product-liability.weil.comProduct Liability & Mass Tort - Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP

Product Liability & Mass Tort - Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP ..People Experience Careers About Weil Locations News & Insights Alumni Login Client Employee Connect with Us Search Search People People Search Women of Weil Weil’s Black Partners Experience Experience Department Sectors Our Approach Department Corporate: Transactional and Finance Practices Executive Compensation & Benefits Litigation Restructuring Tax Pro Bono Sectors Energy Financial Services Healthcare and Life Sciences Hospitality and Leisure Infrastructure Media and Entertainment Retail and Consumer Products Sports Technology Transportation and Automotive Our Approach High Stakes Litigation and Dispute Resolution High Value Global Transactions Broad Finance Capabilities Developed and Defined the Modern Bankruptcy and Restructuring Practice Crisis Avoidance & Risk Management Trial Ready Careers Careers Weil in the U.S. Weil in Europe Weil in London Weil in Asia Administrative Staff Opportunities Weil Lawyers Receive Rising Star Awards Administrative Staff Opportunities About Weil About Weil Our Approach Prominent Matters Recent Accolades Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Pro Bono Social Responsibility Well-Being at Weil Well-Being at Weil View the 2023 Pro Bono Annual Review Locations Americas Boston Dallas Houston Miami New York Silicon Valley Washington, D.C. Europe Brussels Frankfurt London Munich Paris Asia Hong Kong Shanghai News & Insights News & Insights Newsroom Firm News and Announcements Latest Thinking Speaking Engagements Weil Private Equity Sponsor Sync Weil’s 2024 Litigation Trends Report Alumni Alumni Welcome Beyond Weil Multimedia Galleries Featured Alumni A Positive Impact on Impact Investing Promoting Excellence Login Client Login Weil Client Portal Employee Login Employee Remote Access Printed: May 14, 2024 Product Liability & Mass Tort We team with our clients to protect their businesses, manage their risks, and navigate challenging legal issues. Our close understanding of a client’s business operations, strategies, and culture has enhanced our ability to deliver the best possible service and value. And our clients have come to expect and rely upon our responsiveness, creativity, resourcefulness, and efficiency in tackling their most challenging business problems. These traits, and our consistent results, have established our nationwide reputation, including recognition in 2018 as finalist in The American Lawyer ’s Litigation Department of the Year contest. Download Print  Related: Crisis Avoidance & Risk Management Class Actions False Claims Act/Qui Tam Notable Representations, Key Contacts Many of our matters involve multi-front challenges and intense media attention, with reputational implications. We are often brought into matters that arise in the context of highly debated scientific, medical, and regulatory controversies as well as social and environmental controversies relating to the safety or effectiveness of a wide range of products – from pharmaceuticals and popular OTC brands to industrial equipment, chemicals, nuclear reactors, and oil and gas products. Our attorneys have considerable experience in navigating these complexities, drawing upon lessons learned from a broad array of matters over many decades, enabling us to advise clients on how to most effectively manage risk and attain their business objectives. We have experience advising clients at every stage of a matter, and can counsel clients as a purely prophylactic measure, at the early stages or onset of an issue, as well as at the crisis” stage. We appreciate that any given dispute may be just one part of a broader business, requiring a litigation approach that preserves that business while still aggressively pursuing our client’s position. Try Cases While we are frequently engaged to represent clients in their most significant cases, clients also seek our counsel on matters that are not on the front page of major newspapers, but are still significant to their business and reputation. Our work spans the life of a problem and every phase of litigation: from discovery and motion practice through trials and any appeals. Indeed, we have an impressive courtroom record in the defense of matters, both in the United States and worldwide, involving class actions, MDL proceedings, arbitrations, and joint state/federal litigations. Our practice also involves representing clients in investigations by government regulatory agencies, Congressional committees, and state attorneys general. Creative Exit Strategies Recognizing that a trial may not always be in our client’s best business interest, we also have engineered a variety of creative exit strategies, including implementing class and non-class settlements in a diverse array of cases. Our clients also turn to us for our judgment in helping to manage risks when an issue is percolating in order to avoid litigation and reach resolutions that make sense for their business. Project Management We recognize that a one size fits all” approach does not provide value to our clients. Our extensive experience and deep bench across practice areas and across global offices provide us with the flexibility to deploy the specific resources warranted for a particular project. This approach allows us to staff our cases in a thoughtful manner and also enables us to manage the delivery of services to reduce overall costs. It has led to a long-standing and proven track record of success in mass tort and consumer actions for some of the world’s most sophisticated public and private companies of all sizes. Selected Representations Bovis Lend Lease, Inc. – World Trade Center Disaster Site Litigation Weil represented Bovis Lend Lease, Inc. in the World Trade Center Disaster Site Litigation, a mass tort action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Weil played a lead role in the passage of legislation by the U.S. Congress to provide coverage for health care costs and compensation to 9/11 first responders, and to limit liability for Bovis and other construction management companies. CIT Group Weil represents CIT Group Inc., a lessor of rail cars, in connection with wrongful death and bankruptcy litigation in the United States and Canada arising out of a train derailment outside of Quebec, Canada. Weil recently succeeded in transferring more than a dozen wrongful death claims to the bankruptcy court in Maine overseeing the liquidation of the railroad operator. Dometic Corp. Weil has successfully represented Dometic Corporation in a series of putative class actions in the Southern District of Florida alleging that the gas absorption refrigerators manufactured by Dometic for use in recreational vehicles and boats are defectively designed and manufactured. Plaintiffs in these cases have sought certification of a nationwide class of consumers, as well as a number of state sub-classes, consisting of all purchasers of the gas absorption refrigerators. In August 2017, the Court granted Dometic’s motion for summary judgment and dismissed the lead case in its entirety, holding that, among other things, the Plaintiffs had failed to establish that there is any inherent defect that is manifest in all Dometic cooling units.” Subsequently, in a related consolidated set of cases that Dometic successfully transferred to the same court, in July 2019, the Court denied plaintiffs’ motion for class certification and dismissed the case in its entirety. ExxonMobil Weil serves as lead trial counsel for ExxonMobil in a number of disputes in state and federal courts relating to the use of MTBE as an additive in gasoline. The actions have been brought by various States, including New Hampshire, Vermont and New Jersey, seeking to recover for alleged groundwater contamination at sites throughout those states. Most recently, we won a significant victory before the Vermont Supreme Court on an interlocutory appeal by the State of Vermont in a case it commenced in 2014, approximately seven...