Christopher Campbell > DLA Piper LLP (US) > Atlanta, United States > Lawyer Profile

Forming a key part of the firm’s ‘best-in-class product liability and mass tort practice’, DLA Piper LLP (US) regularly achieves ‘exceptional results’ for consumer product manufacturers in business critical, high-stakes litigation. The team, which has expertise on both sides of the coast and is also able to mobilize international resources, should the need arise, is best-known for its success in fending off mass tort and class action claims before the trial stage, through the use, for example, of effective Daubert strategies. A number of the firm’s most significant matters arise within the food and beverages space, an area that the team is well-placed to represent clients across the gamut of compliance, regulatory and litigation matters as a result of core industry understanding, litigation prowess and overarching regulatory expertise. Los Angeles-based litigator Angela Agrusa  is particularly accomplished in this area and is currently forming part of multi-pronged defense effort for one the defendants in putative class action and product liability suits filed around the country relating to the alleged existence of heavy metals in baby food. Atlanta-based Christopher Campbell heads up the overarching product liability and mass tort offering and is best-known for his work within the life sciences and healthcare field.

Drawing upon the expertise of ‘industry leaders who take a strategic and proactive approach to managing mass tort and related product liability litigation’, DLA Piper LLP (US) is a popular choice among life sciences clients for critical and business sensitive disputes. The firm displays ‘a very collaborative process in how they approach cases’, and is able to very effectively lead major MDLs/class actions utilizing lawyers with ‘a deep understanding of the biopharmaceutical industry’, as well as core procedural prowess. The firm has secured ‘exceptional results’ for many clients regularly securing mass tort victories at an early stage through persuasive dispositive motions, including as it relates to striking out plaintiff experts through Daubert Motions. Recognized as ‘the pre-eminent leader and authority in the mass tort, product liability and life-sciences area’, New York-based partner Loren Brown  has been pivotal to many of these early successes, including his success, alongside ‘innovative thinker’ Raymond Williams , for Novo Nordisk at summary judgment in mass tort litigation involving claims that its diabetes medication Victoza causes pancreatic cancer. ‘Outstanding’ Atlanta-based product liability team head Christopher Campbell  leads from the front and is noted for his ‘excellent legal skills’ and ‘co-ordination skills’, including in the context of large-scale multinational matters. Based out of Boston, Matthew Holian co-chairs the firm’s life sciences sector and regularly forms a key member of national counsel roles the firm has in complex, multi-jurisdictional product liability suits. Also based in Boston, Katie Insogna continues to impress life sciences clients and is particularly effective developing expert witnesses, on discovery matters and in relation to dispositive motions. Other key members of the team include Lucas Przymusinski , whose ‘knowledge of science and medical aspects of a case is at the cutting edge of the industry’, and Dallas-based first-chair trial lawyer Lyn Pruitt .

Housed within the firm’s broad-based overarching product liability and mass torts group, which is led out of Atlanta by Christopher Campbell , DLA Piper LLP (US) has a strong and increasingly active presence throughout the country across a range of toxic tort matters. The firm has been at the vanguard of market trends in the space and has consequently picked up some key instructions in relation to many issues, including as it relates to toxic forever chemicals and climate change-related suits. San Francisco-based partner George Gigounas has been at the forefront of many of these environmental disputes, including his work alongside Los Angeles-based Angela Agrusa for a food and beverage manufacturer in litigation brought by a non-profit environmental advocacy group attempting to hold manufacturers responsible for plastic pollution in the California beaches and waterways.