Product Liability

Expert Analysis

• FDA Clarifies Communication Rules For Medical Product Cos.

  

  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently provided drug and device manufacturers additional flexibility to convey certain types of truthful, nonmisleading product information. These guidance documents address FDA regulation of manufacturer communications, but the FDA still has work to do to complete its comprehensive review of policies in this area, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray LLP.

• Win For Zen Magnets Still A Good Precedent For The CPSC

  

  A federal judge's June 12 ruling that Zen Magnets' due process rights were violated by the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission puts CPSC commissioners on notice that their public statements can be used against them if they suggest a prejudgment. But the decision supports the commission’s authority to interpret its own regulations, say attorneys with Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC.

• Opinion

  BigLaw's Associate Salary Model Is A Relic Of A Bygone Era

  

  Legal industry compensation practices are once again in the news as BigLaw firms continue to match the new high watermark of $190,000 for first-year associate salaries. The typical model of increasing associate salaries uniformly fails star associates, the firms they work for and, ultimately, the clients they serve, says William Brewer, managing partner of Brewer Attorneys & Counselors.

• Tips For Keeping FDA Advisory Action Letters Out Of Court

  

  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration often gives drug and device manufacturers notice of perceived violations by sending advisory action letters. Plaintiffs counsel may seek to admit such letters in litigation, but there are multiple ways defendants can try to keep juries from seeing them, say Jaime Davis and Caitlyn Ozier of King & Spalding LLP. 

• #MeToo At Law Firms And What We Can Do About It

  

  While some may say it’s ironic, it’s also embarrassing and enraging that the very industry that offers anti-harassment training, policies and counsel now finds itself the subject of #MeToo headlines. The American Bar Association recommendation that will bring about the greatest change is the call to provide alternative methods for reporting violations, says Beth Schroeder, chair of Raines Feldman LLP's labor and employment group.

• Scrutinizing Noncash Settlements In Consumer Class Actions

  

  In consumer class action settlements, cash provides the class and the court evaluating a proposed settlement with a quantitatively measurable benefit. Noncash settlements require heightened scrutiny by the court, since they are generally worth less to consumers than cash, and may benefit defendants and class counsel more than class members, says retired judge Thomas Dickerson.

• Knowledge Lawyers Can Help Firms Stay Ahead Of The Curve

  

  In a profession notoriously averse to change, it should come as no surprise that there is skepticism about the value of having attorneys perform nonbillable tasks. But U.S. law firms have slowly begun to incorporate knowledge lawyers into their operations — and the trend is likely to continue, says Vanessa Pinto Villa of Hogan Lovells.

• Bristol-Myers Squibb: 1 Year Later

  

  In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court decided Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court of California — limiting where plaintiffs can bring claims and curbing forum-shopping in mass tort litigation — courts have grappled with questions that the ruling did not address, and defendants have pursued jurisdictional defenses in class actions and federal cases that were not previously available, say attorneys with Eversheds Sutherland LLP.

• An Unprecedented Look Inside The FARA Unit

  

  For close observers of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, the June 8 release by the U.S. Department of Justice of over 50 FARA advisory opinions was a watershed. These opinions offer an unprecedented glimpse into how the FARA Registration Unit interprets the law, say Brian Fleming and Andrew Herman of Miller & Chevalier Chtd.

• One Size Doesn't Fit All Product Labeling Class Actions

  

  Recent product labeling class actions centering on Starbucks coffee, Tito's Vodka, 5-Hour Energy and other products differ substantially from each other in their claims and the products involved. The fundamental economic differences between these cases mean that cookie-cutter methods are not likely to yield reliable measures of classwide damages, says Jon Tomlin of Navigant Consulting Inc.