Andrew Tauber

Andrew Tauber is a partner in the firm’s Appellate and Critical Motions practice and based in our Washington, D.C. office. In the past year alone, Andy has briefed or argued product-liability, antitrust, trademark, RICO, criminal, and regulatory cases. One of the country’s leading preemption authorities, he regularly represents clients in heavily regulated industries, including but not limited to the medical-device, pharmaceutical, and transportation sectors. Known for his powerful written and oral advocacy, Andy is often called on to litigate cutting-edge issues of industry-wide significance.

A co-author of the treatise Federal Appellate Practice, Andy regularly represents clients in the US Supreme Court, the various US Courts of Appeals, and state appellate courts throughout the country.

In addition to his purely appellate work, Andy works closely with trial lawyers to identify, craft, and preserve legal arguments for later appellate review by drafting motions to dismiss, motions for summary judgment, motions in limine, proposed jury instructions, and post-trial motions. Recognizing the importance of issue preservation, clients frequently ask Andy to brief and argue motions to dismiss and other critical motions.

Clients confronting important recurring issues, especially those implicating unsettled questions of law, have repeatedly tapped Andy to serve as national coordinating counsel. In that role, Andy works closely with the client's other outside counsel, preparing model briefs and other guidance to ensure a consistent strategy across the client’s entire litigation portfolio.

Andy has secured precedent-setting victories in a range of cases, obtaining decisions that are routinely cited by other courts when dismissing claims against our clients and others in the same industry. In one notable example among several, Andy, overcoming seemingly adverse case law at the start of multi-jurisdictional litigation, conceived and presented the arguments that ultimately produced what one judge described as a “national consensus” that federal law preempts state-law claims predicated on alleged off-label promotion of medical devices.

In the product-liability space, Andy has successfully briefed and argued a wide variety of issues that range from federal preemption, personal jurisdiction, and appellate jurisdiction to pleading standards, the viability of negligence-per-se claims, and the application of Restatement (Second) of Torts § 402A cmt. k to medical devices. He is a regular blogger at the Drug & Device Law blog, the country’s leading blog on developments in medical-device and pharmaceutical law.

In the railroad sector, Andy has successfully litigated myriad issues under FELA, the LIA, the FRSA, and ICCTA, including the preemption of state-law requirements, the preclusion of FELA claims, the apportionment of damages, and the admissibility of evidence.

Leveraging Andy’s substantive experience in various areas of the law, clients have tasked Andy on several occasions to lobby state legislatures that were considering bills that would significantly affect the clients’ businesses. Similarly, national trade associations have often called upon Andy to write amicus briefs explaining to courts the broader implications of the cases before them.