For the sixth consecutive year, Benchmark Litigation has named Shook, Hardy & Bacon Partner Jessica Grant to its Top 250 Women in Litigation list.
A nationally recognized business litigation trial lawyer, Jessica has significant first-chair experience in high-stakes matters. This includes successfully trying three cases over $100 million and two cases over half a billion dollars. Jessica’s ability to handle trials across disciplines at a moment’s notice makes her a highly sought-after litigation lawyer. Jessica also handles mediations and pre-suit attempts to resolve cases without litigation.
Jessica’s substantial experience includes class action, product liability and employment litigation, including one of the largest product liability cases tried to a jury verdict as well as serving as lead trial counsel in one of the largest wage and hour class actions ever to be tried to verdict. She also has extensive IP litigation experience in complex cases involving patent, copyright infringement and trademark matters, from inception of the case through trial.
Other accolades Jessica has received include being named twice as California Lawyer’s Attorney of the Year and the Daily Journal listing her in their California’s Top 100 Lawyers list and in their list of the Top Women Litigators in California. She has also been designated as a California Trailblazer by The Recorder and as a Litigation Trailblazer by the National Law Journal.
Jessica has taught mediation as an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law and served as an instructor at the National Institute of Trial Advocacy. She is a member of IADC, and currently serves as a mediator in the San Francisco Superior Court Early Settlement Program.
Representative Matters:
- Lead trial counsel in a California state court action on behalf of a client whose product plaintiff claimed caused his Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Plaintiff asked the jury to award $100 million in compensatory damages and $500 million in punitive damages. After deliberating for three hours, the jury returned a complete defense verdict.
- Lead counsel on behalf of a company in its first case to proceed to trial in Portland, Oregon, state court whose product was alleged to have caused plaintiff's terminal cancer. After a two-week trial, plaintiffs' counsel asked the jury to award plaintiff $20 million in compensatory damages, his wife $2 million in loss of consortium damages and $140 million in punitive damages. The jury awarded plaintiff $750,000, nothing to his wife and no punitive damages.
- Lead trial counsel in false advertising class action where plaintiff and the class sought more than $140 million. After two-week trial, the jury awarded $1.4 million and the court entered judgment of $12 million, agreeing with the defense that damages sought by plaintiff and the class was “so severe and oppressive as to be wholly disproportioned to the offense and obviously unreasonable.”
- Lead trial counsel in a nine-week jury trial where plaintiff sought $25 million plus punitive damages against CEO individually and several companies for alleged breach of fiduciary duty and fraud. After deliberating for four days, the jury returned a complete defense verdict.
- Represented the state of New Hampshire in a statewide product liability/toxic tort case against major oil companies. After securing $130 million in settlements, served as lead attorney in a three-month trial that resulted in a unanimous jury verdict, awarding $816 million to the state, after just 90 minutes of deliberation.
- Lead trial counsel in one of the largest wage and hour class action lawsuits ever tried in California. Obtained a $172 million jury verdict on behalf of more than 116,000 class members after a four-month trial. The National Law Journal ranked the verdict as one of the largest in 2005 and the largest in an employment law case. After a two-week bench trial, Jessica also obtained a permanent injunction that required the defendant to implement various policies to comply with California employment law.
- Lead trial counsel for one of the world’s largest semiconductor chipmakers and several other defendants in a four-week jury trial in federal court. The plaintiff alleged fraud, unjust enrichment, breach of contract, and related patent claims, and sought more than $450 million, exclusive of punitive damages. After the jury deadlocked on liability, the court dismissed all state-law claims against the defendants.
- Lead trial counsel for a leading media company in a defamation case. After a two-week trial, the plaintiff asked for $7 million in compensatory damages, and punitive damages potentially as high as $70 million. Following four hours of deliberation, the jury returned a verdict of $72,025 in compensatory damages and no liability for punitive damages.
- Lead trial counsel for a company whose employee (the plaintiff) caused an accident during the course and scope of employment, resulting in a severe spinal cord injury to plaintiff. Liability was not contested at trial. After deliberating for two hours, the jury returned a favorable verdict that was millions below what plaintiff’s counsel sought, and below the amount offered to settle the case.
- Obtained dismissal with prejudice of copyright and tortious interference lawsuit in which plaintiff sought over $750 million in damages and rights to the world’s most popular web server software from client, a leading multi-cloud security and application management company.
Updated Aug 2024
