Veteran Appellate Lawyer Joins Motley Rice LLC
Motley Rice LLC, one of the nation’s largest plaintiffs’ firms, is pleased to announce that Louis M. Bograd has joined the firm as a member attorney. In addition to expanding the firm’s work in appellate matters, Bograd will be involved in the firm’s active and growing role in complex multidistrict and mass tort litigation.
“We have worked with Lou on a variety of projects and, in each, it has been clear that his experience and deep appellate knowledge have made him highly respected nationally by attorneys and judges,” said Motley Rice co-founding member Joe Rice. “Lou is a recognized authority on issues of federal preemption and jurisdiction. We know him to be an outstanding attorney who has been hired frequently by many national law firms to handle challenging appeals. He brings a valuable skillset not only to Motley Rice, but also to our co-counsel and our clients, allowing us to enhance our ability to lead complex litigation that our firm has proven we will take on, but that often involves layers of appeals.”
Prior to joining Motley Rice, Bograd was Chief Litigation Counsel at the Center for Constitutional Litigation for 11 years. There, he represented plaintiffs in numerous products liability cases and handled significant appeals involving issues of federal preemption of claims against drug and medical device manufacturers, statutory caps on damages, the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA), the scope of products liability causes of action, and Medicaid lien reimbursements. His work spans appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal courts of appeals and state supreme and appellate courts. Lou argued for plaintiffs before the United States Supreme Court on the issue of generic drug preemption in PLIVA, Inc. v. Mensing, 131 S.Ct. 2567 (2011). Among his other leading cases have been Arkansas Dept. of Health & Human Services v. Ahlborn, 547 U.S. 268 (2006) (amicus brief for AAJ cited in opinion; Medicaid reimbursement); Fulgenzi v. PLIVA, Inc., 711 F.3d 578 (6th Cir. 2013) (counsel for respondent; first appellate decision recognizing “failure-to-update” exception to Mensing); Briggs et al. v. Merck Sharp & Dohme et al., 796 F.3d 1038 (9th Cir. 2015) (counsel for appellants; remand for want of federal jurisdiction under CAFA mass action provision); Lance v. Wyeth, 85 A.3d 434 (Pa. 2014) (amicus brief for AAJ, extensively quoted in opinion; recognition of negligent design/marketing claim against drug manufacturer); and Klotz v. St. Anthony’s Medical Center, 311 S.W.3d 752 (Mo. 2010) (counsel for petitioners; successful challenge to retroactive application of medical malpractice damage cap).
During his time at the Center for Constitutional Litigation, Lou also served as an adjunct professor at the University of Kentucky College of Law where he taught Advanced Torts: Products Liability Law.
Bograd has spent his career advocating for justice and the rights of Americans. Before joining the Center for Constitutional Litigation, Bograd was the legal director and general counsel at the Alliance for Justice, a non-profit association of public interest organizations advocating for civil rights and civil liberties and for a fair and independent federal judiciary.
Previously, Bograd was a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, fighting to establish equal education rights in public schools and for the rights of immigrants threatened with deportation and recipients of public assistance. Lou began his legal practice at Arnold & Porter LLP after earning his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1984 and B.A. from Princeton University in 1981.
Read his full bio.