Nancy L. Patterson, a seasoned trial lawyer with more than 30 years of experience, has achieved notable victories for clients in state and federal courts and in arbitrations across the United States. She has tried and arbitrated more than 60 high-stakes cases related to commercial/business disputes, pharmaceutical and products liability/life sciences, insurance coverage, personal injury, environmental, employment, and employee benefits matters. Nancy has represented several well-known national and global companies in cases brought by individual and corporate plaintiffs, multidistrict litigation matters, and class and collective actions.
Among her professional achievements, Nancy holds the distinction of being Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Nancy also has been ranked by Chambers USA annually since 2005, has been recognized in Super Lawyers each year since 2003, and has been named to US News/Best Lawyers since 2003.
Early in her career, Nancy focused on employment law matters and regularly litigated discrimination, retaliation, and sexual/racial harassment claims arising under Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the Texas Labor Code. She also has handled wage and hour individual and collective actions arising under the Fair Labor Standards Act and has tried two such cases to verdict—a rare occurrence.
For the last 15 years, the scope of Nancy’s trial practice has expanded significantly to focus on complex commercial/business disputes, pharmaceutical/products liability, insurance recovery, environmental, and personal injury litigation. She has been lead counsel in cases across the United States involving public nuisance, breach of contract, bad faith, fraud, fraudulent transfer, and breach of fiduciary claims. She also handles complex negligence, personal injury, and defamation claims.
Since 2019, Nancy has served as a lead trial counsel in several high-profile trials representing publicly traded pharmaceutical manufacturers of branded and generic opioid medicines in the defense of public nuisance and other statutory and tort claims brought by state attorneys general, counties, and hospitals. The plaintiffs in these cases have sought billions of dollars against our clients for their alleged role in the nationwide opioid crisis. These cases include In re West Virginia Opioid Litigation (21-C-9000 MFR) in the Circuit Court of Kanawha County, West Virginia (2022); In re New York Opioid Litigation (Case Nos. 400001, 400008, 400016) in the State of New York Supreme Court, Suffolk County, New York (2021); In re National Prescription Opiate Litigation (MDL No. 2804), the federal opioid multidistrict litigation pending in the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio (2019); and State of Oklahoma, ex rel. Mike Hunter, Attorney General of Oklahoma v. Purdue Pharma, et al. (2019).
Another of Nancy’s notable representations included serving as trial counsel to lead a multi-office team in achieving an unprecedented victory on behalf of an international food and beverage company in connection with a seven-year battle over funding of legacy product liabilities (including asbestos and environmental claims) by one of our client’s legacy subsidiaries. As claimant, our client asserted fraudulent transfer claims against another sizable publicly traded company based on a purchase agreement involving the legacy subsidiary. Arbitration at the American Arbitration Association’s International Centre for Dispute Resolution in New York involved testimony presented by 20 fact and expert witnesses, including the respondent’s former chief executive officer, chief financial officer, general counsel, and lead director. Topics included insurance coverage/policy interpretation, future asbestos claims liability estimation, and corporate governance. Following the two-week arbitration hearing, a three-arbitrator panel ordered various subsidiaries of the respondent to pay nearly $293 million into a trust to satisfy future estimated product liability claims against our client’s legacy subsidiary and to release another nearly $50 million to the trust from an escrow account controlled by the respondent.
Public Nuisance, Mass Tort, and Products Liability Litigation
Nancy has been at the cutting edge of the nationally publicized opioid litigation, working on more than a dozen cases for our clients across the country since 2019, including the following:
Insurance Recovery Litigation
Commercial/Business Litigation
Employment Litigation and Internal Investigations
Business Competition/Trade Secrets Litigation
Personal Injury/Tort Litigation
Recognized, Leading US Corporate Employment Lawyer, Lawdragon 500 (2020–2022)
Listed, The Best Lawyers in America, Employment Law – Management, Houston (2003–2006, 2008–2011, 2014–2025)
Listed, The Best Lawyers in America, Labor Law – Management, Houston (2003–2006, 2008–2011, 2014–2025)
Listed, The Best Lawyers in America, Litigation – Labor and Employment, Houston (2003–2006, 2008–2011, 2014–2025)
Recommended, Dispute resolution: Product liability, mass tort and class action - defense: pharmaceuticals and medical devices, The Legal 500 US (2020–2024)
Member, Practice Group of the Year, Insurance, Law360 (2020)
Lawyer of the Year, Litigation–Labor and Employment, The Best Lawyers in America, (2017)
Top Woman Lawyer, Best Lawyers (2016, 2017)
Ranked, Labor & Employment, Texas, Chambers USA (2020–2022)
Band 1, Labor & Employment, Texas, Chambers USA (2018, 2019)
Ranked, Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business (2005–2017)
Ranked, Labor & Employment, USA, Chambers Global (2016–2020)
Member, Practice Group of the Year, Labor & Employment, Law360 (2017)
Winner, Texas Litigation Department of the Year for Labor and Employment, Texas Lawyer (2015)
Recognized, Texas Super Lawyers (2003–2014)
Recommended, Labor and Employment Litigation, The Legal 500 US (2014)
Top 50 Women Lawyers in Texas, Texas Super Lawyers (2010)