Melissa focuses her litigation and trial practice on pharmaceutical and medical device product liability, primarily in the MDL setting, as well as other mass torts and class actions relating to the use of nonprescription consumer products.
Current co-chair of the firm’s global Life Sciences Health Industry Group, Melissa serves as national counsel for a manufacturer of cosmetic and personal care products in litigation relating to talc-based powder products. She is also co-lead counsel for a medical device manufacturer in an MDL proceeding and lead counsel in the related New Jersey coordinated mass tort proceeding. Melissa is the expert team lead for a wholesale pharmaceutical distributor in the opioids litigation. Most recently, Melissa was co-lead counsel in the 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. In her career at Reed Smith, she has defended the pharmaceutical industry in litigation involving a wide range of drug products, including diet medications, testosterone products, insulin products, hormonal contraceptive products, gastrointestinal products, and vaccines.
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 and mock jury 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 Rule 702 (formerly Daubert) challenges. She has extensive experience preparing company witnesses to provide impactful testimony 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 also has extensive experience counseling clients on best practices concerning e-discovery and cross-border data transfer issues.
