Consumer Products / Food & Beverages

• Lead Counsel Product Liability Litigation: We are lead counsel in a product liability litigation for a global electronics and information technology company in the Eastern District Court of North Carolina where a $30 million dollar/year web-hosting business is seeking approximately $100 million dollars for allegedly defective computers and computer components.
• Preferred Counsel, Consumer Appliance Litigation: We are national counsel for a leading appliance manufacturer in product liability litigation nationwide involving catastrophic personal injury and serious property damage allegedly caused by the company's line of consumer and commercial appliances.
• National Coordinating Counsel, Cell Phone Brain Cancer Litigation: We have represented a major cellular provider in both “no injury” consumer protection actions alleging deceptive sales and marketing practices on behalf of proposed classes of wireless phone users as well as a series of cases alleging that wireless phone use caused the plaintiffs’ brain tumors. On September 30, 2002, we obtained a complete Daubert victory that resulted in the exclusion of six expert witnesses who asserted that wireless phones cause brain cancer. Plaintiff appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. On September 26, 2003, Jane Thorpe presented argument to the appellate panel on behalf of the entire wireless industry and, less than one month later, the Fourth Circuit affirmed our earlier victory.
• National Coordinating Counsel, international soft drink company: We have represented this major international soft drink company in a number of nationwide product-related matters. For example, we represented this client and its distributor in putative class actions in multiple states alleging injury from alleged exposure to benzene in soft drinks and asserting claims primarily under consumer protection statutes. We also represent this client against claims by an activist group alleging that the company is deceptively marketing a product in violation of state consumer protection law. In addition, we prepared the company’s 2007 Report to the FTC on Marketing to Children and Adolescents.
• National Restaurant Chain. We represent a national restaurant chain in purported class actions by the Center for Science in the Public Interest and private plaintiff’s lawyers alleging that the company engaged in consumer fraud and breach of warranty for failing to disclose the sodium content of its food. Through an aggressive motion practice, we obtained the early dismissal of both purported classes, thus limiting the number of “tag-along” suits that typically follow such consumer fraud class actions.
• National Counsel, Consumer Design Defect Litigation: We are one of two law firms designated as national litigation counsel for a leading telecommunications provider and are currently handling cases in Alabama, California, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Kentucky and Florida. We have successfully defended this client in 20+ consumer product cases alleging that their product contained a design or manufacturing defect that caused personal injury or property loss and that the company failed to warn consumers of the product’s dangerous characteristic. As part of this representation, we successfully defended this client in a hearing loss case pending in Louisiana.
• Trial Counsel, Nutritional Supplement Litigation: We represent two national health product retailers and the manufacturers of body building supplements in a class action in the Central District of California. The case arises under California's unfair competition and consumer protection laws and alleges that defendants' products are "adulterated" within the meaning of the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act (FDCA). The case involves principles of Article III standing and whether private plaintiffs can use California statutes to enforce provisions the FDCA, a question of national importance to the dietary supplement industry.