Marcelo M. Bonassa handles complex commercial litigation, white collar defense, and appeals.
Prior to joining Hueston Hennigan, Mr. Bonassa served as a law clerk to the Hon. Sandra Lynch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. He was also previously a litigation associate at Covington & Burling.
While in law school, Mr. Bonassa served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review and received a Dean’s Scholar Prize in several subjects. He was a summer intern in the Securities Fraud Division of the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office. Before going to law school, he worked as a consultant evaluating the adequacy of banks’ capital and risk management systems for Federal Reserve stress-testing purposes.
Mr. Bonassa speaks native-level Portuguese, fluent Spanish and French, and basic Italian.
Experience
Representing AbbVie, a defendant in the multibillion-dollar Allergan textured breast implant litigation, which involves approximately 1,700 individual lawsuits and a nationwide class action in four venues including multidistrict litigation in the District of New Jersey. The plaintiffs contend AbbVie’s BIOCELL® textured breast implants cause a rare type of cancer, and they argue AbbVie is liable under manufacturing defect, failure to warn, and misrepresentation theories. Secured a victory when a Los Angeles Superior Court judge granted in full the firm’s motions for summary judgment in two of the bellwether cases. The orders, which are the first two bellwether summary judgment rulings in any court in these cases, vacated all bellwether trials in Los Angeles Superior Court and have implications across the litigation. (See “Hueston Hennigan wins Allergan bellwether summary judgments,” Daily Journal).
Representing Fortune 500 insurer Genworth Financial Inc. in a putative class action in Delaware Chancery Court in which plaintiffs seek, among other relief, rescission of a major corporate transaction involving Genworth’s long-term care insurance business.
Representing Southern California Edison in litigation related to the 2020 Silverado Fire and the 2022 Fairview Fire.
Recognitions
- Most Promising Newcomer, New York Law Journal (finalist) (2025)