Robert A. Nicholas

Early in his career with Reed Smith, Bob won decisive defense victories in a series of personal injury jury trials in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas on behalf of a major asbestos manufacturer. Bob then served as lead trial counsel in a series of bellwether jury trials, representing a major pharmaceutical company in the diet drug litigation, again obtaining straight defense verdicts. More recently, Bob has served as national lead trial counsel for one of the three major wholesale pharmaceutical distributors in litigation related to prescription opioids. In that litigation, Bob won the first defense verdict in the country on behalf of pharmaceutical distributors. He also serves in a leadership role in the federal opioid MDL (In re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation, MDL No. 17-2804).

In addition to his extensive product liability experience, Bob regularly represents major financial institutions in jury trials, bench trials, and injunctive matters. While the majority of Bob’s experience involves defending large companies at trial, he also represents these same companies as plaintiffs. For example, as lead counsel in an insurance coverage case, Bob secured what was then the largest bad faith verdict in Pennsylvania history on behalf of a safety equipment manufacturer in successive jury and bench trials. Bob has been recognized for his outstanding trial work on behalf of his clients in the American Lawyer and in other legal publications.

Over his career at Reed Smith, Bob has served as a member of the firm’s Senior Management team and Executive Committee, and as the managing partner of Reed Smith’s New York and Philadelphia offices.