Our first runners-up this week are Jennifer Saulino at Covington & Burling, Manuel Cachán at Proskauer Rose and their colleagues who extended Monsanto’s defense win streak to five straight trials in Roundup cases. The 24-day trial before St. Louis County Circuit Judge Brian May in Clayton, Missouri, was the first to involve multiple unrelated plaintiffs claiming that exposure to the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide caused them to develop forms of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Jurors found in favor of Monsanto on product defect and failure to warn claims with respect to all three plaintiffs. The Proskauer team included Shawn Ledingham, who examined witnesses at trial, Christina Assi, Kelly Curtis, Hena Vora, Seth Victor and Joanie Kim. The Covington team included Greg Halperin, who handled daily motion practice, Elizabeth Ertle, Daniel Auten, Sumner Truax, Ryan Partelow and Maura Sokol. Booker Shaw of Thompson Coburn was local counsel.
Liz Weiswasser, Anish Desai and their team at Weil, Gotshal & Manges take runners-up honors after bringing home a $95 million patent verdict from a federal jury in the Middle District of North Carolina for client Altria. After a seven-day trial, a 10-person jury found that the assembly used in competitor RJ Reynolds’ Vuse Alto e-cigarette infringed Altria patents. The past damages figure is based on the 5.25% royalty rate Altria requested and post-trial proceedings are set to deal with ongoing damages through 2035, when Altria’s patents expire. The Weil trial team also included patent litigation partners Sutton Ansley and Adrian Percer, counsels John Nolan and Amanda Branch, and associates Priyata Patel, Matthew Sieger, Stephanie Adamakos, Eric Westerhold, Isha Agarwal, Eric Westerhold and Tom Yu.
