Jonah M. Knobler practices in the firm’s Litigation department. He has nearly two decades of experience representing clients in a wide range of industries, including pharmaceuticals, foods and beverages, media, and technology. Mr. Knobler’s current practice centers on class-action defense, advertising and consumer-protection litigation, and copyright/trademark litigation. He also handles general commercial litigation matters and critical appeals.

Mr. Knobler has particular expertise advising and litigating on behalf of manufacturers of FDA-regulated products. He understands and appreciates the complex web of regulatory provisions governing such products and their intersection with litigation strategy. He has successfully represented food, drug, and supplement manufacturers in numerous false-advertising, consumer-protection, civil-RICO, and contractual suits, both as defendant and plaintiff.

In the IP arena, Mr. Knobler has litigated and settled numerous claims of copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and counterfeiting. He has represented major media companies, consumer-product manufacturers, not-for-profits, and individual artists. Mr. Knobler published one of the first major articles analyzing the copyright implications of Internet streaming and downloading, which has been cited in treatises and U.S. Supreme Court briefing.

Mr. Knobler also handles high-value appeals across many subject areas. Clients and colleagues recognize him as a clear and persuasive writer, able to distill complex factual records and cutting-edge legal issues into compelling appellate arguments. He has briefed and/or argued numerous appeals in both the state and federal systems, including in the U.S. Supreme Court and most federal Courts of Appeals.

Mr. Knobler’s honors include being named a “Rising Star” by the New York Law Journal, a “Future Star” by Benchmark Litigation, and one of the “Best LGBT Lawyers under 40” by the National LGBT Bar. His active pro bono practice focuses on voting rights and LGBTQ+ rights. 

From 2009 to 2010, Mr. Knobler served as a law clerk to the Honorable Danny J. Boggs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. From 2008 to 2009, Mr. Knobler served as a law clerk to the Honorable Frederic Block of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. In 2004, Mr. Knobler held a McCleary Law Fellowship at the Human Rights Campaign.

    Consumer Class Actions

    • Currently representing a major consumer-products manufacturer in its appellate defense of false-advertising claims involving the efficacy of water filtration systems.
    • Currently representing a leading infant-formula manufacturer in lawsuits alleging failure to disclose trace heavy metal content. Obtained summary judgment in the first suit prior to class certification; pursuing summary judgment in the second. Worked closely with expert toxicologists, economists, and survey designers.
    • Successfully defended a leading manufacturer of medical foods in a lawsuit alleging false advertising of a diabetic nutritional shake due to sucralose content. Obtained summary judgment prior to class certification and defending the judgment on appeal.
    • Successfully defended a major candy company against putative class actions alleging failure to disclose trace heavy metal content.
    • Successfully defended a company that runs a prominent petition-hosting website against a putative class action alleging improper use of user contributions, obtaining pleadings-stage dismissal of all claims.
    • Defended a major candy company in a series of putative class actions alleging that the client failed to disclose or indirectly benefited from alleged labor abuses in its indirect supply chain. Obtained pleadings-stage dismissal in all three suits and successfully defended all dismissals on appeal.
    • Represented a major beverage manufacturer in a putative class action alleging failure to disclose added flavorings and consequent violations of FDCA standards. Defeated certification of a damages class, resulting in favorable pretrial resolution.
    • Represented a leading supplement manufacturer in a putative class action asserting misleading labeling of a vitamin supplement. Defeated class certification, successfully opposed interlocutory appeal, then obtained summary judgment for client.
    • Represented a leading infant-formula manufacturer in a nationwide wave of class actions following a product recall. Obtained pleadings-stage dismissal, summary judgment, or other favorable resolution of all suits. Also defeated MDL centralization and repeatedly defeated class certification.
    • Obtained dismissal or other favorable resolution prior to class-certification stage of putative class actions involving “natural” claims, nutrient content claims, non-functional slack fill, and other asserted instances of food mislabeling and misbranding.

    Competitor False Advertising

    • Defended a major pet-food manufacturer against Lanham Act claims asserted by a competitor. Simultaneously litigated Lanham Act counterclaims against that competitor and novel third-party claims against its advertising agencies. Successfully defended a favorable class settlement of follow-on consumer claims from the attacks of professional objectors and obtained affirmance of the settlement on appeal.
    • Defended an enterprise-software company against Lanham Act claims asserted by a competitor. Simultaneously litigated counterclaims against that competitor, which led to a favorable out-of-court resolution. 
    • Defended a major medical-device manufacturer against Lanham Act claims asserted by a competing manufacturer of thyroid assays. Obtained a decision from the Ninth Circuit affirming the district court’s grant of summary judgment to our client.
    • Advise clients in a range of industries about potential false-advertising liability to competitors and vice versa.

