Christopher P. Eby

• Serving as defense counsel for one of the world's largest automakers in multiple nationwide class action lawsuits alleging that millions of vehicles contained transmission defects.
• Serving as co-lead of team of legal issues attorneys setting strategy for defense of one of the world’s largest shipping and logistics companies in serious injury cases arising out of tractor trailer and package delivery motor vehicle accidents.
• Successfully defending Boehringer Ingelheim in federal and state court litigation alleging that the active ingredient in Zantac heartburn medication degrades into a nitrosamine that can cause cancer. Played leading role in five of the nine Zantac trials to date--none of which resulted in a plaintiff verdict.
• Representing Renco Group and Doe Run Resources in mass tort litigation in consolidated proceedings in federal court in St. Louis concerning personal-injury allegations by several thousand Peruvians citizens allegedly harmed by exposure to lead and other contaminants from a smelter in the Andean Highlands of Peru.
• Successfully defended Fortune 50 consumer products company in nationwide class action alleging that its skin-care products were ineffective and worthless. The court granted K&S's motion to dismiss on almost every point, forcing plaintiffs to abandon any attempt to replead.
• Represented Pierre Fabre in successful defense of nationwide class action alleging that the company’s dry shampoo products contained benzene. See Bojko v. Pierre Fabre USA Inc., 2023 WL 4204663 (N.D. Ill. June 27, 2023).
• Represented Johnson & Johnson and Estee Lauder as expert-focused national coordinating counsel in more than a dozen cases alleging that asbestos-contaminated cosmetic talc causes mesothelioma.
• Lead attorney on brief of several amici curiae in support of NetChoice's successful motion for preliminary injunction against enforcement of California's Age-Appropriate Design Code. See Netchoice, LLC v. Bonta, No. 5:22-cv-8861, Dkt. 42 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 1, 2023).
• Represented internet service provider EarthLink in commercial litigation for breach of contract and business torts, and part of team that won a case-defining sanctions ruling, award of attorneys’ fees, and adverse inference due to adversary's spoliation of evidence. See EarthLink LLC v. Charter Communications, No. 0654332/2020 (N.Y. Supr. Ct.).
• Represented Cady Studios in successful denial of temporary restraining order and motion for preliminary injunction brought by competitor alleging restrictive covenant violations based on Cady's employment of competitor's former executives. See American Achievement Corp. v. Fitzgerald, No. 23-cv-3139, Dkt. 29 (S.D.N.Y. May 19, 2023).
• Defended Mine Safety Appliances in long-running litigation by West Virginia Attorney General to recover public health care expenditures related to pneumoconiosis alleged to have resulted from personal protective equipment.
• Represented Johnson & Johnson in multi-district litigation concerning allegations that long-term use of the interstitial cystitis drug Elmiron causes serious vision problems.
• Represented Village of Deerfield in Illinois appellate court against gun rights group's constitutional challenge to municipal ordinance banning assault weapons. The appellate court affirmed the trial court's refusal to enjoin the ordinance. See Easterday v. Village of Deerfield, 176 N.E.3d 187 (Ill. App. 2d Dist. 2020).
• Represented Sonova AG and Phonak in Lanham Act litigation against competing audiology and hearing aid companies' unauthorized commercial use of intellectual property, resulting in entry of a consent judgment and permanent injunction against further infringement. See Sonova AG et al. v. Hearsite Inc., et al., No. 17-cv-6715, Dkt. 77 (N.D. Ill. Aug. 6, 2018).
• Represented Mission Measurement in litigation alleging that software developer misappropriated confidential information relating to philanthropic grading platform, in one of the first cases filed under the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016. See Mission Measurement Corp. v. Blackbaud, Inc., 216 F.Supp.3d 915 (N.D. Ill. 2016).

Chris Eby represents leading companies in products liability, consumer class action, and complex commercial litigation in federal and state courts across the country.  Chris navigates clients through all stages of cases—from pre-litigation diligence, to initial fact gathering and data preservation, through discovery and motions practice, and at trial as well as in appellate proceedings.  Chris specializes in developing legal arguments and discovery strategies that yield dismissal of class action claims and tranches of cases in mass tort proceedings, and he often takes and defends depositions of key fact and expert witnesses.  In addition to examining witnesses, Chris typically runs point on all legal issues at trial and routinely convinces judges to exclude irrelevant or prejudicial evidence, limit the use of questionable science, and issue favorable jury instructions.

Chris maintains an active pro bono practice, particularly in federal immigration court.  He has secured asylum for persecuted individuals from Russia, Eritrea, Mexico, and Venezuela—in each case persuading an immigration judge, after extended briefing and a merits hearing, to release the asylee from detention and grant deportation relief.  Chris has also focused his pro bono efforts on appellate advocacy, drafting numerous public interest amicus curiae briefs and representing indigent clients on appeal before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, state courts of appeal, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and more.  

Chris has been recognized as “One to Watch” in Best Lawyers in America since 2023.