Alycia A. Degen

• Appointed as Defendants’ lead and liaison counsel in California JCCPs involving large product liability and mass tort litigations.
• Serve as national and regional counsel to life sciences companies in product liability and consumer fraud litigation involving pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and over-the-counter drugs.
• Obtained dismissal, on grounds of federal preemption, of claims against the manufacturer of a premarket approved medical device.
• Advise emerging consumer products companies on product liability and consumer fraud risk management.
• Advise clients on products liability and consumer fraud due diligence for anticipated IPOs and acquisitions of consumer products, pharmaceutical development, and vehicle companies.
• Represented a pharmaceutical company in the damages phase of a Hatch-Waxman patent infringement lawsuit in which Sidley obtained a US$104 million judgment following a three-week bench trial, of which more than US$98 million was affirmed on appeal by the Federal Circuit.
• Represented a cosmetics company in a putative class action alleging false advertising and improper drug classification. The U.S. District Court granted summary judgment for the defendant and held that the plaintiff’s claims were preempted because the plaintiff was improperly attempting to privately enforce the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
• Obtained dismissal, summary judgment, and denial of class certification in a series of putative nationwide and statewide class actions against a pharmaceutical company involving the alleged false advertising of a prescription drug.
• Obtained dismissal on grounds of federal preemption of a class action challenging the marketing of over-the-counter cough and cold medicines.
• Obtained summary judgment in a putative class action challenging the labeling and advertising of probiotic products.

Alycia maintains an active pro bono practice. She is co-leading the Sidley team that received the ACLU of Southern California’s, 2019, “Immigrant Justice Award” for their work on Ramos v. Nielsen, 336 F. Supp. 3d 1076 (N.D. Cal. 2018). The team obtained a preliminary injunction blocking termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a humanitarian program that allows immigrants to live and work in the U.S. until conditions in their countries of origin make it safe to return. In this matter, a federal district court found substantial evidence that the Department of Homeland Security improperly changed the criteria for TPS in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. The decision preserved immigration status and work authorization for over 300,000 nationals of El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Sudan, many of whom have lived lawfully in the U.S. for decades. The ruling also protected approximately 200,000 U.S. citizen children who faced an impossible choice between remaining in the U.S. without their parents and relocating to countries they have never known. The case is on appeal by the government to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Alycia also represented the First Amendment Coalition of Arizona and seven death row prisoners in a case challenging the constitutionality of the State of Arizona’s lethal injection procedures. The Sidley team prevailed in an appeal and obtained a groundbreaking opinion in September 2019, holding that the First Amendment right to view an execution also “encompasses a right to hear the sounds of executions in their entirety,” that Arizona’s restrictions on press and public access to such sounds impermissibly burden that right, and that “Arizona does not have a legitimate penological interest in hampering efforts to ensure the constitutionality of its executions.” As part of a settlement agreement, Arizona also became the only state in the U.S. to ban the use of a controversial sedative and all paralytic drugs in its lethal injections. The National Law Journal 2020 highlighted the victory in naming Sidley as a finalist to its “Pro Bono Hot List.” The team successfully capped nearly six years of work after U.S. District Court Judge Neil V. Wake entered a dismissal with prejudice on June 26, 2020.

Alycia also was part of the team representing three death row prisoners before the U.S. Supreme Court in Glossip v. Gross, 135 S. Ct. 2726 (2015), addressing whether Oklahoma’s proposed method of execution was cruel and unusual under the Eighth Amendment.

Alycia also worked with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on matters concerning the increasing prevalence of pro se litigants in the district.

Alycia was honored with the 2019 ACLU Foundation of Southern California’s “Immigrant Justice Award” and the 2005 ACLU Foundation of Southern California’s “Criminal Justice Award.”

Alycia serves on the firm’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee, and previously was a firmwide co-chair of the Evaluation and Compensation of Associates Committee.

Her memberships in professional organizations include: Defense Research Institute, Association of Business Trial Lawyers, Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, and Lesbian and Gay Lawyers Association of Los Angeles.