A big picture of a sympathetic grandmother’s ailing heart, the occasional light touch and a human face on Merck & Co. Inc. helped a New Jersey lawyer convince an Atlantic City jury that Vioxx did not cause that woman’s heart attack.
Diane P. Sullivan, a veteran litigation partner in Dechert’s mass torts and products liability group in the firm’s Princeton, N.J., office, convinced the jury that Elaine Doherty had too many other heart problems to blame Vioxx for causing her heart attack. Doherty v. Merck & Co. Inc., No. ATL-L-638-05 (Atlantic Co., N.J., Super. Ct.).
