Nancy Erfle

Practice Areas

Product & General Liability

Drug & Medical Device

Environmental/Toxic Tort

Automotive Litigation & Autonomous Vehicles

Career

Ranked by Chambers since 2019, Nancy Erfle is Practice Group Leader for the Drug & Medical Device practice group at GRSM and currently serves on the firm’s Executive Committee. Her practice is focused on litigation, specifically the defense of manufacturers in the area of drug and medical device, toxic tort, automotive and complex mass torts. Nancy has served on national litigation teams and as lead local and regional counsel for manufacturing, pharmaceutical and medical device clients on many cases, including several mass tort cases. Currently, she is serving as lead National Trial and Coordination Counsel for a manufacturer of baby food in litigation pending in multiple state and federal courts throughout the country. She served in that same role for a supplier of raw material, including trying some of the first matters to verdict. Nancy also has class action experience in both consumer fraud and securities matters. She has extensive state and federal court jury trial experience, defending her clients in all types of product liability claims throughout the country.

Nancy was the IADC Trial Academy Director for the 2019 Trial Academy for the International Association of Defense Counsel, which was held at Stanford University Law School. She served as Director-Elect for 2018 and was a member of the teaching faculty in 2007. She also serves as an adjunct professor for Lewis & Clark Law School’s Aviation Seminar.

Nancy was selected as a Law360 2017 Product Liability MVP, one of only five attorneys in the nation to receive that recognition. She is recognized among the leading practitioners in the county by Chambers USA for her defense of pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, automotive manufacturers, agricultural chemical manufacturers, aviation manufacturers, as well as companies involved in commercial disputes. In 2004, Nancy was selected as a recipient of The Portland Business Journal’s “Forty Under 40” Award, an honor which recognizes the 40 most accomplished, influential, and civic-minded young executives in Portland. Since 2006, Nancy has been named an Oregon “Super Lawyer” by Law & Politics magazine, a peer-elected distinction bestowed upon only the top five percent of all attorneys in the state of Oregon. In 2007, she was named one of the “100 Most Powerful Women” by Northwest Women’s Journal. Nancy has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America since 2010 for her work in Product Liability Litigation and named an Oregon Litigation Star by Benchmark Litigation. Since 2012, she has been consistently named in the Top 250 Women in American Litigation by Benchmark Litigation.

Professional Memberships

International Association of Defense Attorneys (IADC), Board of Directors

Product Liability Advisory Council (PLAC), sustaining member

Defense Research Institute

American Bar Association, Litigation Section

Oregon Association of Defense Counsel

Education

Awards