Sandra L. Phillips

Partner

Sandra L. Phillips is a partner in Morgan Lewis's Litigation Practice. Ms. Phillips focuses her practice on mass tort, pharmaceutical, and complex litigation management and strategy. She has handled a broad range of matters such as product liability, consumer fraud, class actions, securities, false advertising, trademark, breach of contract, environmental, and employment litigation.

Ms. Phillips has significant experience representing clients in managing and coordinating bet-the-company litigation, implementing litigation trial and resolution strategies, managing public relations efforts, designing virtual law firms, navigating crisis management issues, and coordinating budget management. Most recently, she assisted a global automotive industry client to manage and coordinate multi-faceted litigation involving product liability, class action consumer fraud, securities and government investigations. She is Texas trial counsel for several major life sciences companies, and has represented oil and gas companies in commercial and personal injury litigation matters.

Prior to joining Morgan Lewis, Ms. Phillips held several positions at Pfizer Inc. and was most recently a senior vice president and associate general counsel. As Pfizer's chief litigation counsel, Ms. Phillips was responsible for setting and executing legal strategies for the company's global product litigation matters as well as its environmental litigation. She was a leader in effectively managing litigation by using innovative risk mitigation strategies and developing the company's outside counsel partnering program, which resulted in more efficient and cost-effective case management. Ms. Phillips was also a member of Pfizer's senior management team and legal division leadership team, and she provided strategic advice and counsel to various businesses within the company. Prior to Pfizer, Ms. Philips was in private practice in Houston, where she served as both coordinating and trial counsel in mass tort litigation representing Fortune 500 companies.

Ms. Phillips received her J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1991, where she was editor in chief and articles editor for the National Black Law Journal. She received her Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin in 1988.

Ms. Phillips is active in several professional and community organizations. She has held leadership positions with the Houston Bar Association and is a former board member of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association. Some of Ms. Phillips's professional memberships include the Women's Forum Inc., the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel, the National Association of Women Lawyers, the Defense Research Institute, the American Bar Association, and the International Association of Defense and Corporate Counsel. She was actively involved in diversity programs and initiatives in private practice and at Pfizer, and provides diversity consulting as a part of her regular practice. Ms. Phillips is also a frequent speaker on pharmaceutical litigation, complex litigation management, client service, innovative fee arrangements, and diversity matters.

Ms. Phillips is admitted to practice in Texas and New York and before the U.S. Supreme Court; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit; and the U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Eastern, Western, and Northern Districts of Texas.