Eric A. Herzog

Eric focuses his practice on a wide range of complex litigation, including class actions, unfair business practices, trade secret misappropriation, and insurance and financial services litigation. He has substantial experience defending class actions brought under California’s Unfair Competition Law and Consumers Legal Remedies Act.

Throughout his career, Eric has represented companies across a variety of industries in high-stakes matters, including class actions, as well as other significant litigation. He has litigated many cases for clients in the insurance industry, including numerous putative class actions and matters involving novel legal issues. In the banking and securities areas, he has represented and advised banks and broker-dealers in federal and state court litigation, FINRA arbitrations, and regulatory matters. He has led and been part of teams that have secured jury verdicts, arbitration awards, and appeals in state and federal courts.

Also actively involved in the community, Eric serves as a board member of Inner City Law Center, with which he has been co-counsel in significant tenants’ rights litigation.

• Secured the dismissal of numerous class and complex actions under California’s Unfair Competition Law on the pleadings, and defended these dismissals on appeal, including representing a national insurance company in a putative nationwide class action alleging improper claims handling practices and procedures in uninsured/underinsured motorist claims.
• Defeated class certification, including prevailing on appeal, in a case involving a million-member putative class of life insurance policyholders in which plaintiffs alleged that their policies had been “underfunded.”
• Secured a decision on behalf of the client from the California Supreme Court in a case involving whether the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act (CLRA) applies to life insurance.
• Obtained a denial of class certification in a case involving allegations against an insurer related to its handling of claims involving flooring damage, including that the insurer failed to pay fair market value in violation of the California Insurance Code.
• Defeated class certification and subsequently secured summary judgment and prevailed on appeal in a case involving a putative class of California condominium policyholders who submitted claims for property damage and who alleged that they were underpaid due to an insurer’s misapplication of the insurance policy.
• Secured a jury verdict on behalf of various insurers in a case involving claims of age discrimination brought by former insurance agents under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. The jury found that the former insurance agents were independent contractors and therefore were not subject to the employment laws at issue in the case.
• Secured a jury verdict for a national retailer in a federal patent infringement trial, obtaining damages and a substantial award of attorneys’ fees for the client, which was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
• In a case of first impression under the federal Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA), obtained summary judgment for a national insurance company in an attempted nationwide class action in which a policyholder alleged improper collection of premiums for terrorism risk coverage.
• Obtained a decision from the California Court of Appeal, in a case of first impression, that a trial court can revoke permission granted to an out-of-state attorney to appear before California courts when the lawyer commits ethical misconduct.
• Obtained a dismissal with prejudice at the pleading stage of an attempted nationwide class action alleging that certain language contained in a national broker-dealer’s Individual Retirement Account (IRA) agreements ran afoul of federal statutes and regulations.
• In a case seeking certification of a nationwide class of thousands of insureds, persuaded a federal court that a national insurance company correctly applied its policy provisions to claims involving water damage.
• Obtained denials of claimants’ claims on the merits in multiple FINRA customer arbitrations brought against brokers and associated persons involving claims of fraud, unsuitability, failure to supervise, and negligence.
• Represented a national insurance company in litigation involving alleged misappropriation of trade secrets.

• Daily Journal, Top Verdicts (2023)
• Super Lawyers® Southern California (2019-2024)
• Super Lawyers® Southern California Rising Star (2009-2018)
• Benchmark Litigation, Under 40 Hot List, Euromoney PLC (2017-2018)