November 18, 2021
Affirmative Litigation – The Municipality as Plaintiff
Description: This presentation is a review of various major affirmative litigation activities by local governments, including false claims, video services, e-cigarettes, PFAS, climate change, and opioids. This presentation will also discuss causes of action, defenses, and case trajectories.
Speaker: Erich Eiselt
Erich Eiselt is IMLA’s Assistant General Counsel and Director Affirmative Litigation. He began his career as a litigator with Anderson Russell in New York City and subsequently served as General Counsel of a New York based international media company, managing a law department conducting litigation, M&A, and other corporate activities. Since 2017, he has headed IMLA’s Opioid Litigation Group, a collaboration of more than one hundred localities sharing data and strategic thinking as they seek compensation in courts across the country. He also serves as editor of IMLA’s flagship publication, Municipal Lawyer, and has made presentations on IMLA’s behalf to numerous local government lawyer groups on the opioid litigation and other topics. He participates in IMLA’s amicus activities including writing appellate briefs in cases before the federal Circuits and the Supreme Court and was the attorney of record in IMLA’s petition-stage brief in Comptroller of Maryland v. Wynne, a case argued before the Court. He is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court and is a member of the New York bar. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served on the Editorial Board of the Virginia Journal of International Law.
Sara Gross is the Chief of the Affirmative Litigation Division for the Baltimore City Department of Law, serving as in-house counsel for Baltimore in cases against fossil fuel companies, opioid distributors, and e-cigarette manufacturers, among others. She co-founded IMLA’s Affirmative Litigation Practice Group. Prior to becoming the Affirmative Litigation Chief in 2020, Sara spent eight years representing Baltimore and its employees in complex defense litigation in the Maryland and federal courts. Before switching to civil practice, she spent the first seven years of her career as a criminal prosecutor with the Baltimore City Office of the State’s Attorney.
Sara received her Juris Doctor degree with honor from the University of Maryland School of Law in 2004. In 2015, she was named the Government and Public Interest Lawyer of the Year by the Bar Association of Baltimore City. In 2017, the Maryland Daily Record selected her as a Very Important Professional, an award given to Marylanders who have achieved significant professional success by age 40. In 2021, Business Insider named Sara as one of the top nine lawyers taking on the climate industry.
Michael Bologna is a staff correspondent at Bloomberg Tax, an affiliate of the news and financial company Bloomberg LP. Mr. Bologna specializes in state and local taxes, and works closely with state revenue departments, legislatures, trade associations and tax practitioners. Mr. Bologna has been a professional journalist for 35 years, working for daily newspapers, legal periodicals and online news platforms.