By Daniel Siegal

Law360 (June 15, 2020, 4:48 PM EDT ) With an injury and then a pandemic interrupting her packed trial schedule, Skadden's Allison Brown says she's had an "almost comical" start to life at her new firm. But she's been able to use the rare time away from the courtroom to counsel clients making personal protective equipment — and to catch up with colleagues virtually while learning to make cocktails.

Brown, who came to Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP from Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, represents companies in products liability litigation. Her record as lead trial attorney includes securing multiple defense verdicts for Johnson & Johnson in the high-profile trials on allegations that the company's baby powder causes cancer.

Brown has had two trials, scheduled for March and May, delayed by coronavirus-related court closures. During a 30-minute conversation with Law360 last month, she discussed how this break has led to her taking on a different role: counseling clients who are making personal protective equipment for the pandemic about their potential litigation risks.

She also talked about what types of litigation she expects to see come out of the pandemic; what it's like quarantining in Philadelphia's Center City with her husband, their three kids and no yard; and her adjustment to her new firm, which she joined in October.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How have the court closures impacted your practice?

What we've seen in many of our cases is our adversaries using this time to really press forward on discovery issues that had otherwise taken a back seat to trials before the shutdown.

So my trial cases actually remain very busy even outside of the courtroom, in terms of motion practice and supplemental expert reports and putting up company witnesses for deposition.

But we also have a number of clients who either directly manufacture PPE or temporarily, out of the goodness of their heart, are manufacturing things like cloth face masks.

I've been doing a lot more counseling and advising clients these days on potential litigation risks concerning those activities. And giving advice about disclaimers and warnings that should go on some of these products.

Of course, now we're starting to see a number of COVID-related lawsuits and they have been filed in areas that affect a number of our clients as well, so we're doing some advising on that piece as well.

Is it a big adjustment to go from trial work to this type of counseling?

Well, I think actually having been on the front lines of trials really back-to-back-to-back for a couple of years now, my colleagues and I are in a unique spot in being able to counsel on these issues and identify potential litigation risks because we've seen the other side of it.

I think it's actually an easier transition perhaps than going the other way. Having seen it play out in front of a jury, you have a unique perspective to be able to advise folks on what to look for in terms of potential risks down the road, in terms of potential disclaimers they might want to think about putting on some of these products.

What kind of lawsuits do you expect to see coming out of the pandemic?

We've seen some of the obvious ones filed already, cases against cruise ships, cases against nursing homes. We've started to see some business interruption claims.

But I think we can also anticipate consumer fraud class action claims and potential claims having to do with gyms and other membership-type services. So we're advising on a broad spectrum of claims that we've either seen filed or anticipate being filed in the near future.

Courts are already moving to Zoom for bench trials. Could we see jury trials go remote as well?

Something we might see some changes in is how we do jury selection. Jury selection is not a socially distanced process.

We bring in hundreds of jurors, we squish them into rows together. We hand out clipboards and pens and ask them all to share them and pass them down — a lot of activities that a few months ago seemed very normal, and now probably make us cringe a little bit.

As courts start to grapple with how we are going to move trial dockets in this environment, I do think we might see some innovation, at least in how we do an initial hardship screening or an initial filling out of questionnaires with jurors, so we can move to a place where we are not bringing in hundreds of jurors at one time.

The whole process just involves so much close interaction. I think if we are going to try and accommodate this under social distancing guidelines, we are going to have become creative, as the courts, frankly, have done in other operations under these conditions.

You had some additional thoughts on jury selection as well?

In many ways, I think it's the most important part of a trial, and I view it as both an art and a science. So I've been spending more time recently working with our jury consultants on voir dire strategy, and analyzing jury research and ways to uncover the critical life experiences that shape a juror's confirmation bias.

I've also been looking at a fair amount of post-trial juror interviews in our ongoing litigation, just to really spend some time understanding how jurors are viewing our presentations and what we can do, not just in a particular litigation but generally, to better represent our clients.

What have you learned about what jurors are or aren't receptive to?

The part that I have been the most focused on is how to put people at ease, such that they feel comfortable essentially admitting to you that they hate your client and are not going to treat your client fairly. I think it's a real skill.

How do you prepare for knowing you might have trials back-to-back-to-back when things do open back up?

From a preparation standpoint, I think you're always happy to have a little extra time. I think there's always more you can do to make a better case, to make a better presentation.

Especially when it comes to cross-examination, which is where I'm spending most of my extra time on cases that have been reset for trial. There is always more to find, there's always more prior testimony to read, there's always a better way to think about asking the questions.

There's only so many times you can work on your opening slide deck. I think you get to a point of diminishing returns there. You know what you want to tell the jury and you know generally how you want to say it.

But I think when it comes to something like a cross, there are just endless ways of attack and of questioning the witness.

How have you adjusted to working from home?

These days, I practice law at home in sweatpants and slippers with three kids in three different virtual classrooms in various parts of my house. And I haven't left Philadelphia in almost two months now, which is almost unheard of for me.

As someone who's often away from home on trial or traveling to get ready for trial, being able to take advantage of some extra uninterrupted weekend time with my kids while they're still at an age where they'll tolerate talking to their mom has been sort of a silver lining for this situation.

Any surprises from getting the home office set up?

What has been the most enjoyable to see is what the Skadden community has done in terms of helping each other to stay sane.

One of my partners, for example, leads a mass tort mixology Monday, where we all get on a Webex Monday evening and he teaches us how to make a new cocktail of the week. Then we all spend an hour catching up and hearing about what's going on in everyone's lives.

Any favorite cocktails so far?

So the first one we did was the traditional daiquiri, not like the frozen electric blue situation, and I loved it. That's been my favorite so far.

What's it like joining a new firm in a pandemic?

It's been almost comical. Pretty much since I started I've been on trial, and in the middle of it I broke my ankle, and then the global pandemic. So it's been all sorts of chaos in terms of coming to the firm. But it has been terrific in terms of building trial teams and getting to know people in really close and stressful situations. And my partners and the associates could not have been more supportive.

What are you looking forward to about the stay-at-home orders being lifted?

Getting my hair colored again, hands down. I have a bit of a dire situation going on over here with my roots. And these drugstore color kits are just no match for my gray. So I am just really looking forward to some professional-strength chemicals to deal with this mess. And as soon as Gov. [Tom] Wolf says the word, I will be at my hair salon.

In all seriousness, my family, knock on wood, has stayed healthy and relatively sane through this whole thing, and for that I'm just really grateful.

--Editing by Aaron Pelc.

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