Thomas V. Girardi

Plaintiffs' products liability, toxic torts

Following a landmark $4.85 billion global settlement with Merck & Co. Inc. in 2007 over the now-recalled painkiller Vioxx, which has been linked to increased risk of heart attack and stroke, Girardi continued this year pressing pharmaceutical giants to compensate consumers for health problems allegedly triggered by blockbuster diabetes drugs, birth control and an acne drug. Girardi, widely regarded as one of the nation's most influential trial lawyers, is working on several cases against Roche Pharmaceuticals, which manufactures the acne medicine Accutane, alleging the drug causes bowel disease. Roche stopped selling Accutane last year, in the wake of hundreds of personal injury lawsuits. Girardi's firm is leading multi-district litigation against GlaxoSmithKline over allegations the diabetes drug Avandia causes heart attack and liver failure, and is lead counsel in statewide coordinated cases against Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceutical alleging that birth control drug Yaz causes heart attack, stroke and blood clots in some users. The firm also represented the parents of a toddler who was strangled to death after the lid of a toy chest closed over his neck. The lawsuit resulted in a recall of more than 9,000 of the Chinese-manufactured toy chests.