Hughes Hubbard's Product Liability and Mass Tort group is widely recognized by leading legal publications, jurists, clients and the products bar at large as a "go to" defense team for a company's most complex and challenging products litigation. The factors which differentiate Hughes Hubbard are several:
Our Bench Strength
With over 50 experienced product liability litigators and trial lawyers, including 10 partners who practice nearly exclusively in this area, as well as partners and litigation analysts with advanced degrees in engineering, medicine, nursing, and chemistry, our group is one of deepest and widest in the profession. The group is co-chaired by Robb Patryk, Diane Lifton, and Jim Fitzpatrick, all trial lawyers and consummate legal strategists and each with over 20 years of experience leading the defense of these cases. Our Managing Partner, Ted Mayer, is the senior lawyer in the group and is nationally-renowned for his expertise and leadership in this arena. Ted and Robb are also the co-authors of a leading treatise for practitioners, Product Liability (Law Journal Press). The group also includes John Duffy, a highly distinguished Professor of torts and patent law at the University of Virginia School of Law, who brings his considerable legal and appellate expertise to the group’s wide range of challenging, complex matters.
Our Trial Record
The common wisdom is that big firms do not often try cases or have the stomach to do so. Not so at Hughes Hubbard. In the last four years, our product litigators have tried over 25 cases in the state and federal courts regarding products ranging from cigarettes to diet drugs. Over the course of that time as throughout the history of the group, we have obtained defense verdicts under challenging circumstances in challenging jurisdictions. Our attorneys also succeeded in having two plaintiff verdicts in tobacco cases vacated on post-trial motions, a very unusual result in that litigation. Every step we take as product litigators is with an eye toward trial and positioning our clients for victory there.
Our Industry Experience
We have broad experience across several consumer product industries, with particular expertise regarding federally-regulated industries (aviation, pharmaceutical, medical devices, prescription biologics, automotive, specialty chemicals and tobacco). That experience has given us a deep understanding of not only these types of products but also the business of designing, manufacturing and marketing them and of how to partner efficiently and effectively with in-house scientists, engineers, physicians and others.
Our History
We have been in the products arena since the inception of mass tort litigation in the 1970’s and count among our many representations the biggest and most widely-publicized product litigations in history, including those related to the Ford Pinto, the San Juan Dupont Plaza hotel fire, the Kansas City Skywalks collapse, the prescription drug DES, and the Engle smoking and health litigation in Florida, among many others.
These factors have persuaded numerous companies to retain us as lead or coordinating counsel for their most complex product liability and mass tort litigations. We provide below a list of several of our more recent engagements that reflect the width and depth of our products experience.
To learn more about our practice in this area, please contact:
Diane E. Lifton
Co-Chair
Robb W. Patryk
Co-Chair
James C. Fitzpatrick
Co-Chair
James C. Fitzpatrick
Co-Chair
Diane E. Lifton
Co-Chair
Robb W. Patryk
Co-Chair
William J. Beausoleil
Partner
James E. Berger
Partner
Charles W. Cohen
Partner
William R. Maguire
Partner
Theodore V.H. Mayer
Partner
Seth D. Rothman
Partner
Nicolas Swerdloff
Partner
Fara Tabatabai
Partner
George A. Tsougarakis
Partner
Daniel H. Weiner
Partner
Aviva L. Wernick
Partner
David M. Woods
Partner
Mary E. Bartkus
Special Counsel
Steven Sheppard DiCesare
Counsel
John F. Duffy
Of Counsel
Vilia B. Hayes
Senior Pro Bono Counsel
Elizabeth Raines
Counsel
Sean M. Reilly
Counsel
Tina M. Schaefer
Counsel
Suzanne M. Teeven
Counsel
Kevin E. Braker
Associate
Brendan T. Franzoni
Associate
Jaclyn M. Genchi
Associate
Ryan Y. Kim
Associate
Clinton T. Lipscomb
Associate
Jonathan Misk
Associate
Miles Orton
Associate
Debbie Placid
Associate
Matthew Reynolds
Associate
Danielle Rosen
Associate
Matthew Strobbe
Associate
Jennifer Suh
Associate
Bob Teoh
Associate
Lydia Barth
Senior Analyst
Sara Gorjestani
Medical Research Analyst
Valli M. Hall
Managing Analyst
Kari Jones
Litigation Analyst
Gregory C. Lowrimore
Senior Analyst
Catherine L. Marcrum
Senior Analyst
Sally Merriam
Managing Analyst
Michael D. Mitchell
Senior Analyst
Yolanda Mitchell
Litigation Analyst
Matthew G. Voas
Research Analyst
Kathleen A. Jeanetta
Staff Attorney