Industry Insights: Key Takeaways From The GMA Legal Conference

Earlier this week, attorneys in the Perkins Coie Food Litigation team joined top in-house counsel, defense attorneys and regulatory experts at the GMA Legal Conference which took place in New Orleans, LA.  The conference covered a wide array of important and timely legal issues, with an emphasis on protecting your brands from litigation risks and complying with government regulations.  Highlights from the conference included:

• Statistics showing a steady increase in the number of lawsuits being filed in recent years, particularly in hotbed jurisdictions for food litigation including California, New York, Illinois, Missouri and Florida;
• Discussion of key recent decisions and important pending cases, including renewed judicial interest in the "reasonable consumer" standard as a basis for early dismissal in false labeling and "natural" cases;
• Increased Prop 65 activity in California involving a growing list of chemicals and targeted products; and
• A session entitled "What in the World was He Thinking?  A Look Inside the Mind of a Plaintiffs' Attorney, and How to Respond" featured our own David Biderman, where he stressed the importance of a collaborative effort by the industry to fight and ultimately minimize the number of frivolous lawsuits.