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Phil Quaranta

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Phil Quaranta is the leader of the firm's Asia practice team and a member of the Executive Committee. He has built his practice around an enviable record of success defending product liability, commercial and consumer cases. Phil is a trusted adviser who tackles each matter with immense enthusiasm, backed by the stamina and know-how to take it to a successful conclusion. For more than three years, Phil was managing partner of the firm’s Tokyo group and at one time was admitted to practice law in Japan as Gaikokuho Jimu Bengoshi.

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As a big law firm involved in the defense of Product Liability cases, of course we are interested in how Product Liability law will evolve to address the App Economy.

Mobile apps (apps) are software applications designed to work on smart phones or tablets. The consumer’s first introduction to apps were the “native apps” that increased the user’s productivity or provided general information retrieval from the internet. Those native apps were features such as a web browser, email, calendar or stock ticker that typically come pre-bundled in the device. Shortly after the introduction of the smart phone, software designers started building apps that could be downloaded to mobile devices that provided the user with more capability than the pre-bundled native apps offered by the manufacturer of the device.
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Continue Reading Pokémon GO: An Indicator of Product Liability in the App Economy

Wheel chair in the hospital corridor. Wheel chair stands in the corridor of the hospital door.Product liability cases frequently involve severe and even catastrophic injuries.  As a result, product liability defense counsel and insurance adjusters must be familiar with the prospects for use of a special needs trust as a potential tool in the settlement of severe injury cases. Special needs trusts are frequently proposed as a component of the settlement of severe injury cases.
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Continue Reading Using a Special Needs Trust in the Settlement of a Product Liability Lawsuit

Contract-Signing_TS-137044060Anyone with experience defending product liability claims has experience settling cases at mediation. Typically, a mediator will require the parties to sign a written mediation agreement prior to the mediation. Usually, the proposed agreement will state that the mediation is confidential. Some agreements are more detailed than others. Some go on to prohibit any attempts to call the mediator as a witness. Other agreements state that the mediator is not expressing any opinion about the merits of the case or providing any specific legal advice.  In addition to the agreements that are signed before the start of a mediation, mediators also have form agreements that they ask the parties to sign after the parties agree to a settlement during the mediation.

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Continue Reading It’s the Mediator’s Form Agreement—Not Yours

We all have been in negotiations that involve structured settlement proposals, and almost all plaintiffs’ attorneys have relationships with structured settlement brokers. Inevitably, when it’s time to place a structured settlement, the plaintiffs’ attorneys insist on using the structured settlement broker with whom they have a relationship. At first glance, this may not appear to matter to the defense, but in our experience, the selection of a structured settlement broker is an important decision that can contribute to the successful resolution of the case.
Continue Reading My Structured Settlement Broker or Yours?