Correction: The original version of this story incorrectly identified Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr as one of the firms leading R.J. Reynolds’s defense efforts in Florida. The firm does not represent the company. We regret the error.
December 14, 2010, was a bad day for Big Tobacco. In Massachusetts state court, Lorillard, Inc., was hit with a jury verdict that calls for it to pay one of the largest damages awards ever assessed against a cigarette maker—$152 million. That same day, in Tallahassee, Florida, the state’s First District Court of Appeals upheld a $30 million jury verdict against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco in the first so-called Engle progeny case to be tested at the appellate level. The two developments make it clear that 12 years after the landmark $200 billion Tobacco Master Settlement, the industry would still rather fight than quit when it comes to litigation. Lately, that strategy hasn’t been working too well.
