Purvi G Patel

Purvi G. Patel is the former managing partner of the Los Angeles office.

Purvi represents retail, e-commerce, and other consumer-oriented businesses in significant advertising, unfair competition, consumer fraud, and privacy matters. She has built a robust practice advising household names on various compliance issues and defending them in complex and class action litigation in federal and state courts across the country, winning motions to dismiss, defeating class certification, and securing summary disposition in several multi-million dollar lawsuits. Purvi is a strategic and practical thinker who is in tune with her clients’ priorities, which leads to successful outcomes both inside and outside the courthouse.

Practice Leader. Purvi has a defined niche that cuts across the firm’s Consumer Litigation, Class Actions, and Privacy + Data Security Groups. With a focus on businesses’ collection of personally identifiable information (PII), Purvi is a recognized leader in defending lawsuits involving the collection, use, and disclosure of PII. In addition, due to her vast experience handling class action litigation for clients across sectors, Purvi has notched significant victories for industry-leading companies, including securing summary judgment and defeating class certification in some of the most plaintiff-friendly jurisdictions nationwide.

Owing to her extensive litigation experience, Purvi is uniquely positioned to counsel clients on compliance with established and emerging laws and regulations, including the potential privacy implications of business practices relating to the collection of PII. Purvi is the firm’s expert regarding California’s Song-Beverly Credit Card Act and analog statutes in effect in other states, and she is at the forefront of the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA), the most expansive piece of privacy legislation in U.S. history. Purvi was among the first lawyers to issue a comprehensive alert on its passage and presented a “concise, efficiently laid out, informative and practical” webinar on key compliance measures that drew more than 900 attendees. As a result of her demonstrated expertise, Purvi is advising a number of household name companies across multiple industries on the CCPA’s operational impact.

Purvi is also committed to the firm’s pro bono initiatives and has worked on a number of pro bono matters during her tenure at the firm. Most recently, she represented an interfaith coalition of more than 50 religious organizations as amici in various cases challenging the 2017 “travel ban” Executive Orders. In 2014, Purvi successfully argued a Ninth Circuit appeal on behalf of a U.S. citizen who was wrongfully subjected to two years of pre-trial detention as a result of a detainer imposed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Mendia v. Garcia, 768 F.3d 1009 (9th Cir. 2014)).

Firm Leader. Purvi is committed to advancing diversity at Morrison & Foerster. For more than five years, she served as the Co-Chair of the firm’s Diversity Strategy Committee. During her tenure, Purvi contributed significantly to the Committee’s success, including achieving Mansfield Certification Plus four times, implementing a LGBTQ+ Gender Inclusive Policy, and launching MoFo’s innovative Allies Network. She was the firm’s Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) Fellow in 2014 and remains active in the organization as an alumna. In addition, Purvi served as hiring partner for the Los Angeles office between 2015 and 2023.

Community Leader. Purvi is also actively engaged in the community. In 2019, she was a founding board member of Legal Education Access Pipeline (LEAP), a fellows program dedicated to increasing access to legal education for underrepresented populations. She has also been working with “Just the Beginning – A Pipeline Organization” (JTB) since 2015 when she joined an inaugural steering committee of judges, in-house and outside counsel, and educators to launch a Los Angeles-based Summer Legal Institute. She is a past Co-President of the South Asian Bar Association of Southern California (SABA-SC), and in 2019, was named SABA-SC’s Mentor of the Year.