Find Lawyers in America for Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions - Defendants
Select a location from the list below to find the best legal talent for your needs.
State
Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions - Defendants - America
About this Practice AreaMr. Alford represents public utilities and other clients in a variety of matters, including commercial and tort litigation, regulatory proceedings, and contract and property issues. Representative cases include construction disputes, securities actions, antitrust and unfair trade practice claims, medical licensing, and consumer litigation. Mr. Alford also counsels clients concerning regulatory compliance, employment, and general business issues. Mr. Alford graduated from Louisiana State Unive...
David Allen practices in litigation in a variety of industries. He has been trying lawsuits for more than 30 years with close to 100 juries empaneled during that time. He regularly represents pharmaceutical and medical device companies, manufacturing and chemical companies, local governments, physicians and hospitals, and corporations in complex business litigation in federal and state courts throughout the region. Mr. Allen also represents excess carriers on high value matters, both actively...
Clients trust Lee Ann to guide them through complex environmental litigation. She frequently serves as managing counsel for large corporations and develops and implements litigation strategy at every level. She concentrates her practice on complex civil litigation, with a focus on toxic tort, product liability, and environmental matters. Lee Ann has experience with every phase of the litigation process, including pre-trial case investigation and evaluation, taking and defending critical fact ...
Doug Arnold is Co-Chair of the firm’s Environment, Land Use & Natural Resources Group. He has over 20 years of experience representing clients in environmental litigation, enforcement, and compliance matters. Doug also has client relationship responsibility for Electrolux North America, as well as for the firm’s environmental work for United Parcel Service, Inc. Doug is listed in Chambers USA , The Best Lawyers in America , and The International Who's Who of Environmental Lawy...
John Aromando is Chair of Pierce Atwood's Litigation Practice Group. A firm partner with more than 30 years of diverse trial practice experience, John currently focuses on the defense of businesses in complex commercial litigation. John represents clients from a number of different industries including financial services, energy, pulp and paper, manufacturing, insurance, and professional services. He has defended clients in a number of class action lawsuits, in Maine and in several other stat...
Barbara Arras represents defendants in toxic tort litigation primarily involving pulmonary diseases allegedly caused by asbestos and other pulmonary irritants and hematopoietic diseases allegedly caused by benzene. She is responsible for the medical defense in each case. Specifically, she analyzes the facts to formulate a theory of defense and identifies the correct scientific discipline needed to advance that theory. She then identifies and retains the best expert in that discipline from her...
David Ayers was admitted to the Mississippi Bar in 1983 and is admitted to all state and federal courts in Mississippi and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He also has handled cases in a number of other states under pro hac vice privileges. David's experience includes commercial litigation, premises litigation and general personal injury litigation, with an emphasis on automotive, heavy equipment, industrial equipment and recreational product litigation. His cases of ...
Mike Baker began his practice in 1977 in Strong Pipkin’s Beaumont office. Over those years of practice, he handled or tried to conclusion all types of personal injury litigation: worker's compensation, vehicular collision, industrial, retail or commercial premises liability, railroad crossing accidents, FELA, Jones Act, general maritime and offshore rig accidents, and 42 USCA 1983 actions defending local governmental units involving civil rights violations, and/or work place discriminat...
Tammy L. Baker is Managing Shareholder of the Birmingham, Alabama office of Jackson Lewis P.C. Ms. Baker has experience in all aspects of workplace law, including multi-plaintiff and class action litigation. She regularly advises employers on complex issues, including compliance with the FMLA and other employment laws. She obtained her law degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Alabama School of Law and her undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Alabama at Birm...
Joseph G. Baladi was admitted to the Missouri Bar in 2000 and the Mississippi Bar in 2001. Since joining Watkins & Eager, Joe's experience has included numerous pharmaceutical litigations, medical malpractice bench and jury trials, and product liability trials. Joe's involved in several professional organizations and serves as co-chair of Watkins & Eager's Mass Tort and Repetitive Exposure practice group. Joe regularly speaks and presents on the subjects of science at trial, Daubert i...
John Beisner is the leader of Skadden’s Mass Torts, Insurance and Consumer Litigation Group. He focuses on the defense of purported class actions, mass tort matters and other complex civil litigation in both federal and state courts. He also regularly handles appellate litigations and has appeared in matters before the U.S. Supreme Court. Over the past 25 years, he has defended major U.S. and international corporations in more than 600 purported class actions filed in federal courts and...
Lewis W. Bell was admitted to the Mississippi Bar in 1987. His experience spans from general product liability, general personal injury litigation, and premises litigation to commercial and franchise litigation. His cases of note include Rials v. Philip Morris, USA Inc., et al. 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12420, February 21, 2007; Rawls v. Friedman's Inc., 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21333, June 27, 2003; Everett v. Friedman's Inc., 2005 U.S. Dist LEXIS 23345, August 12, 2005; Allen v. Tyson Foods, Inc.,...
