Jessica Huang Fuzellier

Jessica is an associate in the firm’s Complex Litigation & Dispute Resolution practice. Jessica focuses her practice on commercial litigation and white collar defense and has represented companies and individuals in a broad range of complex, high-stakes state and federal litigation, including at trial. Jessica has experience prosecuting and defending clients in a variety of disputes. She advises cannabis industry clients regarding federal and state cannabis regulatory regimes and represents them in litigation. She advises digital currency and blockchain companies in responding to government investigations. She has also advised and represented financial institutions and services on litigation related to and arising under the Truth in Lending Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act, and Electronic Fund Transfer Act.

Some of Jessica’s representations include:

Financial Services

• Represents financial institution in federal class actions relating to EFTA
• Represents consumer reporting agency in FCRA litigation

Cannabis

• Defended retailer against civil RICO class action against manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of delta-8 hemp-derived vape products, resulting in dismissal with prejudice
• Counsel to edibles company in intellectual property litigation involving claims of trademark infringement
• Counsel to cannabis grower and retailer in litigation with a former distributor
• Advised wholesale marketplace on state-by-state legality of ingestible CBD products
• Advised beverage company on federal and state regulation of hemp-derived THC beverage products

Cryptocurrency and FinTech

• Represented crypto financial institution in responding to multi-year investigations brought by both the SEC and CFTC, resulting in no action taken
• Represented crypto financial institution in responding to a John Doe Summons filed in federal court by the IRS

Complex Civil and Criminal Litigation

• Trial counsel for medical doctor criminally charged with receiving Medicare kickbacks, resulting in a hung jury with the majority favoring acquittal and the government dismissing the case rather than proceeding to retrial
• Represents former engineer criminally charged with theft of AI trade secrets and economic espionage involving China
• Defended individual in a high-profile founders’ dispute in breach of contract case

Jessica regularly contributes to thought leadership on topics in the cannabis and hemp industries and has previously contributed to Goodwin’s Securities Snapshot, a biweekly newsletter highlighting news from the civil and criminal securities law arenas.

Jessica also maintains and is committed to an active pro bono practice. Recent representations include working with the ACLU in representing a nonprofit challenging a state’s ban on Medicaid coverage for abortion care. She previously represented incarcerated individuals in Louisiana convicted by Jim Crow juries in seeking post-conviction relief, resulting in one client’s release from prison after serving 17 years. Jessica has also worked with the ABA Military Pro Bono Project (assisting an active duty servicemember with transfer of real property), API Legal Outreach’s naturalization and citizenship legal clinics, the Public Counsel Adoptions Project (helping finalize a family’s adoption application), and the Last Prisoner Project (seeking compassionate release for an individual convicted of conspiracy to distribute cannabis).

Prior to joining Goodwin, Jessica was a Legal Research Attorney to the Honorable Curtis E.A. Karnow in one of two dedicated Complex Litigation departments at the Superior Court of California for the city and county of San Francisco.

During law school, Jessica externed for Justice Goodwin Liu of the California Supreme Court, and Judge William H. Orrick III of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. She also served as a law clerk for the Tort and Condemnation Section of the California Department of Justice in San Francisco. In law school, she was a two-time student delegate to Haiti with the Hastings-to-Haiti Partnership, a collaboration between UC Hastings College of the Law (now UC Law SF) and the École Supérieure Catholique de Droit de Jérémie.

Jessica comes from a health sciences background. Prior to pivoting to a career in litigation, she worked as a legislative researcher at the Office of National Drug Control Policy in Washington, DC, and with the community grants program of the Susan G. Komen organization in Los Angeles County, including successfully lobbying for funding for early cancer detection services.

Jessica is a member of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association. She previously sat on the Board of Directors of the legal nonprofit Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach (APILO) from 2020 to 2024 and was Chair of its Personnel Committee. She was also previously a member of the Professional Network for Human Rights, the volunteer arm of the Center for Justice and Accountability.

• Best Lawyers in America 2025, Ones to Watch for Commercial Litigation
• Best Lawyers in America 2024, Ones to Watch for Commercial Litigation

• Co-Author, “6 Cannabis Industry Legal Cases, Policy Reforms and Trends to Watch in 2025,” Cannabis Business Times, January 7, 2025
• Co-Author, “A Legal Tug of War on Hemp-Derived Cannabinoid Regulations,” Cannabis Business Times, October 22, 2024
• Co-Author, “Moving the Goalposts: State Regulation of Hemp-Derived Cannabinoids,” Cannabis Business Times, August 2, 2024
• Co-Author, “California Supreme Court Review: October 2023,” Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal, November 20, 2023
• Co-Author, “California Supreme Court Review: July 2023,” Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal, August 3, 2023
• Co-Author, “California Supreme Court Review: March 2023,” Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal, April 13, 2023