Practice Areas
Consumer product manufacturers facing class actions alleging product mislabeling, false advertising, or unfair business practices turn to Alex Smith. Alex helps consumer-facing companies defend the labeling of their products—including iconic food, beverage, personal care, and household products found in millions of homes. He persuades courts that his clients’ advertising is not deceptive, and he proves consumers received what his clients promised.
Alex defends clients from claims by consumers, counsels on regulatory compliance and claim substantiation issues, and helps minimize the risk of false advertising or unfair business practices claims. He has extensive experience defending clients in class actions involving food labeling and environmental marketing claims, among other subjects. He helps clients cut through the complicated subject matter of consumer class actions— including technical FDA and FTC regulations, thorny questions of class action procedure, and complex technical, scientific, and economic issues that routinely arise in these cases.
Working on the cutting edge of consumer class action litigation, Alex helps clients anticipate trends in false advertising litigation and implement appropriate risk mitigation strategies. Alex led the briefing and successfully argued the motion to dismiss in Nacarino v. Kashi Company, the leading case about protein labeling on food products. Alex persuaded both the district court and the Ninth Circuit that Kashi’s labeling followed FDA guidelines, and the case was dismissed with prejudice.