Guides the strategic direction of the firm as managing partner. Twenty-five years of litigation experience. Develops innovative and practical solutions to solve complex problems. As Brownstein’s managing partner and a member of its executive committee, Rich works closely with clients, attorneys, policy advisors, staff and industry and community leaders to drive the firm’s strategic growth and development. From leading new ways to enhance client value to building and retaining a di...
David Bernick is a partner in the Chicago and New York offices of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He is a nationally renowned trial lawyer and strategist, having acted as lead trial counsel for major U.S. and international corporations in the chemical, tobacco, technology and life sciences industries for 40 years. His experience spans complex class action and other aggregated litigation, mass torts and product liability, antitrust and competition, business restructuring and reorganization, mergers ...
Thomas A. Bickers graduated with honors in 1984 from Middle Tennessee State University. He graduated with high honors from The University of Tennessee College Of Law in 1987. Following law school, he served as law clerk to the Honorable H. Ted Milburn of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. In 1993, Tom was appointed by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee to serve as a member of the advisory group tasked with revising the Court’s l...
David Biderman, a partner in Perkins Coie's San Francisco and Los Angeles offices, focuses his practice on mass tort litigation and consumer class actions. He heads the firm's Mass Tort/Toxic Tort Defense group. He has represented a wide variety of companies in state and federal courts in California for 30 years. David currently manages the firm’s full-service product liability team responsible for defending over 1000 toxic tort cases pending in Los Angeles and Northern California state...
Paul Bolus has been representing insurance company clients for more than 20 years, litigating and managing more than 200 cases in federal and state venues across the country. Paul has taken on multi-million dollar cases, including class action lawsuits, regularly representing insurance companies in litigation dealing with: health insurance including major medical, indemnity, specified disease, cancer, heart, stroke and disability, life insurance, long term care insurance, securities, annuitie...
Kane is particularly active in the public education sector, where he has represented both public universities and boards of education on tax and finance matters, and he currently serves on the faculty of the University of Alabama's academy for finance training for new school superintendents and chief school financial officers. In addition to bond counsel engagements, he has served as company counsel and bank counsel in letter-of-credit backed transactions, as lender’s counsel in direct ...
Walter represents a variety of individual and corporate clients in large, complex commercial litigation, arbitration, and personal injury litigation. Walter's primary area of expertise lies in the litigation of disputes in the federal and state courts of Mississippi, where he regularly tries cases to verdict. Specialties: Commercial litigation; catastrophic personal injury litigation; insurance coverage and defense.
A Denver native, Mr. Brooks’s practice concentrates on trial and appellate litigation in the areas of insurance bad faith defense, product liability, mass torts, insurance coverage, and construction defects. Mr. Brooks has been active in complex civil litigation on both the trial and appellate levels, particularly in product liability and insurance cases. His insurance practice concentrates on the representation of insurers in complex coverage and extra-contractual litigation arising ou...
Liz Broadway Brown is a business and commercial litigator who concentrates her practice on the defense of high-stakes class action and privacy litigation matters, primarily in the health care, technology, and financial services industries. Liz has significant experience litigating complex disputes in trial and appellate courts across the county. She has defended matters involving the Fair Credit Reporting Act, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Electronic Communications Privacy Act, ERISA, R...
Carol Browning is an accomplished trial attorney who has tried more than 35 cases to jury verdict in multiple jurisdictions. She is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Her practice includes drug and medical device litigation, products liability and medical malpractice defense. She also serves as counsel to physicians and hospitals. Ms. Browning serves as national or state counsel for multiple drug, medical device and product manufacturers and is involved in multi-district litig...
Mike Brown is the head of the Real Estate Litigation Team at the firm. Mike is a member of the firm’s Environmental and Toxic Tort Practice Group and the General Litigation Practice Group. Mike’s emphasis in both practice groups is on real property and land use matters. Because of this emphasis in his practice, Mike also works very closely with the Real Estate Group. For the past several years, Mike has served as an adjunct Professor at the University of Alabama School of Law wher...
Robert Burlington is Managing Member and co-founder of the firm. In his more than 35 years of practice, he has litigated and tried to completion a wide variety of jury and non-jury trials in state and federal courts. He has served as lead counsel in multiple arbitrations. These cases include business torts, commercial and real estate contract disputes, securities transactions, class actions, as well as many aspects of state and federal employment litigation. He has built his practice by assis...
Jim Campbell focuses his practice on civil litigation and the defense of catastrophic product liability, toxic tort, medical device, pharmaceutical, professional liability, and negligence matters throughout the United States. Jim is President of Campbell Campbell Edwards & Conroy, and has been with the firm his entire career. With a passion for trial practice, Jim has earned his place as a go-to attorney for clients with high-stakes cases. He has tried more than 100 cases in 15 states and...
