Photo of Lisa Baird

Five years ago, the COVID-19 pandemic had the world twirling off its bearings, but “Zoom” became a verb and that helped some.  Video conferencing not only became a way to stay connected to friends and family, it became a lifeline that allowed lawyers to continue to take depositions, appear for oral arguments, and even conduct

It is a truism in product liability matters that plaintiffs love state courts, whereas defense lawyers and our clients much prefer federal court.  There are reasons for this.  Twombly and Iqbal pleading standards are more rigorous than the pleading standards in many state courts.  Federal judges often have fewer cases and more clerks than state

Last summer, we gleaned the bitter fields of Davidson v. Sprout Foods, Inc., an opinion in which the Ninth Circuit allowed direct private enforcement of Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) food labeling requirements because the class plaintiff used the fig leaf of California’s Sherman Act to do so.  Our post about the Ninth

This post is from the non-Butler Snow side of the blog.

When you represent medical device manufacturers in product liability litigation, you will deal with allegations that a device broke or failed because of what it was made from, and you will encounter both experts and “experts” (scare quotes intended) in materials science. 

Materials science