Bart H. Williams

Los Angeles

Complex Trials; Product Liability Litigation

Over the last 10 or 15 years, fewer cases have gone through jury trials. But as the number of trials has decreased, jury verdicts seem to have gone up, according to Bart Williams. Some verdicts lately have exceeded $100 million or even $1 billion, he said.

"No one really knows ... why the explosion in the size of verdicts," he said. But it has served to increase the demand for attorneys who have tried and won cases with very large plaintiffs' demands -- like Williams.

One example is litigation accusing Monsanto's Roundup pesticide of causing cancer. The first three trials ended with large wins for plaintiffs. But since those, Williams and his team, along with another law firm, have achieved seven consecutive defense verdicts.

"Over time, you develop pretty clear ways to attack the experts who are making ... the causation claims" against Roundup, he explained. That is part of the reason he defeated a Roundup claim after a five-month trial in San Bernardino. Stephens v. Monsanto Co., CIVSB-2104801 (S. Berdo. Super. Ct., verdict Dec. 9, 2021).

He settled another Roundup case on the eve of trial earlier this year. That left him and partner Susan Gutierrez able to jump into a $3.6 billion antitrust class action over Gilead HIV drugs just months before trial. It was "a fascinating case" and "quite a battle," he said.

Insurance companies, retailers, unions and others accused Gilead of giving generics maker Teva Pharmaceuticals something of value to delay its marketing of generic versions of two HIV medications. What made the case unusual was that the something of value was the settlement of an earlier patent lawsuit between the two drugmakers.

"The claim ... was that if the parties had not settled that case in 2014, Teva was going to win, and ... if they had won, the patents would have been invalidated," Williams said. He countered with a patent expert, a former Federal Circuit judge, who opined that Teva would have lost any trial.

At the end of June, after a five-week trial, the jury returned a defense verdict for Gilead. In re HIV Antitrust Litigation, 3:19-cv-02573 (N.D. Cal., filed May 14, 2019).

His next trial might also be over Gilead HIV drugs. He and Gutierrez and co-counsel represent the company in numerous state and federal product liability actions, accusing it of dropping the development of one drug in favor of a newer medication that turned out to have more serious side effects. The first bellwether trial is set for January. Holley v. Gilead Sciences, Inc., 4:18-cv-06972 (N.D. Cal., filed Nov. 16, 2018).

In other high-profile cases, Williams is co-lead counsel for the NFL in an antitrust case in New York over its marketing of NFL-branded merchandise. And he may soon be defending Netflix against a former top New York prosecutor who claims she was defamed by the "When They See Us."

-- Don DeBenedictis