Diane P. Sullivan

As happens in most of her cases, Diane P. Sullivan joined the high-stakes patent fight between Altria and R.J. Reynolds not long before trial. “I just did the jury trial,” she said.

“That’s basically been my career,” Sullivan continued. “I get dropped into antitrust and commercial contract and patent and the mass tort cases to do the jury trial work, and knock on wood, I have won a lot more than I’ve lost over a very long career.”

In that September 2022 trial over vaping technology, the jury awarded her client Altria $95 million in past damages. The following January, the victory grew. As calculated by the judge, future royalties will exceed $1 billion, Sullivan said. Altria Client Services LLC v. R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co., case 1:20-cv-00472 (M.D. N.C., filed May 28, 2020).

“Obviously, our client was thrilled.” Sullivan gives credit to a great team from her firm. “It was really our patent department that did the bulk of the work,” she said.

Sullivan began trying cases regularly “in the dark ages before they hired women to do big case trial work.” She began in breast implant litigation because clients decided they needed a woman for those. “I was able to cut my teeth on doing a bunch of jury trials in that space 30-plus years ago.”

Gradually, she handled more types of matters. By now, many of her cases settle just before trial, as happened in two recently.

She represented Repsol, a large Spanish energy company facing potential liability of $1 billion over the pollution of the Passaic River, one of the EPA’s largest Superfund projects. “We were able to get a terrific settlement for Repsol … on the eve of trial” in August, Sullivan said, giving credit to Weil’s Florida office. The Maxus Litigation Trust v. YPF SA, 1:18-ap-50489 (Bankr. D. Del., filed June 14, 2018).

Currently, Sullivan is preparing for an April trial in a products liability class action against the leading maker of artificial turf, which is facing many millions in potential damages. “It’s rare that [class actions] go to trial because the stakes are so high, but this one for sure will,” she said. FieldTurf Artificial Turf Marketing and Sales Practices Litigation, 3:17-md-02779 (D. N.J., June 1, 2017).

And in May, she’s to defend a client in a bellwether wrongful death trial in the AstroWorld litigation in Texas.

— Don DeBenedictis