Allison M. Brown

In 2022, Ms. Brown was honored with The American Lawyer’s coveted Litigator of the Year award for her “herculean efforts on behalf of clients facing existential challenges.” Noting her “against all odds” jury trial wins, the AmLaw profile also described her work in “the most high-stakes, high profile cases” as “off the charts.”

The American Lawyer also named Ms. Brown as a 2022 Northeast Trailblazer, an honor recognizing attorneys who “are truly agents of change” and “have moved the needle in the industry.” In 2020 and 2021, she was recognized as a Law360 Product Liability MVP in its ranking of the five most valuable product liability lawyers in the country for her “string of victories representing Johnson & Johnson” in high-stakes jury trials. In 2021, she was named one of 10 Powerhouse Trial Attorneys for being an “expert litigator who navigates high stakes trials” by Courtroom View Network (CVN), which, along with other online video platforms, regularly features her trials. Clients describe Ms. Brown as a “go-to for major products litigation” and a trial lawyer they “trust immensely,” praising her “unique style” in the courtroom and her “down to earth” approach to talking to juries.

As lead trial counsel, she recently secured three major back-to-back-to-back jury trial wins for Johnson & Johnson in notoriously plaintiff-friendly jurisdictions where plaintiffs sought billions of dollars in damages for alleged personal injuries resulting from their use of Johnson’s baby powder. In late December 2019, Ms. Brown secured a defense verdict in the city of St. Louis following a two-week jury trial in which the plaintiff sought $5 billion in damages, which landed as No. 2 on CVN’s list of the Top 10 Most Impressive Defense Verdicts of 2019. In July 2021, she was recognized as The American Lawyer’s Litigator of the Week for securing a unanimous defense verdict in a three-week jury trial held outside of the city of St. Louis, despite significant and unexpected evidentiary exclusions during trial. In September 2021, she secured a unanimous defense verdict in less than an hour in a three-week jury trial in which three plaintiffs sought $1 billion in damages, which again earned Ms. Brown recognition from by The American Lawyer as a Litigator of the Week runner-up.

Some of Ms. Brown’s additional notable representations include serving as lead trial counsel for:

• Johnson & Johnson in:
• a civil action in South Carolina state court alleging that exposure to Johnson’s Baby Powder caused the claimants to contract mesothelioma. Following a two-week jury trial in May 2019, the jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of the company
• a civil action in New Jersey state court alleging that exposure to Johnson’s Baby Powder caused the claimants to contract mesothelioma. Following a four-week jury trial, in March 2019 the jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of the company
• a civil action in New Jersey state court alleging that exposure to Johnson’s Baby Powder caused the claimants to contract mesothelioma. Following a four-week jury trial, the jury returned a unanimous defense verdict in favor of the company
• a multidistrict litigation in New Jersey federal court involving nearly 40,000 plaintiffs alleging they contracted ovarian cancer from exposure to Johnson’s Baby Powder. Following a two-week Daubert general causation hearing, the court denied all of the plaintiffs’ challenges to Johnson & Johnson’s experts and excluded significant proffered testimony from two of the plaintiffs’ experts
• a civil action in Washington state court alleging that exposure to Johnson’s Baby Powder caused the claimants to contract mesothelioma. Before the defendants began their presentation of evidence in this virtual jury trial, the case favorably resolved
• a civil action in California state court alleging that exposure to Johnson’s Baby Powder caused the claimants to contract mesothelioma. Shortly after the start of this virtual jury trial, the case ended in a mistrial at the request of the plaintiff’s counsel
• Ethicon in:
• a civil action in federal court in Georgia with claimants alleging personal injuries from pelvic mesh. The case was favorably resolved on the morning of opening statements
• a civil action in federal court in Ohio with claimants alleging personal injuries from pelvic mesh. The case favorably resolved on the eve of trial
• a civil action in federal court in Kansas with claimants alleging personal injuries from pelvic mesh. The case was favorably resolved on the eve of trial
• a civil action in federal court in Florida with claimants alleging personal injuries from pelvic mesh. This trial resulted in a unanimous defense verdict for Ethicon
• Janssen Products in a False Claims Act case alleging billions of dollars in damages related to two HIV medicines. This trial is expected to begin in 2024
• Colgate-Palmolive Company in a civil action in California state court with claimants alleging they contracted mesothelioma from exposure to Cashmere Bouquet talcum powder. This case was favorably resolved during jury selection
• Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceutical Co. in the Valsartan multidistrict litigation where the plaintiffs allege economic loss and personal injuries from alleged trace contamination of a medicine for high blood pressure. This trial is expected to begin in 2023

Other representative matters include acting as trial counsel for:

• Repsol, a Spanish energy company, in a billion-dollar complex environmental action concerning pollution of the Passaic River in New Jersey
• Procter & Gamble in a consumer fraud class action lawsuit regarding a popular probiotic
• a transportation equipment leasing company in an international mass tort arising from a major train derailment in Lac Megantic, Quebec, Canada, which involved complex bankruptcy and contractual indemnification issues
• a national office supply company in a high-profile antitrust case brought by the Federal Trade Commission to block a multibillion dollar merger

Ms. Brown has earned numerous awards from Benchmark Litigation, which has noted her as a “standout trial lawyer.” She has been named a Benchmark 2023 Litigation Star and National Practice Area Star, and has previously been named a Product Liability Attorney of the Year. She also has been named one of its Top 100 Trial Lawyers in America (2020-23) for “being the best in breed at the nuanced practice of trial law,” and among its Top 250 Women in Litigation (2019-24) as one of the “leading female litigators ... participating in some of the most impactful litigation matters in recent history.”

She also was named Litigator of the Week three times by The American Lawyer (September 2021, March 2019 and October 2018) and Trial Lawyer of the Year – Non-IP Litigation by LMG Life Sciences in 2020. Additionally, Ms. Brown was honored as a 2019 Litigation Trailblazer by The National Law Journal and has been recognized repeatedly by Chambers USA, The Legal 500, Law360, The Best Lawyers in America and Lawdragon, which has named her one of its 500 Leading Global Litigators and 500 Leading Litigators in America.