Product Liability & Mass Torts

Primary contacts

Brady Edwards, Paul A. Zevnik, David L. Schrader, John P. Lavelle, Jr., Nagwa Hultquist, Yardena R. Zwang-Weissman

Morgan Lewis has a long-standing, nationally recognized product liability and mass torts practice. Our team handles mass torts, individual lawsuits, and class actions, as well as multidistrict litigation. Our lawyers were the original thought leaders in asbestos-related bodily injury and property damage litigation, which has led to the development of current US product liability and toxic tort law. We often serve as national coordinating and trial counsel on product liability cases, and as lead counsel on mass, multidefendant toxic tort cases, including community exposure cases. We defend claims in the most challenging jurisdictions, opposing leading plaintiff trial firms. Our lawyers are leaders in effectively managing litigation by using innovative risk mitigation strategies and litigation metrics analysis to deliver effective and cost-efficient results.

We act as both national and local counsel, leveraging our broad geographic footprint in product liability and toxic tort defense. Working with economic, damages, and scientific experts, Morgan Lewis’s product liability team assesses the initial risks and develops a strategy for each client. Our team has experience operating in different models of national counsel, allowing us to work seamlessly with other defense counsel across the United States.

Our product liability and mass tort lawyers routinely draw on the resources of colleagues working in our life sciences, environmental, regulatory, corporate investigations, tax, and insurance recovery practices. These cross-disciplinary teams of product liability litigators, trial lawyers, and class action lawyers handle specific regulatory and coverage matters, defend against parallel government investigations, and provide strategic risk management advice.

TRIAL LAWYERS & APPELLATE ADVOCATES

First and foremost, we are trial lawyers. We also have exceptionally strong appellate advocates. And we have innovative and effective settlement counsel, with deep knowledge of and experience with qualified settlement funds, structured settlement techniques, insurance, and the tax implications of settlements. Our lawyers conduct arbitrations, mediations, and other forms of alternative dispute resolution. Our skills, knowledge, and commitment—as well as our ability to deliver effective, long-term solutions for clients—set a standard of excellence that defines our service model.

We have developed critical systems and efficiencies to manage large, complex litigation. As trial lawyers, we set the standard for the use of technology and multimedia in the courtroom. We know what it takes to try a high-profile, complex case to verdict. Our willingness to try a case when it is in our client’s interest, and our success record at trial, give us a strategic advantage when we negotiate settlements. We repeatedly are hired to serve as national trial counsel and national coordinating counsel for significant class actions. Because we have tried cases in more than two dozen jurisdictions, we have experience and insights into the jurisdictions relevant in mass tort litigation.

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Asbestos Litigation

Morgan Lewis has one of the preeminent asbestos litigation practices in the country, serving as the primary legal advisor, national counsel, regional counsel or trial counsel to dozens of companies facing asbestos liabilities. We have tried more than half the property damage cases ever tried and participated in more than 100 asbestos personal injury trials in a dozen states. Our lawyers have recovered more than $10 billion in insurance proceeds to pay for asbestos-related losses for our clients, and we regularly advise on the creation of qualified settlement funds, captive insurers, and other means of protecting against asbestos liabilities. Our broad geographic footprint permits us to handle claims all over the country; however, as requested or as beneficial, we can seamlessly partner with other firms. We are called upon most frequently to negotiate with our clients’ adversaries where the trial and/or discovery risks are steep and satisfactory resolution is elusive.

Media Management

High-profile, large, complex litigation poses many challenges to a business. It can potentially inflict significant financial damage on a company and can devastate an industry. Our lawyers have a sharp business perspective and can manage the sensitive external publicity and media relations, while also minimizing the impact on business operations. Working closely with our clients and, as appropriate, public relations consultants, we have successfully limited unfavorable media coverage, sometimes even using publicity to benefit our clients. With experience dealing with grass-roots organizations, town hall meetings, and the press, we often can control or diminish adverse publicity and local antagonism otherwise focused on our clients.

Pharmaceutical & Medical Device

Our product liability team has a command of the unique regulatory and legal issues facing pharmaceutical and medical device companies. We advise clients on product safety recalls, regulatory inquiries, and litigation. Our lawyers have been at the forefront of the rapidly developing law in this area, including having successfully defended numerous cases on the basis of federal preemption that established important precedents in key jurisdictions. In addition, we regularly counsel pharmaceutical and medical device companies on strategies to prevent and reduce exposure and risk, including conducting audits of labeling and marketing materials to ensure compliance with relevant statutes.

We frequently serve as trial and national coordinating counsel to pharmaceutical and medical device companies in large-scale serial litigation and mass torts, with a deep background in multidistrict litigation (MDL). Our clients look to us to defend high-profile cases in difficult jurisdictions and to craft creative solutions that reach beyond the usual playbook to provide effective, efficient defenses.

Our product liability lawyers collaborate with their colleagues on our white collar, government investigations, and FDA teams to provide comprehensive, closely coordinated approaches. We pride ourselves on our culture of working with others to maximize the success of our client-focused defenses. Where it benefits our client, we partner with other leading law firms as part of a virtual team to bring additional strategic resources to bear. We also collaborate with our eData team to deliver innovation and efficiency across the discovery and information governance challenges our clients face, and our insurance team, which acts to realize our clients’ broad goals of asset protection and recovery, including tax minimization or deferral from insurance recoveries.

Toxic Torts

We have acted as lead counsel for major defendants in almost every variety of toxic tort litigation including Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE), welding rod, asbestos, benzene, silica, and groundwater contamination matters. Our lawyers have successfully litigated cases involving all commonly alleged paths of exposure, including releases to soil, groundwater, and air, as well as exposure through workplace and industrial products and processes.

When clients hire Morgan Lewis’s toxic tort lawyers, they benefit from:

A national network of top scientific, medical, and economic experts in oncology, teratology, epidemiology, toxicology, potable water distribution, contaminant fate and transport of substances of concern, geology, and hydrogeology, among others
Knowledge of specific alleged toxins and chemicals, and a background in defending bodily injury exposure and environmental matters involving myriad alleged toxins and chemicals
Cutting-edge case management and trial technology, including a web-based court calendaring system, as well as computer global positioning systems (GPSs) for mapping plaintiffs' residences, water distribution systems, groundwater aquifers, and plumes