Eric Murphy '05 Named Litigator of the Week by The American Lawyer's Litigation Daily

From the December 6 issue of The Litigation Daily:

Michael Carvin and Eric Murphy don't know Jennifer McCann very well, and they don't have much in common with her career-wise. Carvin is a well-known U.S. Supreme Court advocate at Jones Day, and Murphy is one of his proteges at the firm. McCann, on the other hand, is a young solo criminal defense lawyer in Long Island best known for her vigorous and at times controversial representation of Levi Aron, who confessed to a gruesome murder-kidnapping in Brooklyn last summer.

But in 2010, the unlikely trio of lawyers briefly joined forces. In a closely-watched case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, they argued that a pharmaceutical sales representative named Alfred Caronia had been wrongfully convicted of conspiring to misbrand a prescription drug--a misdemeanor offense under the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act.

Carvin, Murphy, and McCann prevailed on Monday, when Second Circuit issued its long-awaited decision in the Caronia case. In a 2-1 opinion, the Second Circuit panel set aside Caronia's conviction on First Amendment grounds, concluding that drug companies and their representatives have a constitutional right to promote prescription drugs for lawful off-label uses.The ruling casts a cloud of uncertainty over the FDCA, a statute that the government has parlayed into billions in settlements with drug companies. And, on a more personal level, it vindicates not only Caronia, but one of his co-workers who committed suicide after pleading guilty to similar charges.

Read the rest of the article here.