Kari Sutherland > Butler Snow LLP > Oxford, United States > Lawyer Profile

Kari Sutherland

(662) 513-8002 kari.sutherland@butlersnow.com

Work Department

Pharmaceutical, Medical Device & Healthcare Litigation

Career

Kari is a former Special Agent with the United States Secret Service. She is a trial attorney and focuses her practice on pharmaceutical and medical device product liability litigation. She has tried cases in various jurisdictions across the country, and her significant pharmaceutical product liability defense verdicts include those resulting from trials in California, Illinois, Louisiana, Arizona, Mississippi and Arkansas. Kari is recognized by Benchmark Litigation as one of its Top 250 Women in Litigation (2016-2021). She also received a 2017 Burton Award and a 2018 Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association “The Quarterly” Editorial Award for her written work.

Kari is a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America and a member of the Trial Attorneys of America. She has broad trial experience and has served in key roles, including lead trial counsel, in several significant trials. Her trial work includes giving opening statements and closing arguments, cross-examining particularly sympathetic plaintiffs, and skillfully cross-examining nationally-known plaintiff experts. She has ample experience directing company witnesses at trial, as well as preparing and defending depositions of company witnesses and other key fact witnesses in underlying litigation.

Her experience includes currently serving as a crucial part of a national counsel team defending prescription medical devices. She also serves as a national expert coordinator in pharmaceutical and medical device litigation. She draws on her broad knowledge of FDA regulatory issues in working with experts to defend litigation and in counseling clients on risk avoidance and management strategies.

Kari is active in several industry organizations, including Trial Attorneys of America, Defense Research Institute (DRI), and International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC). Her recent speaking engagements include serving on a panel concerning the discovery of litigation funding at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association’s Virtual National General Counsel in September 2021, on a panel titled “Life After Remand” at the April 2021 DRI Drug & Medical Device Virtual Seminar, and on a panel concerning defending against punitive damages at the International Association of Defense Counsel’s 2020 Midyear Meeting. She also authors articles on litigation and trial-related topics for Butler Snow’s Pro Te: Solutio and other publications such as Law360.

Kari obtained her J.D., with special distinction, from Mississippi College and B.S., cum laude, from University of Alabama. She is admitted to the State Bars of Mississippi and Tennessee.