WESLEY CHAO is a managing associate in Sidley’s San Francisco office. As a member of the firm’s Products Liability Litigation group, he leverages his training in pharmacology and biological sciences to advise clients on key issues such as the development of case strategies and factual narratives, preparation of witnesses and experts, and resolution of complex discovery disputes. In addition to products liability, Wesley also represents and counsels clients in a wide range of matters, including regulatory and white-collar investigations, breach of contract disputes, and employment matters. Wesley has represented clients at all stages of litigation, including in-person and remote trial proceedings, as well as mediation and arbitration. Representative experiences include:
- Defending a series of product liability actions in state and federal courts involving challenges to a life-saving medication, including failure to warn, fraud, and design defect claims;
- Defending a consumer class action case alleging fraudulent sale and marketing of purportedly unsafe medications, resulting in alleged overpayment by consumers who do not claim physical injuries;
- Managing internal and outside discovery teams on behalf of a biopharmaceutical company in preliminary injunction proceedings regarding patent infringement by generic market entrants;
- Conducting an internal investigation and forensic accounting analysis regarding fraudulent conspiracies by a former employee of a public retail company and his co-conspirators, resulting in a referral to government prosecutors and multiple grand jury indictments;
- Investigating and providing recommendations on a video streaming platform’s business practices amidst demands by a purported whistleblower employee;
- Advising a nonprofit corporation through negotiated separation from its parent organization in the context of an attempted hostile takeover.
Wesley is actively involved in the firm’s pro bono practice. He is a member of the San Francisco office’s diversity committee and diverse associates’ committee, and associate representative to the recruiting committee.
Wesley earned his J.D. from UC Berkeley, where he was a member of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association and the Workers’ Rights Clinic. He was also an articles and essays editor for the California Law Review and editor-in-chief of the Asian American Law Journal. While in law school, he served as a law clerk for the California Attorney General’s Office in the Antitrust Section. Before attending law school, Wesley earned an M.S. in Pharmacology from Weill Cornell Graduate School and a B.S. in Biology from Cornell University.