Product Liability Group Of The Year: Dechert

Law360 (February 5, 2019, 3:48 PM EST) -- Racking up defense wins in some of the year's most complex and far-reaching product liability cases and plunging into the nationwide multidistrict opioid litigation, Dechert LLP has earned a place as one of Law360's Product Liability Groups of the Year.

Attorneys in the firm's product liability and mass torts practice attributed the company's success at complex cases to a strong, experienced bench developed by winning complex cases.

"I think we're fortunate to be involved in the hardest cases, the most complicated cases," practice Co-chair Sheila Birnbaum said.

Birnbaum was one of a 29-member team who left Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP for Dechert in June and July. The transition, which both sides said at the time was promoted by conflicts between Quinn Emanuel's plaintiff and defense clients, was very smooth, Birnbaum said. 

"We seamlessly integrated into the larger group," she said. "We never missed a beat."

They said the firm's experienced bench has worked to their advantage in securing many of their multidistrict wins this year: defending summary judgments for Pfizer Inc. in the Zoloft antidepressant MDL in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, winning a stay of litigation against AbbVie Biotherapeutics in MDLs over its testosterone replacement products, and ending MDL claims against Pfizer over its Lipitor cholesterol drug. 

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