Patrick Oot

Practice Areas

Patrick leads as the co-chair of Shook’s Complex Litigation Strategic Counseling Practice,

He is also co-chair of Shook’s Government Investigations and White-Collar Practice Group.

Career

Patrick is a diverse, Chambers "Star Individual" litigator and globally recognized practice leader in high stakes complex litigation and government investigations. He is ranked by Lexology as a global “Thought Leader” and is at the top of the very short list of practitioners who clients seek to lead coordinated efforts in federal multidistrict litigation (MDL), class action, mass-tort, product liability and deceptive practices litigation supported by his roles in eight of the nation’s largest MDLs.

Patrick represents and advises nine of the world’s largest life sciences companies, three of the world’s largest financial services organizations, one of the world’s top-five retailers and two of the world’s largest transportation corporations on litigation and investigative matters. Representative experience includes:

Patrick successfully argued before the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) for Unilever in MDL No. 3068 In Re: Unilever Aerosol Products Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability that shut-down the formation of an MDL regarding plaintiffs’ claims relying on false and misleading claims made by testing company Valisure. Valisure has been criticized by the FDA and federal courts for its flawed testing methodology in multiple litigations.

Patrick currently serves on the national defense leadership committees of multiple MDLs, federal and state coordinated proceedings. Currently in In Re: Hair Relaxer Marketing, Sales Practices, And Products Liability Litigation (MDL No. 3060) in the Northern District of Illinois before Judge Rowland where he leads Shook’s team, Patrick's work has resulted in dismissals cutting approximately 3,050 filed cases out of roughly 12,800 MDL cases representing 24% of the nationwide docket.

Patrick is also presently a coordinating counsel of the national leadership team representing Gilead in the TDF Products Liability Litigation before Judge Tigar in the Northern District of California and before Judge Ross in San Francisco Superior Court in a Judicial Council Coordinated Proceeding (JCCP) where he leads Shook’s attorneys. This has resulted in the dismissal of over 9,750 actions of nearly 34,000 filed matters.

Patrick leads Shook’s team as coordinating counsel for the defense leadership team in In re: Uber Technologies, Passenger Sexual Assault Litigation (MDL No. 3084) before Judge Breyer in the Northern District of California and before Judge Schulman in San Francisco Superior Court in a Judicial Council Coordinated Proceeding (JCCP).

Patrick has also been national coordinating counsel in the opioid litigation for IQVIA.

Patrick leads a portfolio of complex high-risk cases for a Fortune 50 corporate client related to alleged design defects of the client’s building and property design.

Before the dismissal and resolution of the federal and state cases, Patrick previously served on the Defense Steering Committee in the In Re: Zantac (Ranitidine) Products Liability Litigation MDL for GlaxoSmithKline and was part of the team that lead to favorable defense rulings foreclosing MDL plaintiffs’ claims on general causation and helped uncover issues with plaintiff-lawyer funded science from Valisure. He has also served as national coordinating discovery counsel in complex litigation, including for Sanofi in the Taxotere MDL and for Bayer in the Essure Products Liability Litigation. In his privacy practice, Patrick has successfully litigated, argued and shut down a class action involving the Stored Communications Act, Electronic Communications Privacy Act, California Invasion of Privacy Act and Right to Financial Privacy Act for Uber.

Patrick has led investigative responses to demands by Department of Justice (DOJ), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) grand jury subpoenas and state attorneys general. Patrick’s courtroom and government credibility is built upon his experience as senior counsel in the SEC’s Office of the General Counsel and work as director of electronic discovery and senior litigation counsel at Verizon. He has testified on behalf of both organizations in federal litigation and has testified and commented to the federal Judicial Conference’s Advisory Committee on Civil Rules and Committee on Evidence Rules advocating Federal Rules of Evidence changes, including testimony in which he presented his position on proposed Federal Rule of Evidence 502. The committee included language incorporating his suggestions in its draft to the Judicial Conference.

