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Automotive and Recreational Products
Americans love their motor vehicles. Without them, the country would come to a halt. Whether moving freight from California to Massachusetts, carrying commuters to work on the interstates, crossing the wilderness, or speeding across a lake, cars, trucks and recreational vehicles are everywhere.
However, inappropriate operation of those vehicles can be dangerous. They travel at high speed, propelled by internal combustion engines that run on flammable fuel. Drivers come in all grades of skill and competence.
People can -- and do -- get hurt while operating vehicles.
When injury and death strike, victims and survivors sue. There is no shortage of lawyers vying to represent them. With high-profiles and impressive resources, product manufacturers seem to be obvious targets. In the courtroom, juries can sometimes vote with their hearts instead of their heads when faced with tragedy.
Your company is passionate about its products. You sweat the details, from initial design and engineering through every stage of the manufacturing process. You want a law firm that shares your passion as well as your attention to detail.
McGuireWoods is that firm.
We have counseled and defended automobile and other motorized equipment manufacturers for more than 20 years. Our lawyers have served as national counsel for two of the world's largest automobile manufacturers, and have represented many others in a host of capacities along the way. We have counseled and defended producers of trucks, motorcycles and watercraft as well -- virtually all manner of motorized transportation or recreational equipment. This team has achieved success for clients in nearly every state of the country, including challenging jurisdictions from South Texas, across the rural south and Midwest, and all the way to California.
Consumer Product Safety
No matter how much care and effort are put into the creation of a product, safety issues can arise. Claims are made. Products are recalled. Reputations and stock values are threatened.
Your company needs a law firm that knows how to react.
The McGuireWoods Consumer Product Safety practice has more than three decades of experience in this field. Long-time clients include Fortune 500 firms -- domestic and international manufacturers of some of the world's best-known products.
This team represents corporations in the risk, regulatory and litigation arenas. Clients also count on McGuireWoods to implement risk management programs aimed at preventing product liability claims and, in instances where a claim is made, improving the likelihood of defeating it. We have defended companies against product liability claims in state and federal courts, and we have extensive experience with matters involving the Consumer Products Safety Commission.
A partial list of products defended by the Consumer Products Safety practice includes:
- Alcoholic beverages
- Electronics
- Firearms
- Power tools
- Sports equipment
The McGuireWoods Consumer Products Safety practice offers relevant experience, strategic counsel and the latest technological support. Perhaps more importantly, we are a firm that values and is driven by relationships. For further information on the experience of this practice area, please review our representative work, case studies and client list, as well as the list of awards this team has earned.
Environmental Litigation
Environmental situations impact more than our ecosystem. They alter our livelihoods. They affect our economic health. In some instances, they change the course of a company's history.
In any production process, there is waste and run-off. You manage it, apply best practices, work with federal and state agencies, but sometimes that is not enough. It could take months or years, but eventually -- sure as the sunrise -- an environmental group will challenge your product or your practices. The evidence is on the morning news: cellphones, high tension wires, animal wastes, chemical discharge, just to name a few, have taken center stage.
Reducing that impact requires immediate action, not only ecologically, but in defense of the companies involved. That is why McGuireWoods' Environmental Litigation team has made sure it can mobilize almost immediately, anywhere in the country.
The McGuireWoods Environmental Litigation practice focuses on four areas: enforcement defense, commercial and cost recovery, toxic torts and land use litigation. This practice combines the expertise of the firm's Environmental Solutions group with the skills of trial lawyers in the Complex Products Liability and Mass Tort Litigation and Commercial Litigation groups.
Depending on the initial assessment of the case and the client's objectives, our Environmental Litigation team can move quickly to achieve an early settlement or gear up for a trial, conducting federal removals of massive dockets on short notice, attending emergency hearings in remote locations, and expediting document collections and witness preparation under court imposed deadlines.
This team has substantial multi-district litigation experience along with a nationwide network of localized resources. Since we have worked closely with EPA staff, state agencies and legislatures, our environmental litigators can move easily between national issues to site- or company-specific applications. In doing so, they have conducted precedent-setting work in the environmental field.
