Litigation
Product Liability
Cross-Disciplinary Power for Multidimensional Product Liability Litigation
Tier 1-ranked in Chambers USA (Nationwide) Product Liability and Toxic Torts categories
60+ lawyers across 10 offices worldwide
40+ years of experience as national counsel in high-profile U.S. product liability cases
Our practice boasts broad industry experience, from chemicals and pharmaceuticals to technology and transportation
Overview
Gibson Dunn’s Product Liability team stands at the forefront of the most consequential litigation in the country, representing a broad spectrum of clients in their most complex, high-profile, and high-stakes matters.
Our lawyers litigate in trial and appellate courts across the United States and have amassed an impressive record of results. We have obtained defense verdicts in jury trials involving sympathetic plaintiffs with catastrophic personal injuries. And we have won key appellate rulings, including before the U.S. Supreme Court, that have shaped the legal landscape. With a deep bench of trial-ready litigators, we are trusted to handle cases that strike at the core of our clients’ reputations, operations, and futures.
We defend companies against existential threats — suits that seek to ban the very products they design, manufacture, and sell — by mastering complex science and technology, managing sprawling dockets, and strategically positioning cases for decisive outcomes. We regularly handle large-scale, multi-jurisdictional litigation involving class actions, coordinated proceedings, and parallel investigations by government regulators. Our experience cuts across industries that include chemicals, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, consumer products, automotive products, aerospace, technology and social media, and e-commerce. We are known for our ability to make complex scientific and technical arguments clear and compelling in the courtroom.
Ranked Band 1 Nationwide by Chambers USA in the Product Liability & Mass Torts (Highly Regarded) and Product Liability (Toxic Tort) categories, our practice draws on Gibson Dunn’s powerhouse bench in appellate, constitutional, environmental, administrative, and class action law. Our cross-practice collaboration is not aspirational — it is operational from day one. Our product-liability teams are reinforced by litigators steeped in these complementary areas of law, giving us an edge in multidimensional battles and enabling us to deliver innovative, efficient, and lasting results across multiple jurisdictions.
Clients don’t just get litigators; they get Gibson Dunn litigators — among the very best anywhere. This is a practice built not only on excellence, but on innovation, teamwork, and relentless dedication to our clients.
Gibson Dunn "is an esteemed litigation practice with considerable strength in consumer class actions and nationwide product liability claims. The team frequently acts on large-scale federal cases in the automobile and technology sectors. It fields a strong appellate team with a notable track record in big-ticket proceedings, complemented by a leading trial team. It has further experience in toxic torts, environmental cases and mass torts in the food and beverage industry."
Chambers USA
Experience
Recent representations include:
- Large Consumer Products Company: Serving as strategic and legal lead counsel for a large consumer products company in nationwide PFAS litigation. This includes lawsuits filed by states, municipalities, and individuals alleging environmental and health-related harms due to PFAS contamination. Many of these cases are consolidated in a multidistrict litigation (MDL) proceeding in federal court in South Carolina, one of the largest environmental MDLs in U.S. history.
- Global Life Sciences Company: Representing a global life sciences company (which purchased a chemical company in 2018) in litigation brought by states, municipalities, and individuals in federal and state courts across the country, alleging that polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have escaped from finished products and are causing personal injury, contaminating the environment, and causing property damage.
- Leading Tobacco Company: Served as nationwide counsel for more than two decades to a leading tobacco company in complex and high-stakes product liability litigation across the country, achieving precedent-setting victories and shaping national defense strategy.
- Major Retailer: Served as lead counsel for a leading retailer in multi-district litigation involving alleged pest infestation at a distribution center. Negotiated favorable settlement resolving all claims.
- Leading Car Manufacturer: Retained on appeal and helped persuade the Georgia Court of Appeals to vacate a $1.7 billion jury verdict against a leading car manufacturer, the largest jury award in Georgia history, in a design defect case.
- Johnson & Johnson: Served as lead trial counsel for Johnson & Johnson in litigation alleging that the talc used to manufacture its baby powder contained asbestos that caused the plaintiff’s mesothelioma.
- Major Food Manufacturer: Won dismissal with prejudice for a major food manufacturer of an action alleging that our client engineered and marketed “addictive” ultra-processed foods causing plaintiffs to get diabetes and fatty-liver disease. The case was widely reported as the first ever “UPF” case of its kind, and received significant media attention as a landmark, bellwether lawsuit.
- Leading Smartphone Manufacturer: Defended a leading smartphone manufacturer in several class actions involving cutting-edge data privacy and product liability issues. Using creative and aggressive litigation strategies, secured dismissal of many of these cases at the pleading and summary judgment stages.
- Various Coffee Industry Companies: Secured a significant victory for Nestlé USA, Starbucks, J.M. Smucker Company, The Kraft Heinz Company, Keurig Dr. Pepper, and over 50 other coffee industry members in a long-running Proposition 65 lawsuit by successfully challenging the need for cancer warnings on coffee products and defending against claims for attorneys’ fees and expert costs, with the California Supreme Court denying further review and final judgment entered for the defendants.