Kimberly A. Dunne

As global co-leader of Sidley Austin’s white collar government litigation and investigations group, Dunne divides her time fighting for clients in highly regulated industries in court or behind the scenes with conducting internal investigations for companies and boards in response to actual and potential crises.

One of her biggest wins last year was for client Johnson & Johnson, which was fighting products liability suits that alleged its talcum powder caused ovarian cancer.

Dunne won a jury verdict in St. Louis, but lost a similar trial in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles jury returned a $417 million verdict for the plaintiff in August, but two months later Superior Court Judge Maren Nelson overturned the verdict. Lloyd v. Johnson & Johnson, BC628228 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed July 25, 2016).

Dunne said the turnaround decision boiled down to her cross-examination of the plaintiff’s specific causation expert. In a products liability case, she said the plaintiff’s side has to show two things: general causation, which in this case is showing whether talcum power is capable of causing cancer, and specific causation, which would prove the talcum powder caused ovarian cancer in the plaintiff.

“The specific causation expert made a number of admissions on cross-examination on which the court relied on, among other things, in finding that specific causation had not been shown,” Dunne said.

In a False Claims Act case, she successfully convinced the government to decline pursuing criminal charges against Pacific Alliance Medical Center. The medical center was accused of managing certain community outreach programs intended to create improper financial relationships with doctors through sublease agreements and shared marketing arrangements.

However, the claims were premised on a fundamental misapprehension of the Stark Law. The matter was settled last June.

Outside of her day-to-day work, Dunne is the leader of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Women’s White Collar Defense Association.

“I think it’s an incredible opportunity [for those] who practice in the white collar arena to support each other in a field that’s historically been dominated by men,” she said.

— Arin Mikailian