Erica Lai manages a wide range of commercial litigation and arbitration matters for Northrop Grumman, including class actions, the False Claims Act, environmental litigation, insurance coverage, and complex commercial disputes.  Prior to moving in-house, she practiced at Covington & Burling LLP and Cohen & Gresser LLP, focusing on antitrust, class actions, and white collar defense.  She has counseled corporate and governmental clients litigating at all levels of federal and state trial and appellate courts, and federal agency proceedings. Erica’s broad litigation experience includes price-fixing and attempted monopolization claims under the Sherman Act, commercial contractual disputes in the financial services, utility, and railroad industries, and False Claims Act and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act defense. She has litigated cases in areas including environmental remediation, financial services, health care services and benefits, longshore labor, public utilities, and transportation. In 2020, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) recognized Erica with its Best Under 40 Award. Super Lawyers named Erica as a Rising Star for antitrust litigation in Washington, D.C. from 2019 to 2021.

Erica has extensive pro bono experience in cases involving immigration issues, civil rights, and reproductive justice before federal district courts and courts of appeal, and advocacy to the U.S. Department of Justice.   Erica’s prior advocacy extended beyond litigation to advising clients on proposed legislation, bills before Congress, government relations initiatives, and congressional investigations, including helping secure congressional resolutions acknowledging the injustice of the Chinese exclusion laws.

Erica clerked for the Honorable John M. Walker, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the Honorable Michael M. Baylson of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. In 2008, she served as a Law Clerk for the United States Senate Judiciary Committee.

Erica graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was on the Editorial Board of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. She also has a Public Policy Analysis Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, from Pomona College.