Ellen L. Darling

Costa Mesa

Practice Type: litigation

Specialty: pharmaceutical and medical device defense

Darling has been trying some very difficult, multimillion-dollar cases. Not surprisingly, she won some and she lost some.

The national products-liability litigation counsel for Irvine-based pharmaceutical and medical-device company Allergan Inc, Darling has defended the company's billion-dollar drug Botox in three trials around the nation and the start of a fourth over an 18 month period.

Last March, she convinced a Santa Ana jury to reject a $60 million claim that Botox treatments for 7-year-old Kristen Spears' cerebral palsy caused the girl's death. Spears v. Allergan Inc., 30-2088-00180033 (Orange Super. Ct., filed July 9, 2008)

The key to the trial victory, Darling said, was the ability to "give the jury something else" as possible causes for the girl's death. "It's not the drug, it's X."

This April, however, a jury in Richmond, Va., hit Allergan with a whopping $212 million verdict in favor of a Vietnam veteran who claims he suffered serious brain damage from Botox injections to treat cramps in his hands. Ray v. Allergan Inc., 3:10-cv-00136 (E.D. Va., filed March 3, 2010)

The verdict's $200 million in punitive damages may be cut to the state's $350,000 cap. The defense has asked for a new trial and plans to appeal.

"We are trying very difficult cases" that present "very complex issues," she said. "If you lose, you can lose big."

- Don DeBenedictis