Products Liability Counseling and Defense

Read an excerpt about Chadbourne's products liability counseling and defense practice from The Legal 500

Chadbourne & Parke LLP is a leader in products liability counseling and defense. We have extensive experience in defending and managing all aspects of products liability and complex tort litigation on an international, national and regional basis. We have also amassed invaluable trial experience in federal and state courts around the country. To each case we handle, we bring a wealth of experience, a keen understanding of the multi-faceted issues confronted by manufacturers, and the skills and knowledge to convey companies’ scientific and medical defenses to juries. 

Our Experience

The lawyers on our products liability team have decades of experience in the field, and our practice reflects the entire array of complex legal challenges faced by manufacturers operating in the United States and in global markets.

We defend and advise companies in connection with class actions, multi-district litigation, claims for disgorgement of profits, and actions by health insurers and governmental entities to recover medical expenses. We have defended cases alleging traditional causes of action such as defective manufacture, failure to warn and defective design, as well as more complex theories involving concert of action, market share liability, medical monitoring, and “RICO.”

Chadbourne has extensive experience counseling its clients in their internal compliance procedures to minimize the risk of consumer complaints and potential liability.  The firm is active in a broad range of industries, including consumer products, cosmetics, electronics, food and beverage, home appliances, manufacturing, medical device, nanotechnology, pharmaceutical and tobacco.  Our clients include manufacturers as well as parent holding companies.

We regularly serve as national counsel to our clients, coordinating the defense of large-scale products liability litigation across the United States. We also use our litigation management and products liability expertise to serve as international counsel, advising manufacturers who face litigation and threatened litigation around the world to achieve a coordinated, consistent and successful defense.

Based on our experience representing clients in a variety of industries, our knowledge and understanding encompass diverse scientific and medical fields. We have a wealth of experience in working with consultants and expert witnesses to ensure that complicated scientific, technological, and medical information is conveyed in a manner that is understandable to judges and juries. We are aggressive and resourceful not only in presenting our clients’ defense, but also in challenging the legal and scientific bases for plaintiffs’ claims.

We also have considerable experience handling claims involving manufacturers’ marketing and promotion efforts, complex regulatory issues, government investigations, and “whistle-blower” lawsuits, and regularly advise clients on sensitive media issues.

Through our many years of experience in the field, we have successfully defended clients in numerous trials throughout the United States. For example, we obtained a defense verdict for a distiller in the first (and only) products liability action ever brought to trial involving a claim that a child’s birth defects resulted from his mother’s consumption of distilled spirits. Some of our more recent trial victories include defense verdicts in a trial in state court in Philadelphia involving claims that advertisements for low-tar cigarettes were misleading, and in a trial in state court in Beaumont, Texas in a case involving strict liability and negligence claims against Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. In our most recent trial, we obtained a directed verdict on behalf of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in a product liability trial on Long Island, New York (the second time we have obtained a directed verdict in a product liability case against a cigarette manufacturer).

Our lawyers are proud of their intimate knowledge of our clients’ products, their design and manufacture, and our clients’ business goals. We understand that our clients face issues that are multi-faceted and encompass not just litigation, but regulatory and governmental concerns, competition, and consumers’ good will. Our understanding of our clients and the products they make enables us to present the client’s defense in the courtroom, and also to provide advice on emerging issues and potential threats. We regularly advise on all facets of products liability matters, including warnings, research and testing, advertising, warranty, customer inquiries, relations with trade organizations, and legislative and regulatory matters.

We strive to help clients control and reduce litigation expense through various means, including the use of technology and knowledge management, case staffing, a coordinated approach to motions and pleadings, preferred vendor arrangements, and outside consultants.

With teams in New York, Los Angeles, and London, we offer a global approach to products liability defense and counseling.

Representative Experience