    Civil RICO Litigation

    • Represented a global pharmaceutical company in successive civil-RICO actions alleging improper off-label marketing of a medication. Obtained pleadings-stage dismissal of the first suit; defeated class certification and obtained summary judgment in the second suit. Worked extensively with scientific, damages, and marketing experts. Successfully defended both judgments on appeal, resulting in a decision named among the year’s most important by Drug and Device Law.
    • Represented a major pharmaceutical company in a civil-RICO suit alleging price manipulation via improper donations to a patient-assistance fund. Obtained pleadings-stage dismissal via a novel statutory standing argument.
    • Represented a leading pharmaceutical manufacturer in a civil-RICO suit alleging concealment of side effects of an antibiotic medication. Obtained pleadings-stage dismissal.

    Other Appeals

    • Currently helping a leading medical-device company defend the dismissal of a False Claims Act suit alleging transport of products outside proper temperature ranges.
    • Successfully represented a global pharmaceutical company in its appeal of an adverse judgment in the high eight figures in a suit alleging breach of a joint development agreement.
    • Successfully represented a major manufacturing company in its appeal of an adverse judgment in an insurance-coverage suit. Obtained unanimous reversal of the trial court’s summary-judgment grant to the insurer and reinstatement of the client’s multimillion-dollar insurance claims.
    • Represented a major pharmaceutical company before a state supreme court in a product-liability case brought by a patient who took a generic version of the client’s drug. Persuaded the court to reject the “innovator liability” doctrine and hold that name-brand manufacturers cannot be held liable by consumers of generic analogues.
    • Represented a cosmetics company whose flagship product had been enjoined nationwide for purported violations of the FDCA and parallel state law. Obtained an appellate ruling narrowing the injunction to just one state, rather than all 50.
    • Represented a major manufacturer in its appeal of a New York trial court’s refusal to enforce a subpoena seeking research records from a plaintiffs’-side expert witness. Obtained a decision unanimously reversing and ordering production of the records.
    • Helped obtain a precedent-setting decision from New York’s Appellate Division reversing denial of summary judgment against our client in a personal-injury case involving allegedly contaminated talcum powder.
    • Represented a major beverage manufacturer before the highest court of the District of Columbia in a case asserting “greenwashing” claims.

    Intellectual Property

    • Currently representing a major pharmaceutical manufacturer in “gray goods” trademark case against entities that unlawfully import and dispense foreign versions of the manufacturer’s medications.
    • Represented a major consumer-product manufacturer in trademark litigation against dozens of parties who produced and sold counterfeit versions of the client’s product. Obtained a $20 million judgment against the counterfeiters and favorable settlements from numerous wholesalers who trafficked in the counterfeits.
    • Successfully represented the publisher of a leading academic reference work in copyright litigation against a foreign citizen selling an infringing “simplified” version of the work. Obtained takedown of the infringing work from online sales platforms and injunctive relief against further infringement.
    • Successfully represented a major news and financial-information company in copyright disputes against news-clipping and news-aggregator services. 

    Pro Bono

    • Currently serving as co-counsel to the plaintiffs, along with the ACLU of Florida, in First Amendment litigation against the City of Naples challenging its restrictions of our nonprofit client’s LGBTQ+ Pride festival.
    • Served as co-counsel to the plaintiffs in Rucho v. Common Cause, a lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s congressional map as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. Served as lead drafter of plaintiffs’ briefs and motions in the U.S. Supreme Court.
    • Served as co-counsel to the plaintiffs in voting-rights litigation challenging Florida’s congressional districts as racial gerrymanders.
    • Drafted and filed amicus briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of nonprofits, municipalities, officeholders, and private individuals in numerous cases including Bostock v. Clayton County (application of Title VII to LGBT employees), Obergefell v. Hodges (marriage equality), Gill v. Whitford (partisan gerrymandering), and Evenwel v. Abbott (“one person one vote”).

    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • U.S. Court of Appeals for the First, Second, Fourth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and Federal Circuits
    • U.S. District Court, Southern and Eastern Districts of New York
    • New York

    • Spanish

    HONORS:

    • Benchmark Litigation Future Star (2023-2026)
    • Benchmark Litigation Under 40 Hotlist (2017-2021)
    • Super Lawyers (2023-2025)
    • Super Lawyers Rising Star (2013-2020)
    • New York Law Journal Rising Star (2019)
    • Premier Appellate Lawyers (2021)
    • Common Cause Defender of Democracy (2019)
    • National LGBT Bar’s Best LGBT Lawyers Under 40 (2018)

    • Harvard Law School (J.D., cum laude, 2006)
    • Harvard University (B.A., cum laude, 2003)
      • Phi Beta Kappa