Ms Alexandra Cunningham > Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP > Richmond, United States > Lawyer Profile
Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP Offices
RIVERFRONT PLAZA, EAST TOWER
951 EAST BYRD STREET
RICHMOND, VA 23219
VIRGINIA
United States
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Ms Alexandra Cunningham
Work Department
Industries
Food Industry
Retail and Consumer Products
Practices
Product Liability and Mass Tort Litigation, Product Safety and Regulatory Compliance, PFAS Interdisciplinary Team, Retail and Consumer Products Litigation, Class Action, Multidistrict Litigation, Litigation, Asbestos Litigation, Benzene Litigation, Glyphosate Litigation, Medical Device and Pharmaceutical Litigation, Silica Litigation, COVID-19 Litigation, Chemicals, Products and Hazardous Materials
Position
Partner, Co-head of the firm’s Litigation Team
Career
Ms. Cunningham is co-head of the firm’s Litigation Team and formerly led the firm’s products liability and mass tort litigation practice group. A nationally recognized product liability and toxic tort lawyer, she has been named a “Litigation Trailblazer” by the National Law Journal, recognized as runner-up in The American Lawyer’s “Litigator of the Week” feature, and selected as an Influential Woman of Law, among other accolades. Ms. Cunningham represents clients in complex litigation, with a focus on product liability, mass tort and toxic tort and environmental litigation, including successfully defending catastrophic injury and death claims; asbestos, benzene, formaldehyde, hydrogen sulfide, solvent and silica-related premises and product liability claims; large-scale environmental toxin and exposure claims, involving PFAS, PAHs, fluorides, coal combustion residuals and hexavalent chromium; and claims of bacterial contamination in food and beverage products. She also advises on legal issues related to COVID-19 and defends companies in COVID-19 litigation. Ms. Cunningham is admitted to practice in Virginia, Georgia, New York, and West Virginia, and before the federal courts in those jurisdictions and others. She has appeared as trial counsel in courts nationwide, and has led numerous appeals. Ms. Cunningham has also led arbitrations before the International Chamber of Commerce and American Arbitration Association.
Memberships
Bar Admissions: Georgia, New York, Virginia, West Virginia
Education
- JD, Emory University School of Law, with high honors, Managing Editor, Emory Law Journal, Elected to Order of the Coif, 1999
- BA, Psychology, University of Virginia, 1996
Lawyer Rankings
United States > Dispute resolution > Product liability, mass tort and class action - defense: toxic tort
Richmond-headquartered firm Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP is particularly active in single plaintiff and consolidated toxic tort actions with a nexus to the south of the country, a particularly fertile location for work in the space in light of the concentration of large energy and industrial companies headquartered in the region. Although the scope of the claims are broad, running the gamut from personal injury and/or property damage caused by exposure from a range of chemicals and natural occurring substances, the ‘results oriented’ team remains most active in the asbestos arena. Alexandra Cunningham, who co-heads the products liability and mass tort litigation practice alongside Houston-based Georgia Lucier, who ‘knows the law and medical science’, is key to much of the success the firm has had in the asbestos arena, whether it be in relation to direct occupational exposure cases, bystander claims or “take-home” cases. Benefiting from ‘good relationships with judges and adversary counsel’ developed over his many years in private practice, Houston-based partner Thomas Taylor is also a key member of the team and is popular among oil and gas companies to defend them in big-ticket toxic tort cases. The firm has also been at the vanguard of disputes arising in the aftermath of Covid-19, and has established a nascent interdisciplinary group which combines mass tort litigators with OSHA and employment law lawyers to good effect, both from a risk management perspective and in any attendant tort litigation which may ensue, including wrongful death and personal injury defense and public nuisance claims.
Lawyer Rankings
Top Tier Firm Rankings
- Media, technology and telecoms > Cyber law (including data privacy and data protection)
- Environment > Environment: regulatory
- Finance > Structured finance: securitization
Firm Rankings
- Insurance > Advice to policyholders
- Environment > Environment: litigation
- M&A/corporate and commercial > M&A: middle-market ($500m-999m)
- Media, technology and telecoms > Outsourcing
- Real estate > Real estate finance
- Finance > Capital markets: high-yield debt offerings
- Finance > Capital markets: debt offerings
- Energy > Energy litigation: oil and gas
- Energy > Energy regulation: electric power
- Energy > Energy transactions: electric power
- Energy > Energy transactions: oil and gas
- Finance > Fintech
- Labor and employment > Immigration
- Labor and employment > Labor and employment disputes (including collective actions)
- Labor and employment > Labor-management relations
- Dispute resolution > Product liability, mass tort and class action - defense: toxic tort
- Finance > Project finance
- Real estate > Real estate
- Real estate > Real estate investment trusts (REITs)
- Energy > Renewable/alternative power
- Intellectual property > Trademarks: litigation
- Intellectual property > Trademarks: non-contentious (including prosecution, portfolio management and licensing)
- Finance > Capital markets: high-yield debt offerings
- Finance > Capital markets: equity offerings
- Labor and employment > Employee benefits, executive compensation and retirement plans: transactional
- Energy > Energy regulation: oil and gas
- Media, technology and telecoms > Technology transactions
- Tax > US taxes: non-contentious
- Labor and employment > Employee benefits, executive compensation and retirement plans: design
- Finance > Restructuring (including bankruptcy): corporate