J. Peter Coll Jr - Orrick Bio -
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Published on: 8/12/2005
Last Visited: 8/12/2005
J. Peter Coll Jrtel (212) 506-3790 pcoll@orrick.com
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Peter Coll is the leader of Orrick's New York office and heads the firm's litigation practice in New York.He is also a member of the Firm's Executive Committee.He has been recognized by The National Law Journal as one of the top ten litigators in New York City, and he is known for his ability to help clients develop litigation strategies that meet both their case-specific and business objectives.
Mr. Coll has tried major, complex cases in New York state and federal courts and throughout the United States, including Washington, the Virgin Islands, California, and Arizona.During his 30-year litigation and trial career, he has argued appeals before the United States Supreme Court, the highest-level appellate courts of New York and New Jersey, and seven federal circuit courts of appeal.
Mr. Coll has represented Fortune 500 companies, such as American Cyanamid Company, The Dow Chemical Company, American Home Products Corporation, Mead Corporation, Alleghany Corporation, and Schering-Plough Corporation.He has also represented privately held companies and individuals, including high-profile clients like Mickey Mantle.Mr. Coll's cases have involved general commercial, antitrust, securities fraud, mergers and acquisitions, product liability, federal taxation, ERISA, consumer fraud, and intellectual property (including patent and trademark claims).The following are examples of his notable cases:
The Mead Corporation.In June 2001, Mr. Coll won a victory for The Mead Corporation in the landmark United States Supreme Court decision United States v. Mead Corp., No. 99-1434.The Government brought the appeal from a Federal Circuit ruling that the United States Customs Service had been unreasonable in changing its classification of Mead's "day planners" from a duty-free classification to a 4%-tariff classification.The Government argued that under existing Supreme Court precedent, the Federal Circuit should have given Customs' classification the force and effect of law.But Orrick convinced the Supreme Court to hold that courts cannot reflexively grant "controlling weight" deference to an agency's interpretation of the law that the agency is charged to administer, and rather, that courts are to give the agency's interpretation "a respect proportionate ‘to its power to persuade.'" The Mead decision will have a far-reaching effect on the government party to an administrative action or litigation more leeway to challenge the agency's position.
Talley Industries.In TRW v. Talley Industries, a complex intellectual property action in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona, Mr. Coll obtained a $138 million jury verdict for Arizona-based Talley Industries.Subsequently, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed this verdict.A preliminary injunction obtained in the action, and then affirmed on appeal to the Ninth Circuit, was novel in that it required TRW to make seven-figure royalty payments each quarter to Talley during the course of the litigation.In total, approximately $200 million was recovered for Talley.
DTP Vaccine Litigation.Mr. Coll served as national counsel for Lederle Laboratories in DTP vaccine actions.In that role, Mr. Coll represented Lederle before the Supreme Court of New Jersey in Shackil v. Lederle Laboratories.In Shackil, the New Jersey Court rejected all theories of collective liability with respect to all childhood vaccines.For this same client, Mr. Coll has litigated other pharmaceutical products cases involving complex scientific, legal, and procedural issues.He has tried actions involving oral polio and tetanus toxoid vaccines to successful conclusions in both state and federal courts in Plummer v. Lederle Laboratories and Samuels v. American Cyanamid Co.Mr. Coll has had other notable success in the pharmaceutical products liability arena including in the Third Circuit Wade-Greaux v. Whitehall Laboratories (Third Circuit affirmance of dismissal of case, after evidentiary hearing, because of junk science) and Tenuto vs.Lederle Laboratories (learned intermediary rule reaffirmed by the New York Court of Appeals).
Mr. Coll is admitted to practice in all state and federal courts of New York.He is also admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States, nine U.S. courts of appeals, several federal district courts around the country, and the United States Tax Court.
Before joining Orrick, Mr. Coll was a partner at Donovan Leisure Newton & Irvine, LLP (1976-1998), where he served as Chairman of its Executive Committee.
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