The McGuireWoods Environmental Litigation practice offers relevant experience, strategic counsel and the latest technological support. Perhaps more importantly, we are a firm that values, and is driven by, relationships.
Insurance Coverage
No matter what you do, insurance is a universal fact of business life. Everyone has to have it. Common sense requires it.
To get the most from it, you must be strategic about your coverage and your claims.
McGuireWoods knows this fact. We assist our clients with every aspect of insurance, from advice on the appropriate coverage, and risk management strategies, to assistance with claims processing and negotiation, through litigation, if necessary.
Our track record speaks for itself.
Corporate clients and other policyholders have recovered substantial amounts from insurance companies thanks to the efforts of McGuireWoods Insurance practice lawyers, 11 of whom are Fellows of the American College of Trial Lawyers. McGuireWoods insurance practice also knows the best ways to keep clients out of the courtroom.
More than two dozen lawyers in multiple offices handle everything from coverage advice to trial. McGuireWoods' Insurance Coverage Counseling & Litigation Group provides advice and handles disputes over the following types of policies:
- Commercial general liability coverage
- Directors and officers coverage
- Errors and omissions coverage
- Products liability coverage
- Business interruption claims
- First party property and boiler coverage
- Professional liability policies
- Employee dishonesty issues and claims
- Toxic tort claims
This practice also provides advice to corporations, banks and other business entities on insurance issues as they relate to these and other matters.
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Regulatory and corporate issues
- Receivership
- Going public
- Federal and state securities
McGuireWoods' Insurance practice offers relevant experience, strategic counsel and the latest technological support. Perhaps more importantly, we value, and are driven by, relationships.
Pharmaceutical and Medical Products
Your company spends years -- and often, millions of dollars -- developing drugs and medical devices. McGuireWoods understands that development is just the beginning.
In your field, scientific breakthrough is typically followed by a grueling trek through the regulatory bureaucracy. Testing, manufacture, sale and even marketing must follow a maze of federal regulations. Your compliance with those regulations affects your susceptibility to litigation. Should litigation occur, you need partners who are familiar with the "maze" and are as dedicated to defending your product as you are.
Fortunately, the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Products team at McGuire Woods is devoted to counseling and defending manufacturers and sellers of FDA-regulated drugs and medical products. Our pharmaceutical and medical products attorneys have defended companies in individual cases, served as coordinating counsel in nationwide products liability litigation, managed class actions and handled multiple complex multi-district litigation cases.
The services of our Pharmaceuticals and Medical Products practice include:
- Assisting clients in protecting their intellectual property and in bringing their products to market
- Advising clients on product risk management
- Defending manufacturers and sellers in products liability litigation involving drugs, medical devices and biological products
- Counseling clients on strategies to comply with regulations governing the pre- and post-market life of a drug or medical device
- Establishing internal programs for compliance with adverse event reporting obligations
- Representing clients before the FDA on pre-market clearances, post-market reporting and surveillance and other pre-market regulatory compliance
- Coordinating responses to discovery directed at "product-line" issues
- Developing strategies for reimbursement from third-party payors for drug or device-related therapy
- Assisting companies as science counsel
- Serving as trial counsel
Our lawyers have a keen grasp of the relationships among science, government regulations, products liability law and health care product marketing. In fact, one of our team members was a practicing physician before being admitted to the bar, which adds invaluable breadth to our understanding of the challenges and issues in the field.
This practice area has the state-of-the-art technology -- and the intellectual capabilities -- to mobilize a team quickly and cost-effectively.
Our Pharmaceutical and Medical Products practice offers relevant experience, strategic counsel and the latest technological support.
