Mary E. Bartkus served as Executive Director and Senior Counsel, International Litigation for Merck & Co., Inc. She has represented Merck in matters before government agencies, courts and other tribunals throughout the world in product liability, antitrust, and other complex matters including international arbitration, class, representative, group and cross-border litigation. She is a Master of the Bench and a Director of the John C. Lifland American Inn of Court, an Inn focused on intellectual property and federal practice, and a member of the panel of arbitrators of the International Centre for Dispute Resolution, the international division of the American Arbitration Association. Before joining Merck in 1995, Mary was in private practice, concentrating on intellectual property, antitrust, unfair competition, business tort, and other complex litigation in the federal courts. Please see Mary’s CV here.
Highlighted Publications and Presentations
Bartkus, Mary E., Lectures on the History of the Global Vioxx Litigation, Eötvös Loránd University Faculty of Law, Budapest, Fall Semester 2019
New York Arbitration Week, AAA-ICDR International Arbitration Program Speaker, The In-House Counsel’s Roundtable – International Arbitration, November 2019
Bartkus, Mary E., Policy Brief, The Social Cost of Pharmaceutical Mass Tort Litigation (July 5, 2019), The Foundation for Law, Justice and Society, available at https://www.fljs.org/content/s...
Bartkus, Mary E., The Cost to Society of Pharmaceutical Mass Tort Litigation, lecture for the Foundation for Law, Justice and Society at Wolfson College, University of Oxford, on June 11, 2019. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3402...
Arbitrating Domestic and International Life Sciences Disputes, Moderator, Fireside Chat: The In-House Perspective on Arbitrating Life Sciences Disputes, May 1, 2019, Philadelphia PA.
The New Hungarian Arbitration Act from the Perspective of a US International Dispute Resolution Practitioner, paper presented at Hungary’s New Arbitration Law in an International Context, ELTE Law, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, January 2019, in A kereskedelmi választottbíróság évkönyve 2018 (János Burai-Kovács szerk., 2019), at 373, 373-380 [Commercial Arbitration Yearbook 2018 (János Burai-Kovács ed., 2019), at 373, 373-380]
Six Class Action Lawsuits for 16 Microliters, Bartkus, Mary E. and Jampel, Henry D., Ophthalmology Glaucoma, Issue 2, pp. 85-87 (September – October 2018), available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ogla...
Bartkus, Mary E., Six Class Actions for 16 Microliters: Eye Drop Litigation Reopens in New Jersey, Is Dismissed in Massachusetts, and Is on Appeal to the First Circuit. Hedging and Forum Shopping. A Media Rush to Judgment. (February 13, 2018). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3123...
Injunctions, in “New Jersey Federal Civil Procedure,” and annual supplements, New Jersey Law Journal Books, 1999 – 2014
Globalization of Class Actions with Products at the Forefront, International Association of Defense Counsel Mid-Year Meeting, Program Speaker, February 2012
Competition Policy in the Pharmaceutical Sector, Article 82 EC: Can It Be Applied To Control Sales by Pharmaceutical Manufacturers to Wholesalers?, with Lawyers Working Group, published by European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, November 2004
Pharmaceutical Product Market Definition, Competition Policy in the Pharmaceutical Sector, Program Speaker, Conférence Bleue, European Lawyers’ Conference on Pharmaceutical and Health Care Affairs, Brussels, October 2004
Highlighted Activities, Recognitions, and Appointments
AV Preeminent® Peer Review Rating, Martindale Hubbell®
Master of the Bench, Co-Director, John C. Lifland American Inn of Court
The Johns Hopkins University Wilmer Eye Institute Board of Governors
European Justice Forum
Life Sciences Advisory Council, AAA-ICDR
International Bar Association
American Bar Association
Court Admissions
United States Supreme Court
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
Highlighted Matters
Defense of complex litigation including pharmaceutical product cross-border class, group, and other multi-party litigation in many jurisdictions across countries on six continents
Resolution of class, group, and other multi-party product liability litigation and claims in countries on four continents
Lead counsel on pharmaceutical in-licensing transactions and on joint venture and licensing relationships; lead in-house counsel on an international multi-jurisdictional joint venture transaction and on the defense and implementation of a pharmaceutical inventory management system in the European Union
Rutgers University School of Law, J.D., 1980, Adjutant Law Clerk to United States District Judge H. Curtis Meanor, United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, Spring and Summer 1979
Kean College of New Jersey , B.A., 1977, Magna cum laude
