued and won significant motions in state and federal courts in California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Delaware.
Mr. Foran has guided a wide variety of clients — from Qualcomm to SpaceX, Tesla, Willis Towers Watson, and GlaxoSmithKline — through sensitive, high-stakes litigation. He also advises corporate officers and directors in a broad range of industries, such as telecommunications, real estate, and financial services, on their most important and urgent matters.
Mr. Foran has been active in high-stakes civil litigation. He was a key part of the Hueston Hennigan team that won a “landmark” opioid trial for Endo Pharmaceuticals in a $50 billion action, “giv[ing] drug companies their first major victory in the litigation brought by cities and counties across the country over the opioid crisis,” American Lawyer. (“How Hueston Hennigan Notched A Landmark Opioid Trial Win,” Law360). He also successfully represented Endo Pharmaceuticals in litigation related to opioid abuse in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Following extensive fact and expert development that strengthened Endo’s position, the case favorably settled on the eve of trial. (“Endo Reaches $10M Deal With SF Ahead Of Opioid Trial,” Law360).
Mr. Foran was also a key member of the trial team that helped strike down a land use ordinance passed by Malibu, CA voters that The New York Times described as “one of the most stringent anti-development measures ever attempted in the country.” Drawing on his nuanced understanding of the relevant administrative, statutory, and constitutional laws, Mr. Foran developed a winning legal strategy that revealed the ordinance’s overreach and illegality — and then tried the case on the pleadings and obtained a result, sparing his client costly discovery, that was highly acclaimed by the legal media. The victory was affirmed by the California Court of Appeal in a unanimous decision hailed, for example, by the Daily Journal as “a major appellate win in a high-profile legal and political battle.”
Going forward, Mr. Foran will be defending CoreLogic Credco against a class action alleging that the credit reporting agency issued inaccurate consumer reports for hundreds of thousands of consumers nationwide. The case is scheduled for trial in December 2023. He also represents Southern California Edison in litigation arising from the 2017 Thomas Fire, 2020 Bobcat Fire, 2022 Coastal Fire, and 2022 Fairview Fire, including an appeal before the California Court of Appeal challenging application of the doctrine of inverse condemnation to privately owned utilities. In addition, he represents PacifiCorp in connection with litigation arising from wildfires in California and Oregon, and PNM Resources in connection with litigation arising from a wildfire in New Mexico. He also represents Genworth Financial in Delaware Chancery Court against claims that the company fraudulently transferred assets out of a corporate subsidiary to avoid paying benefits for future claims on its long-term care insurance policies.
We take pride in noting that, while repeatedly named to the Southern California Super Lawyers list, Mr. Foran has also been named to the list of “40 & Under” by Benchmark Litigation.
Updated July 2023
