Melissa A. Geist

Melissa currently serves as co-lead counsel in defense of mass tort litigation involving a prescription hormonal contraceptive product, with coordinated proceedings in both Missouri and New Jersey; as strategic counsel for a manufacturer in an MDL proceeding involving a pelvic mesh product; and liaison counsel for that same manufacturer in a New Jersey coordinated mass tort proceeding.

Melissa has tried commercial cases in federal court and a number of product liability cases in Philadelphia state court, and is co-lead trial counsel for Merck in the NuvaRing® litigation, where early trials were ultimately avoided as a result of summary judgment wins. Melissa played a lead role in the post-summary judgment mediations.

Melissa has worked with medical, engineering and other technical experts in many different fields and is experienced at mastering the technical issues involved in developing company defenses and facts to support Daubert challenges. She has extensive experience at the skill of preparing company witnesses to perform during depositions and at trial.

Melissa also has considerable experience conducting early case risk assessments on behalf of pharmaceutical clients.

As a member of the firm's Records & E-Discovery (RED) Team and former Director of Complex Litigation Electronic Discovery, she has extensive experience counseling clients on best practices concerning e-discovery and cross-border data transfer issues.