Joseph G. Eaton

Joseph G. Eaton is a partner in the Indianapolis office of Barnes & Thornburg and co-chair of the firm's Toxic Tort Practice Group.

Product Liability: Toxic Tort, Chemical Product Liability and Environmental Litigation

Joseph has represented clients in litigated matters throughout the United States involving chemical product liability actions, including plaintiffs' personal injury and property damage litigation relating to alleged toxic products. He presently assists several national defense counsel teams representing industrial, chemical and pesticide manufacturers in toxic tort and chemical product liability claims across the country. He also assists other clients in chemical product liability actions, in which capacity he has litigated in more than 35 state and federal courts. His court appearances include challenges to expert testimony and Daubert and Frye hearings.

Joseph also represents clients in environmental exposure and contamination matters, including cases arising under federal and state environmental statutes.

Joseph regularly advises clients regarding recent developments involving the exclusion of expert witnesses under state and federal standards. Joseph is a frequent speaker at local and national seminars on issues relating to expert witnesses and is currently on the advisory board of the Bureau of National Affairs' Expert Evidence Report.

Product Liability: Medical Device and Pharmaceutical Litigation

Joseph also devotes his practice to the defense of medical device product liability personal injury actions. He assists on a team as national coordinating counsel team for a major Indiana-based medical device manufacturer and, as such, works extensively with expert witnesses on cases throughout the United States. Joseph's experience also includes coordinating and managing litigation involving surgical instruments, shoulder, ankle, spine, knee and hip products. In 2015, Joseph obtained a defense verdict for a medical device manufacturer after a six day jury trial in a product liability matter pending in New Jersey state court.

He also has extensive experience litigating product liability matters involving pharmaceutical products including consolidated litigation involving a prescription antibiotic.

Since 2008, he has been included in The Best Lawyers in America in the field of product liability litigation and is also included on the Indiana Super Lawyers list. Joseph has also been listed as a Recognized Practitioner in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers in Business since 2016.

Complex Commercial Litigation, Class Actions and False Claims Act

Joseph has also represented industrial, chemical and medical device manufacturers as well as release of information providers in complex commercial litigation, UCC litigation and class action litigation. He also has experience in defending military/government contractors and related aerospace industries in matters involving qui tam litigation and the False Claims Act.

He is admitted to practice in the state of Indiana, United States District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of Indiana, and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fourth, Seventh, Eighth and Eleventh Circuits.

Joseph received his B.S. from Butler University in 1988 and his J.D., cum laude, from Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in 1991, where he served as associate editor of the Indiana Law Review. Joseph previously served as president of the Butler University Alumni Board of Directors and a member of the ButlerRising Capital Campaign Cabinet. He is very active in his community formerly serving on the board of directors of the Hamilton Southeastern Schools Education Foundation for eight years and subsequently as chair of the Foundation Advisory Council. He currently serves as President of TigerONE, a non-profit organization, and serves on the Board of Directors of Launch Fishers.