The automotive industry is evolving rapidly as manufacturers, suppliers, technology companies, distributors, dealers, and other industry participants navigate emerging technologies, changing regulatory requirements, supply-chain challenges, and increased litigation risk.
Buchalter’s Automotive Industry Practice Group brings together attorneys across disciplines to help clients address these challenges with practical, business-focused solutions. Our experience includes automotive product liability and personal injury defense, product safety and regulatory compliance, autonomous and emerging vehicle technologies, supplier and supply-chain matters, commercial litigation, transactions, cybersecurity and privacy, intellectual property, and employment matters.
Automotive Product Liability and Product Safety
Automotive product liability is a significant component of our practice. We defend manufacturers and other automotive industry participants in claims involving alleged design defects, manufacturing defects, failure to warn, personal injury, and other product-related claims. The team has specific experience defending manufacturers of automobiles and motorcycles against design, manufacturing, and failure-to-warn claims.
Our approach extends beyond defending litigation after a claim arises. We work with clients on product-safety and risk-management issues before litigation, including product safety assessments, testing and compliance protocols, warnings and labeling, warranty programs, supply-chain and vendor management, and other measures designed to identify and address potential vulnerabilities before they become claims.
This combination of front-end counseling and litigation experience gives our team an important perspective. We understand how decisions made during product development, testing, compliance, warnings, and incident response can later become significant issues in product-liability litigation. We work with clients to address immediate legal and regulatory requirements while remaining mindful of broader business and litigation risk.
Regulatory Compliance, Investigations and Risk Management
Our automotive attorneys advise manufacturers, suppliers, and other industry participants on NHTSA compliance and investigations, FMVSS requirements, safety defects and noncompliance, recalls and corrective actions, and related state laws. We combine regulatory and product-liability experience to help clients address immediate compliance obligations while considering the potential operational and litigation consequences of product development, testing, certification, warnings, reporting, and recall decisions.
Autonomous Vehicles and Emerging Technologies
As automotive technologies continue to evolve, companies must address new legal and regulatory questions alongside traditional automotive risks. Buchalter’s existing automotive practice encompasses autonomous vehicles, intellectual property and technology, cybersecurity and privacy, regulatory compliance and public policy, and supplier and supply-chain matters.
Our multidisciplinary structure allows us to address these issues in the broader context of a client’s business and risk-management objectives.
Supplier, Supply-Chain and Commercial Matters
The automotive industry depends on complex relationships among manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, technology providers, and other businesses. Our attorneys assist automotive clients with contracts, supplier and supply-chain matters, commercial litigation, intellectual property and technology, dealer finance, bankruptcy rights protection, and labor and employment matters.
Whether the issue involves a product claim, supplier dispute, regulatory concern, new technology, or commercial challenge, our goal is to provide practical solutions informed by an understanding of the automotive business.
Representative Automotive Capabilities
Buchalter’s automotive capabilities include:
- Automotive Product Liability and Personal Injury Defense
- Design, Manufacturing and Failure-to-Warn Claims
- Product Safety, Compliance and Risk Management
- Regulatory Compliance and Public Policy
- Autonomous Vehicles and Emerging Technologies
- Class Actions
- Commercial Litigation
- Supplier and Supply Chain
- Contracts
- Cybersecurity and Privacy
- Intellectual Property and Technology
- Dealer Finance
- Bankruptcy Rights Protection
- Labor and Employment
Our automotive lawyers understand that today’s automotive issues frequently cross traditional practice-area boundaries. A product-development decision may create regulatory implications; a compliance issue may develop into litigation; and an emerging technology may raise product-liability, intellectual-property, privacy, and commercial considerations simultaneously.
We bring together the appropriate experience across disciplines to help clients prevent problems where possible, respond effectively when they arise, and defend significant claims when litigation cannot be avoided.
