Ezra D. Rosenberg

Ezra D. Rosenberg has had a leading role in the defense of many industries in consumer fraud, mass tort and product liability class action suits for the last 15 years. He has also handled a variety of complex commercial litigation matters, both trial and appellate, throughout the United States. While maintaining a busy practice, Mr. Rosenberg has also been active in firm leadership, serving several terms on the firm’s Policy Committee, and as a Deputy Chair of the firm. He is also a former co-chair of the Product Liability and Mass Torts Group.

For the third consecutive year, Dechert’s Product Liability and Mass Torts practice has been honored with the Award for Excellence in Product Liability by Chambers USA, a referral guide to leading lawyers in the United States. From 2007 to 2011, Mr. Rosenberg was selected among the top product liability litigators both in New Jersey and nationwide by Chambers. According to Chambers, Mr. Rosenberg “handle(s) a wide range of product liability issues, but perhaps is most highly prized for his trial expertise.: Chambers also noted his “impressive knowledge about both the industry and what is important to [client],” in addition to classifying him as a “superbly insightful,” “multi-talented,” “front-line litigator” and “terrific legal theorist” who “really shines in mass tort claims and other complex litigations connected to consumer fraud and product liability.” Mr. Rosenberg has also been selected among The Best Lawyers in America for commercial litigation, mass tort litigation, and product liability litigation. From 2007 to 2011, he was also highlighted in The Legal 500 (U.S.) in the fields of Consumer Products and Pharmaceutical Products Liability Litigation Defense. Mr. Rosenberg was named a “litigation star” for three consecutive years beginning in 2008 by Benchmark: Litigation, which has described him as “quick on his feet,” “a national figure with expert capability in the nuances of products liability law,” a “particularly ‘superb’ appellate talent,” and “very hip, very intellectual, with a keen grasp of the complicated science involved in pharmaceutical and chemical cases.”

Prior to joining Dechert, Mr. Rosenberg served as a senior trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) where he litigated matters as diverse as one-House veto cases and Fifth Amendment takings cases arising out of the Bikini Atoll nuclear testing, earning the DOJ Award for Meritorious Service.

Mr. Rosenberg is active in pro bono representations. Working with lawyers from the ACLU of New Jersey and the Center for Social Justice of Seton Hall Law School, a Dechert team led by Mr. Rosenberg recently completed litigation against the Passaic County Jail, resulting in a comprehensive settlement to improve jail conditions. He is currently working with lawyers from the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Brennan Center for Justice, on behalf of defendant-intervenors, defending against the State of Texas’s complaint brought under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, seeking pre-clearance of changes in Texas’s voter registration requirements.

Significant Representations

• Served as lead counsel on behalf of two major pharmaceutical companies and their joint venture, which had been sued in more than 140 consumer fraud and RICO class actions arising out of the marketing of their anti-cholesterol drug.
• Currently serving as liaison counsel for another major pharmaceutical company in defense of product liability claims consolidated for mass tort treatment in New Jersey.
• Argued appeals before numerous state supreme courts, appellate courts and Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal.
• Represented a major oil company in the Motor Fuel Temperature Sales Litigation pending as a multidistrict litigation in federal court in Kansas, and was asked by the joint defense group to argue against class certification on behalf of all industry defendants.
• Served as liaison counsel for the lead pigment industry in In Re: Lead Paint Litigation, brought by 26 municipalities and counties in New Jersey, and was selected by the joint defendant trial team to be lead counsel arguing defendants’ dispositive motion and the appeal from the successful motion before both the Appellate Division and the New Jersey Supreme Court. Mr. Rosenberg argued the case to the New Jersey Supreme Court in November 2006 and convinced the court to reverse the Appellate Division and reinstate the order dismissing the public nuisance claim.
• Serves as one of Philip Morris USA’s national counsel, representing the company in the defense of putative class action cases filed across the United States alleging violations of state consumer protection action statutes. He has argued numerous motions in those cases, including against class certification, and for summary judgment based on federal preemption grounds. Mr. Rosenberg also successfully tried a wrongful death case to jury verdict on behalf of Philip Morris USA.

Education

University of Pennsylvania, B.A., 1971, Cum laude
New York University School of Law, J.D., 1974, Cum laude, Founders Day Award, Order of the Coif, and the American Jurisprudence Award in Constitutional Law

Court Admissions

United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
United States Court of Federal Claims
United States Tax Court
Supreme Court of the United States

Bar Admissions/Qualifications

New Jersey
District of Columbia

Memberships

In 2011, Mr. Rosenberg received the American Jewish Committee Judge Learned Hand Award, which is given annually to an outstanding leader in the legal profession who exemplifies the “high principles and noble tradition associated” with Judge Hand, one of America’s most influential judges. Mr. Rosenberg is a past president of the Mercer County Bar Foundation and Mercer County Bar Association. He is also a former member of the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee on Civil Jury Charges, the New Jersey Supreme Court Bench Bar Media Committee, and the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Special Task Force on Disciplinary Reforms. He is a former trustee of the Association of the Federal Bar of the State of New Jersey.

Publications and Lectures