Known both as a gifted leader and a consummate team player, Joe Cancila is a highly regarded, experienced, and tenacious litigator who has dedicated his career to defending clients in complex commercial class actions. He is a creative strategist, thorough investigator, and effective communicator—all qualities that make him a worthy adversary in and out of the courtroom. And as the leader of many practice teams, he has mastered the art of working collaboratively with co-counsel to best a...
Thomas Casey is a partner in the Litigation Practice Group. He has a wide-ranging commercial litigation practice covering matters in both court and arbitration, including numerous class action cases. Tom maintains a broad business and commercial litigation practice, handling disputes in court and arbitration. He has represented a variety of clients in the manufacturing, insurance, financial, and healthcare industries. Tom has also handled more than 50 class action cases in multiple states on ...
Since joining Rushton Stakely in 1996, Mr. Chapman’s practice has focused on the litigation and trial of complex matters including claims of medical malpractice, products liability, fraud, hospital medical staff issues, and toxic torts. Mr. Chapman has successfully defended individual and corporate healthcare providers as well as manufacturers, insurance companies, and other corporate entities. He has significant experience trying complex and high-exposure matters in various state and f...
E. B. (Chip) Chiles IV is a Managing Member of Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull PLLC. Mr. Chiles focuses on business-related dispute resolution, including trial and appellate practice in state and federal courts. His most recent jury-trial successes include defending a convenience-store owner/operator against a former employee’s allegations of malicious prosecution and securing judgment for a family-owned business against two former employees and their new employer on a variety of contrac...
Mr. Christ is an experienced litigator and serves as Phillips Lytle’s Litigation Practice Group Leader. He has significant experience in the defense of personal injury, products liability, workplace accident, wrongful death and construction claims, as well as insurance coverage and commercial litigation, including contract disputes and business torts.
Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions - Defendants Definition
Class actions and mass tort litigation typically arise from a single episode or related events that allegedly injure a “mass” of individuals and/or their property. The number of claimants may range from a few dozen to many thousands. The volume of plaintiffs and complexity of claims and issues dictate special judicial management and require experienced defense counsel. In mass tort litigation, global issues that affect all claimants may be consolidated, especially in federal courts. Cases may be aggregated in federal multi-district litigation (“MDLs”) for coordination of pretrial proceedings, in which questions of fact common to all plaintiffs, key legal issues, and discovery may be handled on a global basis. Following the determination of fact issues, plaintiffs’ unique claims often are tried independently. The Court may order trials of the claims of certain plaintiffs in mass tort litigation as test, or “bellwether,” cases. Bellwether cases may provide the courts with guidance on the related claims’ suitability for group development and litigation. State court consolidation and management vary widely. With class actions, the class of plaintiffs may be voluminous, with all asserting damages arising from a common occurrence or related events; however, in contrast to mass tort litigation, the “class” often is represented by a single individual or a small group of individuals who embody the claims and damages of the larger group. Class actions in federal courts are governed by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23. Members of the “class” may be bound by findings related to that class. Class certification often is denied due to state law restrictions (or prohibitions) on class actions or the predomination of plaintiffs’ individualized circumstances over any common issues.
Defense counsel's role in consolidated litigation includes all tasks inherent in the traditional litigation setting, with an added managerial component of litigation coordination and organization of global discovery, including:
- Identification and differentiation of the nature of individualized and global claims
- Document management and review, including electronic data and e-mails
- Expert witness development and preparation
- MDL and bellwether trials
- Defeating class certification
- Improper joinder
- Development of comprehensive trial strategies
- Development of consistent factual and legal positions in coordination with counsel representing named defendants on local and national levels
- Working with lawyers from different firms as a “virtual” law firm
- Trials of claims of certified classes or individual mass tort plaintiffs
- Global settlement negotiations
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.
In Brief
The Upcycle Conundrum
by Karen Kreider Gaunt
Laudable or litigious? What you need to know about potential copyright and trademark infringement when repurposing products.
Wage and Overtime Laws for Truck Drivers
by Greg Mansell
For truck drivers nationwide, underpayment and overtime violations are just the beginning of a long list of problems. Below we explore the wages you are entitled to but may not be receiving.
My Husband Didn’t Want to Stay Married…But He Didn’t Want a Divorce
by Jennifer Billock
Patience—and the law—prevails when an uncooperative partner avoids divorce proceedings.
Enhancing Consumer Safety Through Winning Jury Trials and Substantial Settlements
by Justin Smulison
Firm founder and lead trial lawyer James P. Frantz discusses how landmark victories in litigation and trial protect consumers.