Nancy Erfle

Product & General Liability

Drug & Medical Device

Environmental/Toxic Tort

Automotive Litigation & Autonomous Vehicles

Ranked by Chambers since 2019, Nancy Erfle is Practice Group Leader for the Drug & Medical Device practice group at GRSM and currently serves on the firm’s Executive Committee. Her practice is focused on litigation, specifically the defense of manufacturers in the area of drug and medical device, toxic tort, automotive and complex mass torts. Nancy has served on national litigation teams and as lead local and regional counsel for manufacturing, pharmaceutical and medical device clients on many cases, including several mass tort cases. Currently, she is serving as lead National Trial and Coordination Counsel for a manufacturer of baby food in litigation pending in multiple state and federal courts throughout the country. She served in that same role for a supplier of raw material, including trying some of the first matters to verdict. Nancy also has class action experience in both consumer fraud and securities matters. She has extensive state and federal court jury trial experience, defending her clients in all types of product liability claims throughout the country.

Nancy was the IADC Trial Academy Director for the 2019 Trial Academy for the International Association of Defense Counsel, which was held at Stanford University Law School. She served as Director-Elect for 2018 and was a member of the teaching faculty in 2007. She also serves as an adjunct professor for Lewis & Clark Law School’s Aviation Seminar.

Nancy was selected as a Law360 2017 Product Liability MVP, one of only five attorneys in the nation to receive that recognition. She is recognized among the leading practitioners in the county by Chambers USA for her defense of pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, automotive manufacturers, agricultural chemical manufacturers, aviation manufacturers, as well as companies involved in commercial disputes. In 2004, Nancy was selected as a recipient of The Portland Business Journal’s “Forty Under 40” Award, an honor which recognizes the 40 most accomplished, influential, and civic-minded young executives in Portland. Since 2006, Nancy has been named an Oregon “Super Lawyer” by Law & Politics magazine, a peer-elected distinction bestowed upon only the top five percent of all attorneys in the state of Oregon. In 2007, she was named one of the “100 Most Powerful Women” by Northwest Women’s Journal. Nancy has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America since 2010 for her work in Product Liability Litigation and named an Oregon Litigation Star by Benchmark Litigation. Since 2012, she has been consistently named in the Top 250 Women in American Litigation by Benchmark Litigation.

International Association of Defense Attorneys (IADC), Board of Directors

Product Liability Advisory Council (PLAC), sustaining member

Defense Research Institute

American Bar Association, Litigation Section

Oregon Association of Defense Counsel

Fox, Missouri (St. Louis), 2016

Ristesund, Missouri (St. Louis), 2016

Gianecchini, Missouri (St. Louis), 2016

Daniels, Missouri (St. Louis), 2016

Echevveria, California (Los Angeles), 2017

Lewis, Washington (Pierce County), 2019

Roemmich, Washington (King County), 2020

Petersen, Oregon (Oregon District Court), 2021

McCabe, Hawaii (O’ahu First Circuit), 2023

DiLauro, Illinois (Cook County), 2025

Representative Experience

National counsel for a major baby food manufacturer and seller in a federal MDL and related state court litigation alleging that its products, and those of co-defendants, contained trace heavy metals that caused autism or ADHD.

National Trial and Coordination Counsel for a raw materials supplier from 2014-2019. In 2016 she tried the first three of those matters to verdict with favorable result for the client.

Currently serving as National Coordinating Counsel for a baby food manufacturer in Multi-District Litigation and Joint Coordinated Proceedings in California.

Served on numerous trial teams throughout the United States for a respiratory manufacturing client.

Tried two antitrust matters to successful verdicts for her clients.

Served as a member of a national team on behalf of a global pharmaceutical company in mass tort cases – one involving a combined oral contraceptive and the other involving an anti-cholesterol drug.

Defended a transport helicopter company involved in a crash which resulted in multiple wrongful death and injury claims. The multiple matters resolved in a successful settlement for the client.

Serves as regional product liability counsel for a major automotive manufacturer.

Defended an automotive manufacturer who designed and manufactured a 15-passenger van involved in a rollover accident which resulted in multiple death and injury claims. These matters were successfully settled for the client.

Obtained a complete dismissal from dozens of lawsuits for a global pharmaceutical company involved in the pain-pump litigation.

Successfully defended a pharmaceutical client in a securities fraud matter.