Arvin Maskin

Arvin advises clients on:

• All aspects of enterprise risk and crisis management
• Product liability, mass tort and consumer fraud class action and MDL litigations
• FDA, EPA, NHTSA and Consumer Product Safety Act compliance
• Product recalls (domestic and international)
• The False Claims Act
• The Alien Tort Statute
• Congressional investigations
• Deceptive trade practice claims brought by state attorneys general
• Corporate acquisitions
• Product distribution
• Marketing and labeling
• Risk avoidance
• Insurance
• Internal investigations
• Food tampering
• International terrorism

The various industries in which clients rely on Arvin include asbestos, breast implants, food products, industrial chemicals and their by-products, genetic research, lead paint, aircraft, automotive products, electrical and navigation equipment, international industrial accidents, train derailments and tunnel disasters, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, food products and baby formula.

Arvin was a lead counsel and negotiator in connection with World War II forced and slave labor class actions involving eight different nations and served as lead counsel in the defense and resolution of 33 separate state consumer fraud class actions and an MDL concerning some 170 million automobile and light truck tires. He handled mass tort class actions involving African apartheid-related claims under the Alien Tort Statute, as well as class actions and related consumer fraud and personal injury litigations throughout the country involving the sale of hundreds of thousands of bullet-resistant vests, including related suits brought by the US Department of Justice under the False Claims Act seeking hundreds of millions of dollars and multiple congressional hearings and TV specials. He was also a nationally recognized lawyer on punitive damages, class actions and multidistrict litigation, as well as the innovative use of science in the courtroom, and chaired numerous national conferences and counseled multinational corporations on all aspects of corporate enterprise risk management and crisis preparedness.

With the US Department of Justice in Washington DC, he was the government’s lead counsel in such seminal matters such as the “Agent Orange” litigation, and has received multiple Department awards and recognitions. He also served as Deputy Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Clients served by Arvin include Exxon, Westinghouse, GlaxoSmithKline, Quaker Oats, Thermo-King, Cooper Tire, Ingersoll-Rand, Toyota, Pirelli, FieldTurf, and many others.

• A “Litigation Star” for Product Liability in the US – Benchmark Litigation
• A “Local Litigation Star” for Product Liability in New York – Benchmark Litigation
• A “Leading Lawyer” for Product Liability and Mass Tort Defense, including in the Consumer Products and Toxic Tort specialties – Legal 500
• Recognized as the leader of one of the best product liability and mass tort practices in the US – American Lawyer

• Member, the Committee on the American Judiciary System of the ABA
• Founder and chair of the ABA Task Force on Enterprise Risk Management, which is now a subcommittee of the ABA Corporate Counsel Committee (which Arvin has co-chaired)
• Former Member, Task Force on Mass Torts of the US Chamber of Commerce
• Former Member, American Law Institute’s Consultative Group for The Restatement of the Law of Torts (Third) Products Liability
• Former Member, American Law Institute’s Consultative Group for the Restatement of the Law of Torts: General Principles
• Former invited commentator for the Manual on Complex Litigation (Third) for the Federal Judicial Center
• Former Chairman of the Torts & Insurance Practice Section’s Committee on Toxics & Hazardous Substances and Environmental Law, American Bar Association
• Former Co-Chair of Mass Torts Litigation Committee, Litigation Section, ABA
• Former Co-Chair of 2019 Litigation Section Annual Conference of the ABA
• Former Chairman of Enterprise Risk Management Task Force of Committee on Corporate Counsel, Litigation Section, ABA
• Formerly Served on the Board of Advisors of BNA’s Toxics Law Reporter; BNA’s Products & Safety Liability Reporter; and Leader Publications’ Products Liability Law & Strategy
• ABA Pro Bono Task Force of the Litigation Section
• Immediate past Co-Chair of the American Bar Association’s Corporate Counsel Committee, and Co-Chair of the Mass Torts Litigation Committee, Litigation Section
• Co-Chair of the ABA Subcommittee on Complex Torts of the Corporate Counsel Committee, Litigation Section Perspectives
• “Legend of the Defense Bar Arvin Maskin of Mayer Brown with Host Richard Levick of LEVICK on Enterprise Risk & Crisis Management,” In House Warrior Podcast, 11 February 2022
• Fellow, American Bar Foundation
• Fellow, New York Bar Foundation
• Life Member of the American Law Institute
• Lectured at the Japan Business Federation (“Keidanren”) in Tokyo
• Lectured at the New South Wales Law Society in Sydney
• Legal commentator for CNN, Fox, Businessweek, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and other journals
• Guest-lectured at Yale, Georgetown, Harvard, Columbia, and NYU, among other institutions throughout the US and around the world
• Former Deputy Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania