Rachel Passaretti-Wu

Rachel B. Passaretti-Wu is a partner in Dechert’s product liability and mass torts practice and focuses on complex product liability and mass torts litigation. She serves critical roles on numerous national counsel teams and has held leadership positions in MDLs and science teams in some of the most complex tort cases in the United States. Her practice also includes years of experience defending environmental toxic torts and class actions. Ms. Passaretti-Wu also draws on her knowledge and expertise in connection with relevant transactional work, regularly advising clients through various aspects of pre-investment and assisting on corporate deals.

Ms. Passaretti-Wu has taken part in several high-profile pharmaceutical and environmental toxic tort litigations, managing all stages of a dispute from pre-trial proceedings to appeals, as well as complex mass tort and class action settlements. She regularly helps clients navigate appropriate crisis management related responses.

She is integral in the formulation of nationwide strategies and coordinates the defense of complex litigations. Ms. Passaretti-Wu manages the day-to-day defense and strategy of numerous putative class actions, as well as thousands of cases through various stages of litigation. She coordinates these litigations to ensure consistency at a national level, but more importantly to structure global strategic planning to maximize beneficial results for her clients.

Ms. Passaretti-Wu is passionate about the intersection of law and science; and regularly participates in, and leads, science teams, which are critical to the core defenses at issue in the cases she defends. In 2024, Who’s Who Legal: Life Sciences recognized her as a Recommended Individual for Product Liability. Ms. Passaretti-Wu is recognized by Legal 500 US in the area of Product Liability, Mass Tort and Class Actions – Pharma and Medical Devices, Toxic Torts, and Consumer Products. In 2020, she was recognized as a recipient of Profiles in Diversity Journal’s Women Worth Watching in STEM Award, which was established to celebrate women leaders who break barriers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Ms. Passaretti-Wu has been listed as a Product Liability Defence expert by Who’s Who Legal. She has also been listed as a 2018 New York Super Lawyer, having previously been recognized as a Rising Star in 2012.

Ms. Passaretti-Wu is a member of Dechert's nationally recognized team of product liability and mass tort lawyers, ranked Band 1 for Nationwide Product Liability & Mass Torts: The Elite by Chambers USA, named in 2018 and 2019 as Practice Group of the Year for Product Liability by Law360, and Litigation Department of the Year for Product Liability by New York Law Journal in 2019, 2020, and 2021.

Prior to joining Dechert, Ms. Passaretti-Wu was of counsel at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and counsel at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

Client Feedback

“I work closely with Rachel Passaretti-Wu. I enjoy her working style. She is calm and knowledgeable. She gets great results.” – The Legal 500 US, 2022

Rachel Passaretti-Wu is “among the most strategic, thoughtful and skilled lawyers” in product liability practice. She “clearly conveys complex legal issues in an easy to digest manner” and is “exceedingly strong on legal and factual issues.” – Who's Who Legal, 2021