Melissa focuses her litigation and trial practice on pharmaceutical product liability, medical device product liability, and e-discovery related issues.
Former co-chair of the firm’s global Life Sciences Helath Industry Group, Melissa currently serves as national counsel for a manufacturer of cosmetic and personal care products in litigation relating to talc-based powder products and as co-lead counsel for a medical device manufacturer in an MDL proceeding as well as lead counsel in the related New Jersey coordinated mass tort proceeding. She also leads the expert team on behalf of a distributor in the opioids litigation. Most recently, Melissa was co-lead counsel in defense of mass tort litigation involving a prescription hormonal contraceptive product, with coordinated proceedings in both Missouri and New Jersey; 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 product liability cases in New Jersey and Pennsylvania state courts in both pharmaceutical and medical device litigation, and has been on numerous trial teams with a lead lawyer role in extensive pre-trial research exercises in mass torts that were ultimately resolved before trial. She was co-lead trial counsel for Merck in the NuvaRing® litigation, where early trials were ultimately avoided as a result of summary judgment wins in all bellwether cases. Melissa played a lead role in the post-summary judgment mediations and resolution of the litigation.
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.
