Mr. Stern is a partner in Morrison & Foerster’s Litigation Department, resident in the firm’s San Francisco office. He is co-chair of the Firm’s Consumer Class Action Litigation practice group and specializes in the defense of consumer class actions. He has extensive trial and appellate court experience defending commercial clients in cases ranging from both private and government enforcement cases arising from consumer fraud, false advertising, bank operations and lending, data breach and mass data compromise, first-party insurance bad faith, franchise, and prejudgment remedies.
Mr. Stern is the author of BUSINESS & PROFESSIONS CODE SECTION 17200 PRACTICE (TRG Press 2009) and the principal author of the 2004 voter initiative Proposition 64, which amends California’s unfair competition law. Mr. Stern is the author of several dozen articles on such topics as lender liability for federal securities violations and the fiduciary obligation of corporate officers and directors, and was listed as one of Northern California’s “Super Lawyers” in 2004-2009 by Super Lawyer Magazine and in 2008 as one of the nation’s leading business litigators. In 2006, he was President of the San Francisco Bank Attorneys Association. That same year, the American Tort Reform Association named Mr. Stern a “Legal Reform Champion.” In 2008, Mr. Stern became a Fellow in the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers.
Professional Affiliations
- Organizer and panelist of The Rutter Group’s annual program on California’s Unfair Business Practices and False Advertising statues, 1989-present
- Panelist, “Vigorously Challenging and Defeating Class Certification: Strategies for Showing that Plaintiffs Have Not Met Their Burden,” ACI’s 2nd Annual Defense Counsel Summit, October 27, 2008
- Co-host and panelist on U.S. Chamber of Commerce program “Litigation in California – It’s Everybody’s Business,” October 2007
- Panelist, PLPs 13th Annual Consumer Financial Services Litigation Institute, 2008
- Panelist, California Bankers Association Bank Counsel Seminar (1990, 1992, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002, and 2004-2008)
- Delivered keynote luncheon address, “The Politics of Preemption,” at the April 2003 California Bankers Association, Annual Bank Counsel Seminar
- Panelist, California Mortgage Bankers Association, Annual Legislative and Regulatory Update, 2005, 2007
- Testified before the California Legislature on reform of unfair competition statute, May 1999
- Panelist and author of program materials, USC Law Center, Corporate Counsel Seminar, 1991
- Contributing editor to Consumer Financial Services Law Report (LRP Press), 1998-present
- Member, Legal Affairs Committee of the California Bankers Association
- Member, Executive Committee, California State Bar, Section on Antitrust and Unfair Competition, 2007-2010
- Member, California State Bar, Business Law Section, Financial institutions Committee (2006-2009)
- Lectured on California’s Unfair Business Practices and False Advertising statutes
- Panelist, California Judges Association, 1998 and 2005