Claims against former Purdue Pharma consulting firm McKinsey & Co. are set to be combined in the Northern District of California but will remain separate from the opioid-related multidistrict litigation already pending in the Northern District of Ohio.

The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation determined Monday that although there’s enough the various lawsuits filed against McKinsey have in common to warrant joining them together and the two sets of cases are also likely to have significant factual overlap, McKinsey, with Stroock & Stroock & Lavan partner James L. Bernard as lead counsel, would be at an unfair disadvantage joining the Northern District of Ohio matter three and a half years in.