NAM’s MCLA Announces Phil Goldberg as Special Counsel
Goldberg to Bolster Manufacturers’ Accountability Project for Year of High-Stakes Litigation for Manufacturers
Washington, D.C. – The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) announced the addition of Phil Goldberg as Special Counsel for the Manufacturers’ Accountability Project (MAP), an effort led by the Manufacturers’ Center for Legal Action (MCLA), the NAM’s in-house legal arm and the leading voice of manufacturers in the courts. He will serve as a senior legal adviser and spokesman for the effort.
Started in 2017, the MAP was created to set the record straight and expose the concerted, coordinated political campaign being waged in the courts against America’s manufacturers. These lawsuits and other legal actions have sought to undermine and weaken manufacturers in the United States through a series of baseless public nuisance suits and other legal tactics.
For more than a year, the NAM has fought back successfully against this coordinated attempt to shake down manufacturers over baseless public nuisance litigation. Last year, three public nuisance cases brought by the cities of San Francisco, Oakland and New York were all thrown out by federal judges, and the Manufacturers’ Accountability Project will work tirelessly to build on that record in 2019, said NAM Senior Vice President and General Counsel Linda Kelly, who leads the MCLA. Phil is one of the brightest legal minds in this space and brings impeccable credentials to the table on behalf of America’s manufacturers and manufacturing workers. We are excited to have him on board.
The NAM and its Manufacturers’ Accountability Project are the tip of the spear in the fight against the wave of unfounded public nuisance lawsuits targeting America’s manufacturers. The stakes could not be higher for manufacturers as well as the integrity of our legal system, said Goldberg. I look forward to helping manufacturers and manufacturing workers fight back against these deeply misguided lawsuits, which are more about politics than addressing the global challenge of climate change—and actually distract us from focusing onreal solutions.
Goldberg has more than 25 years of experience on liability-related public policy. He is the Managing Partner of the Washington office of Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P. and the Co-Chair of its Public Policy Group. He also serves as director of the Progressive Policy Institute’s Center for Civil Justice. He authored amici briefs submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2011 climate change case Connecticut v. AEP and the Supreme Court of Rhode Island in Rhode Island v. Lead Industries Association. The Rhode Island and New Jersey Supreme Courts cited Goldberg’s articles in denying overly expansive public nuisance theories.
Before joining Shook in 2003, Goldberg spent eight years as an aide to three Democratic members of Congress and three years as a vice president of litigation communications for two leading public relations firms. He received his law degree from George Washington University Law School, where he was Order of the Coif, and his Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from Tufts University.
More information about the MCLA can be found here. More information about the MAP can be found here.
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The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) is the largest manufacturing association in the United States, representing small and large manufacturers in every industrial sector and in all 50 states. Manufacturing employs more than 12 million men and women, contributes $2.25 trillion to the U.S. economy annually, has the largest economic impact of any major sector and accounts for more than three-quarters of private-sector research and development. The NAM is the powerful voice of the manufacturing community and the leading advocate for a policy agenda that helps manufacturers compete in the global economy and create jobs across the United States. For more information about the Manufacturers or to follow us on Shopfloor, Twitter and Facebook, please visit www.nam.org.