Mass Torts & Complex Disputes

Blank Rome’s mass torts and complex disputes team has guided major national and international companies through high-profile mass litigation and discrete complex disputes that require a sophisticated litigation defense, strong trial skills, and outstanding appellate abilities. In total, our attorneys have litigated and negotiated the resolution of disputes involving hundreds of thousands of claims and potential exposure measured in several billions of dollars.

We work closely with our clients to develop a creative, cost-effective, holistic litigation strategy that addresses the many intricacies of both prominent mass tort and large multi-state commercial litigation. We will aggressively work to limit or knock out litigation, maximize funding sources, and optimize alternative solutions including settlement, mediation, arbitration, and legislative actions.

Our creative solutions to mass torts have included devising a multi-step resolution of breast implant litigation, negotiating “model” real property statewide class settlements, and developing a “blind funding” approach for three nationwide class settlements of pricing claims against the pharmaceutical industry, and resolution of lead paint claims through a negotiated process with state attorneys general.

We know how to get to resolution and how to assure that a resolution process will succeed. Our attorneys handled the design and implementation of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 and have served as court-appointed neutrals responsible for negotiating and implementing complex settlements, including the “Agent Orange” product liability litigation and mass asbestos cases.

We are firm believers in preemptive action. We have decades of experience in performing “due diligence” analyses to identify and limit exposure risks in acquisitions and evaluating risks for reserve purposes.

In order to provide you with the most comprehensive service, we apply the experience of multiple disciplines, including litigation in both private suits and government investigations, a nationally-recognized insurance dispute resolution team, class action, mass tort bankruptcy, and government relations experience, and insights gained through public service for federal courts and the U.S. Department of Justice.

How We Can Help

Successfully managing litigation involving hundreds of cases filed in multiple jurisdictions, including state coordinated proceedings and multidistrict litigation
Developing a consistent litigation approach across hundreds of cases over multiple jurisdictions focused on your goals
Complex settlement negotiation, design, and implementation
Comprehensive risk analyses and individual case/claim valuations
Interdisciplinary global resolutions
International arbitration and international dispute resolution
Mediation and alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) design and implementation.

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Life Sciences – Commercial and Product Liability Litigation

Served as national litigation counsel for two manufacturers and distributors of alendronate sodium in two MDLs and two state coordinated proceedings related to allegations of failure to warn.
Served as national coordinating counsel for a distributor of the drug paroxetine in mass tort cases consolidated in Pennsylvania’s First Judicial District, and elsewhere in the United States.
Served as national litigation and trial counsel for the manufacturer of an artificial knee device.
Served as national coordinating and trial counsel for a major, branded pharmaceutical company in thimerosal-containing childhood vaccine litigation.
Served as national settlement counsel for both Dow Corning and Baxter in silicone gel breast implant litigation, as well as other pharmaceutical litigation (such as class actions concerning hepatitis C and blood-factor concentrates).
Served as national settlement counsel for Baxter, Amgen, and Immunex (and litigation counsel for Baxter) in the Average Wholesale Price (“AWP”) litigation involving three nationwide drug pricing class actions and dozens of State Attorneys General lawsuits.
Counsel for Dow Corning in connection with mass tort bankruptcy precipitated by hundreds of thousands of claims asserted with respect to medical devices containing silicones.
Served as Deputy Special Master for both of the September 11th Victims Compensation Funds, which distributed more than $9 billion to victims of the attacks, as well as the court-appointed neutral in Agent Orange product liability litigation, New York asbestos consolidations, and state-sponsored terrorism litigation.
Served as settlement and insurance counsel for AT&T in the negotiation, design, and implementation of dozens of complex statewide class settlements involving landowner trespass claims against AT&T’s nationwide fiber-optic cable network.