Four Additional Litigators Join King & Spalding's New York Office

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - July 24, 2017) - King & Spalding announced that litigators John Hooper, Kelly D'Auria, Eric Gladbach and Jacqueline Seidel joined the tort and environmental practice of the firm's New York office.

Hooper, D'Auria, Gladbach and Seidel defend multinational companies in complex litigation, including a variety of commercial, product liability, financial services, false and misleading advertising and other consumer class actions. All four lawyers were previously partners at Reed Smith.

"John and his team's portfolio of high-exposure cases dovetails nicely with our national product liability and other litigation practices," said Robert D. Hays, chairman of King & Spalding. "We are excited to be able to grow out further our litigation practice on both coasts -- with this team in New York and our other recent adds in Los Angeles."

"We are delighted the firm's tort and environmental practice will now have 'boots on the ground' in New York, close to many clients," said Carol Wood, head of the firm's tort and environmental practice. "John, Kelly, Eric and Jacquie are a dynamic team with the kind of substantive legal experience and litigation project management insight that clients are demanding in litigation counsel today. We look forward to working with them."

John Hooper
In addition to defending complex claims, Hooper has developed a reputation as a "go-to" negotiator to fashion and achieve complex settlement agreements in class actions, mass torts and other bet-the-company litigations. He develops and executes endgame strategies to resolve "viral litigation" and helps companies manage litigation crises. Hooper has resolved the economic loss class action cases in the Unintended Acceleration and Takata airbag MDL litigations and has resolved and obtained dismissals in numerous nationwide class actions and significant mass torts, including some of the largest and most high-profile cases in the country. Earlier in his career, he served as a Manhattan Assistant District Attorney and was in-house litigation counsel at Bristol-Myers Squibb before entering private practice.

Hooper is nationally ranked by Chambers and recommended by The Legal 500, and has been recognized by the National Law Journal as one of its "50 Litigation Trailblazers." Hooper was also recognized by the Association of Corporate Counsel with a Value Champion award and has been nominated to the BTI "Client Service All-Star Team" for multiple years. Hooper received his undergraduate degree from Colgate University and his J.D. from Boston University.

Kelly D'Auria
D'Auria's practice focuses on mass and toxic torts, pharmaceutical litigation and sales practices litigation. She has spent the last few years working with Hooper to resolve cases and claims arising from marketing, sales practices, and products liability litigation for an automobile manufacturer. D'Auria also regularly defends mass tort actions, multi-district litigations and consumer class actions and has served as national, regional and local counsel. Also with Hooper, she assists in the development and coordination of overall litigation strategy and budget management of nationwide dockets to improve results for clients in the toxic tort realm.

At her previous firm, D'Auria served as the coordinating partner for the Mass and Toxic Tort team, co-chair of the Women's Initiative in the New York office, hiring partner and head of the recruiting committee for the New York office summer program. She received her undergraduate degree, cum laude, from Villanova University and her J.D. from St. John's University School of Law.

Eric Gladbach
With over 20 years of experience, Gladbach advises companies in critical litigation and settlement issues relating to complex class and mass actions in federal and state courts. He designs and implements strategies at the district and appellate court level to comprehensively resolve large-scale class and mass action litigation. Gladbach is an expert at structuring class action settlements, providing guidance on notice plans, addressing Medicare and lien issues and overseeing the implementation of the terms of the settlements. He is also highly responsive to and anticipates clients' business, legal, media and other internal needs. Gladbach received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley and his J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law.

Jacqueline Seidel
Seidel provides clients with comprehensive and strategic litigation management and counseling services to mitigate the reputational and financial risks they may face in high-exposure litigations. Such strategies include developing and implementing exit strategies for clients facing large-scale class and mass actions, implementing court-approved comprehensive settlement programs and resolving large groups of cases at opportune moments in a litigation. She received her undergraduate degree from Columbia University and her J.D. from Yeshiva University, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

"King & Spalding's partners are an impressive group whose aggressive approach to litigation provides a terrific platform that works well with our strategic approach," said Hooper. "Having all of this expertise under one roof will enable us to provide our clients with substantial options for their complex litigation matters. We are excited to join the firm."

Last week, intellectual property litigators Joseph Diamante and Charles Cantine joined the New York office from Stroock & Stroock & Lavan.

About King & Spalding
Celebrating more than 130 years of service, King & Spalding is an international law firm that represents a broad array of clients, including half of the Fortune Global 100, with 1,000 lawyers in 19 offices in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The firm has handled matters in over 160 countries on six continents and is consistently recognized for the results it obtains, uncompromising commitment to quality, and dedication to understanding the business and culture of its clients. More information is available at www.kslaw.com.