Patrick’s legal work and testimony is supported by his commitment to educating the bench and bar by volunteering at The Electronic Discovery Institute (EDI), and his educational work for the Government Investigations and Civil Litigation Institute (GICLI). Patrick is a co-founder of both organizations. Along with a diverse group of practitioners and members of the federal judiciary, he also works on planning committees and as faculty for the Federal Judicial Center’s annual electronic discovery training program. He is executive editor of The Federal Judges’ Guide to Discovery (4th ed.) and editor-in-chief of The General Counsel’s Guide to Government Investigations (4th ed.). In 2007, Patrick appeared with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer at Georgetown University Law Center’s H5 Summit on Electronic Discovery. He is also a long-time advisory board chair and regular keynote for ALM’s Legaltech News and is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

Patrick’s litigation work is balanced by his practice advising clients on compliance, governance, and discovery practices to avoid litigation on technology issues altogether. He is editor-in-chief of The Electronic Discovery Institute’s Guide to Spoliation Law (5th ed.). Patrick has both successfully defended against spoliation claims and has efficaciously obtained adverse inferences to benefit his clients.

During his tenure at SEC, Patrick co-chaired the agency’s cross-divisional Electronic Discovery Action Team and co-authored The SEC Electronic Discovery and Litigation Response Manual. He counseled SEC senior leadership and agency staff on best practices and guidance for discovery and litigation strategy and privilege protections, and on strategically significant matters involving forensics, technology and Electronic Communications Privacy Act interpretation for subpoena enforcement. Patrick appeared twice as SEC’s 30(b)(6) deponent to defend the agency’s discovery practices, with favorable outcomes to the agency. He designed and implemented SEC’s preservation process as well as a federal government-wide educational program that included the participation of federal judiciary.

Before serving at SEC, Patrick was an experienced in-house counsel leading Verizon’s electronic discovery practice. Patrick was one of the nation’s first in-house attorneys charged to create and deploy defensible policies, guidelines and procedures for litigation response. While at Verizon, Patrick testified as the company’s Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 30(b)(6) witness, defending the same policies and guidelines that he helped design and implement. In 2006, he was nominated for the Verizon Excellence Award after playing a key role in the successful completion of Verizon’s response to the DOJ’s Second Request for documents in its acquisition of MCI. As a result of his work, Inside Counsel magazine named Verizon’s eDiscovery Team as one of the 10 most innovative legal groups of 2007, the group’s secondyear winning the title.

Outside of his regular practice, Patrick lectures regularly at educational events and legal conferences internationally. He has appeared on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition and has been interviewed by The Economist.

Professional Memberships

Chair, American Lawyer Media Legalweek Advisory Board (2007-Present)

Founder, Government Investigations & Civil Litigation Institute (2014-Present)

Member, Products Liability Advisory Counsel (2023-Present)

Member, International Association of Defense Counsel | IADC (2022-Present)

Fellow, American Bar Foundation Fellow (2016-Present)

Founder, Electronic Discovery Institute (2006-Present)

Editor-in-Chief EDI Certificate Program, (2012-Present)

Microsoft Electronic Discovery and Compliance Counsel (2010-Present)

Georgetown Law Advanced e-Discovery Institute, Board Member (2006-Present)

Georgetown Law e-Discovery for the Government Practitioner, Board Member (2013-2016)

Georgetown Law e-Discovery Training Academy Mentor (2013-2015)

American Bar Association Technology for the Litigator Committee (2010-2016)

Chair, Martindale-Hubbell, Counsel-to-Counsel Program (2007-2009)

Founding Faculty Member, The Sedona Conference Institute CLE Program (2006-2012)

Faculty and Member, Working Group 1 (2005-2023)

Faculty and Member, Working Group 6 (2006-2016)

Guidance Software Strategic Advisory Board (2008-2018)

Inside Counsel Superconference Board (2007-2013)

Kroll Ontrack, Strategic Advisory Board (2009)

Law Technology News, Editorial Advisory Board (2006-2016)

The Georgetown Law CLE: Advance Corporate E-Discovery Institute, Program Chair (2008)

Publications

Editor-in-Chief, The General Counsel’s Guide to Government Investigations (4th Edition)

Editor-in-Chief, The Electronic Discovery Institute’s Guide to Spoliation (5th Edition)

Executive Editor, The Federal Judge's Guide to Discovery (4th Edition)

For a full list of publications, visit https://www.shb.com/professionals/o/oot-patrick