Andrea E. Smith

Smith’s representations include:

• Dole Food Company as lead trial, appellate and nationwide coordinating counsel in environmental litigation brought by tens of thousands of plaintiffs alleging harm from exposure to DBCP. Plaintiffs from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Ecuador, Honduras, Panama and the Ivory Coast have brought claims across the United States and their countries of origin. Tens of thousands of claims have been successfully defeated and no claims have survived to judgment since Smith became lead Dole counsel. In one of the lead cases, strategic foreign and domestic investigations led by Smith ultimately resulted in a fraud trial and the dismissal with prejudice of all claims by Nicaraguan plaintiffs pending in U.S. trial courts, and a sanction for the plaintiffs’ and their counsel’s fraud on the court.
• Eli Lilly in Brazilian litigation arising from allegations of environmental exposure at an industrial facility. Following entry of a judgment exceeding one billion reais and multiple related labor court judgments, hundreds of claims against the Brazilian subsidiary were dismissed.
• Hilton in multiple foreign disputes and related U.S. proceedings, including the successful resolution of foreign matters and the defeat of multiple attempts to obtain U.S. discovery in support of those actions.
• Chevron in international litigation arising out of an environmental case brought in Ecuador in 2003, including as lead counsel in Chevron’s successful RICO and fraud suit against the U.S. lawyer and associates who masterminded an extortion scheme that included fraudulently procuring a $9.2 billion Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron. In its 485-page opinion, the court described that case as “extraordinary” and “includ[ing] things that normally come only out of Hollywood,” including “coded emails,” “payments out of a secret account,” videotaped evidence of crimes in progress, and blockbuster evidence that the defendants “wrote the [Ecuadorian] court’s Judgment themselves and promised $500,000 to the Ecuadorian judge to rule in their favor and sign their judgment.” The New York Times described the result as a “major victory,” and The Washington Post called it “resounding.” Smith continues to advise Chevron on a range of issues flowing from this matter and in related foreign enforcement and international arbitration matters.
• Lockheed Martin Corporation in high profile state court toxic tort litigation involving alleged groundwater contamination near aircraft and rocket manufacturing facilities. The matters included claims by hundreds of individual plaintiffs and putative classes alleging personal injury, wrongful death and medical monitoring damages. Through successful appellate and trial level strategies, including key expert exclusions and writ proceedings on punitive damages, burden of proof and statute of limitations, judgment was entered in the client’s favor.
• Liza Minnelli in the successful defense against a high-profile suit brought by her stepmother, Lee Minnelli, alleging elder abuse and breach of fiduciary duty.
• Trial counsel for state and local government entities in an oil royalty matter, which included a four-month jury trial in California.

Smith has served as chair of the board of directors of the Orange County Child Abuse Prevention Center and on the board of United Cerebral Palsy of Orange County; and has been a member of the United Way’s Alexis de Tocqueville Society and the Women’s Philanthropic Fund. Andrea has also served as co-chair of BUZZ: An Executive Women’s Think Tank.