Jessica Grant, Morrison & Foerster partner

Jessica Grant, a Bay Area litigator with some big-name clients, has moved her practice from Venable over to Morrison & Foerster, effective Jan. 15. She will be a partner in the firm's San Francisco office.

Morrison & Foerster presented "the opportunity to work with some of the nation's top trial and class action lawyers on cases that have broad implications for consumers and the public in general," Grant said in a statement to Law.com. "Also, the firm's roster of blue chip clients and its demonstrated commitment to diversity and having a number of women in leadership roles were important to me."

Grant's practice is varied, running the gambit from intellectual property infringement and patent work to employment and class action litigation. She has brought a 15 cases to trial and served as lead counsel on all but four.

Among Grant's past litigation clients are Phillip Morris, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Univision.

Grant is among the lawyers who have represented Philip Morris in cases brought by smokers who sued the company for the damage smoking had caused to their health, thousands of which were filed in the wake of a 2016 Florida Supreme Court ruling that overturned a $145 billion verdict against Big Tobacco and gave the go-ahead for others. In two of those cases Grant worked on, while the juries awarded a verdict, they placed a majority or most of the liability on the plaintiff.

Grant defended Univision at trial in 2017, in a defamation case involving the company's use of social media photos. The plaintiff was asking for $77 million in actual and punitive damages. The jury ended up awarding the plaintiff $72,000, and Grant's client was not found liable for punitive damages.

"Jessica is an outstanding addition to our already strong class actions and product liability groups," Tiffany Cheung, co-chair of Morrison & Foerster's global litigation department and its class action and mass torts practice group, said in a statement. "Her proven track record as a trial lawyer and work on complex, high-profile matters will greatly benefit our clients as they navigate challenging litigation issues."

Prior to Venable, which she joined in 2014, Grant had stops at Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass, Sher Leff and Taylor & Co. Law Offices, among others.

Grant's recruitment was handled by Larry Watanabe and Ken Schwartz of Watanabe, Nason & Schwartz.

Morrison & Foerster has previously vocalized its desire to expand in key practices such as IP and patent litigation, and key geographic markets that cater to those practices, like New York and San Francisco. Grant is the the most recent hire in this scheme. The firm also brought on former former Weil, Gotshal & Manges partner David Fertig to its New York office Jan. 13 and saw the return of former partner Alex Yap to its Los Angeles office after a four-year stint as an administrative judge in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The firm added 40 lateral partners over the past year, and only saw four partner defections. Its head count was much steadier year-to-year in the several years before that.

Venable, which declined to comment for this story, lost more laterals than it gained every year from 2015 to 2018. But in 2019, it added 18 partner laterals while enduring 13 departures.

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