The following is a partial list of pharmaceutical and medical products that have been defended by McGuireWoods lawyers in this practice area:
- allopurinol
- benzodiazepines
- catheters
- cerivastatin
- continuous feeding tubes
- diethylstilbesterol
- anesthestics
- fen-phen
- generic drugs
- hormone replacement therapy
- implantable medical devices and drug delivery systems
- injectable drugs
- intrauterine devices
- isoretinoin
- natural rubber latex medical devices
- nebulizers
- ophthalmic solutions
- opioids
- orthopedic fixation devices, joint replacement devices and surgical instruments
- phenylpropanolamine products
- rosiglitazone maleate
- raw materials used in medical devices
- surgical closure devices
- tetracycline
- topical non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
- triamterene and hydrochlorothiazide
- vaccines (thimerosal)
- ventilators
Toxic Torts
Today's efficient distribution channels allow your products to reach the market faster than ever before. Manufacturers, distributors and consumers benefit. Our economy benefits. But with speed and efficiency also comes danger: products are misused, safety warnings are ignored, and unexpected dangers are exposed on a broader scale and at a faster pace. In this increasing litigious society, plaintiff's attorneys are quick to take advantage of apparent "deep pockets." Anyone who makes products is exposed.
In this environment, you need counsel who understands how to protect your interests, from risk and case management through trial or negotiated settlement. McGuireWoods understands. We have been in the field for a long time and have pioneered many of the strategies considered standard practice today.
McGuireWoods Toxic Tort practice offers vital experience as trial and coordinating counsel to assist you in approaching risks and litigation strategically. Perhaps more importantly, we are a firm that values and is driven by relationships, as reflected by the fact we have represented many of our clients for decades.
A docket review of almost any historically significant body of toxic tort litigation from the past three decades is likely to reveal McGuireWoods' lawyers serving as national coordinating counsel or lead trial counsel. However, this team is most proud of those cases that never made headlines; the cases that were eliminated in their infancy or in which litigation was avoided altogether.
With more than 80 lawyers in 10 offices, our Toxic Tort team stands ready to respond quickly and efficiently. This practice's cases have ranged in size from those brought by individual plaintiffs to large common-issue consolidations involving tens of thousands of plaintiffs.
Services within the Toxic Tort practice include:
- Case Management. The McGuireWoods Toxic Tort team has developed techniques and procedures to handle litigation involving scores of witnesses and hundreds (or in some cases, thousands) of documents and exhibits. To increase efficiency, McGuireWoods often creates a dedicated extranet, enabling the client and attorneys to work together quickly and securely, respond quickly and seize the advantage over the plaintiffs' lawyers. The extranet also allows work product to be shared between all the client's law firms, further enhancing response time.
- Coordination of Discovery. Our Toxic Tort team answers plaintiffs' discovery requests and works to ensure that discovery responses remain consistent in thousands of cases filed in jurisdictions across the country.
- Collection and Compilation of Documents. McGuireWoods has established large document repositories for the discovery and defense of cases across the country. State-of-the-art technology and efficient systems ensure easy access to these collected documents to help build a strong case for the defense.
- Preparation of Joint Defenses. Our Toxic Tort lawyers routinely direct the preparation of common defenses for joint defense groups and take the lead in presenting common legal arguments. This streamlines the process, reduces time spent at trial, and results in stronger, more cogent arguments.
- Preparation of Complex Consolidated Cases. McGuireWoods has represented clients in consolidated actions involving at least one or more thousand plaintiffs in New York, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Ohio, and West Virginia. For example, the firm has practiced extensively in the multi-district litigation created by the federal courts to handle all federal asbestos claims. With the threat of multi-district litigation threatening in other industries, the McGuireWoods team has the battle-tested skills and experience to hit the ground running for clients in any field.
- Preparation of Punitive Damages Defenses. McGuireWoods lawyers have successfully defeated punitive damages claims in numerous states via both pre-trial motion and verdict, protecting clients from being forced to pay financially disastrous sums.
- Trial of Complex Toxic Tort Cases. While the decision to proceed to trial always rests with the client, we have gained extensive toxic tort trial experience throughout the U.S. and can offer counsel and support to help the client plan an appropriate strategy and make the right decision.
- Settlement Negotiation. Since most toxic tort cases involve co-defendants, our lawyers have extensive experience in negotiating on behalf of joint defense groups. For example, in recent years, we have gained considerable experience in mediating serious claims to resolution, often involving so-called "living cancer claims" and death cases.
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