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Product Liability

Members of our product liability practice have significant expertise and experience in the defense of product liability claims. The lawyers in this area have represented manufacturers of many types of machines, devices, and products, including power plant components, heavy equipment, industrial systems and consumer goods, as well as product designers, distributors, and retailers, in product liability actions.

We help clients defend product liability claims in state and federal courts nationwide ranging from individual actions to major class actions. This challenging area of the law requires continual analysis and extension of defenses available to manufacturers of products. The lawyers who practice in this area remain current in addressing the issues that arise in products liability cases, including the following:

  • Claims based on defective design or defective manufacture of a product;
  • Claims based on inadequate warning or failure to warn (including original warnings and post-marketing warnings), including claims addressing the content and delivery of the warning; and
  • Theories of defense available to manufacturers of products, including definition of a product, assumption of risk, substantial alteration of the product, the open and obvious condition of the product, “state of the art” and unforeseeable misuse of the product.

July 20, 2022 – Ulmer & Berne LLP is pleased to announce the addition of Shana Ortiz See as a Partner in the firm’s highly respected and nationally ranked Product Liability Practice Group. See joins Ulmer’s Columbus office where she will continue her practice focusing on the defense of complex...

January 11, 2022 – Ulmer & Berne LLP is pleased to announce the addition of two associates to the firm. Joshua C. Berns joins the Construction Practice Group and Sarah Katz joins the Product Liability Practice Group. Berns joins Ulmer’s Columbus office where he focuses his practice on resolving construction...

November 9, 2021 – Ulmer & Berne LLP is pleased to announce the addition of two associates to its award-winning Litigation Department. Melissa A. Springer joins the Product Liability Practice Group and Emma M. Tomsick joins the Business Litigation Practice Group. Springer joins Ulmer’s Cincinnati office where she focuses her...

February 16, 2021 – Ulmer & Berne LLP is pleased to announce the addition of two experienced associates to its Cleveland office. Michael J. Scheiman joins the Business Law Practice Group and Emmanuel I. Sanders joins the Product Liability Practice Group. Scheiman is a business attorney who focuses his practice...

December 22, 2020 – Ulmer & Berne LLP is pleased to announce its selection of Partner Michael S. Tucker as Group Leader of the Corporate Restructuring & Creditors’ Rights Practice Group, along with the promotion of Lisa Marlo Kuhnell to Counsel, both effective January 1, 2021. Tucker, a member of...

September 22, 2020 – Ulmer & Berne LLP is pleased to announce the addition of Associate Kevin M. Bandy to the firm’s Cincinnati office where he joins the Product Liability Practice Group. Bandy focuses on defending product liability litigation and pharmaceutical, medical device, and mass tort claims. He has experience...

March 11, 2020 – As coronavirus paralyzes the world with fear, bioscience enterprise The Gilla Company has developed and independently tested a product shown to be at least 99.9% effective in killing the deadly virus. The product, Gilla (pronounced “jilä”), received EPA registration last year as a sanitizer and disinfectant...

Ulmer & Berne LLP is pleased to announce that the Cleveland Jewish News has named Associate Michael Davis Hoenig to its 2019 list of “18 Difference Makers,” which honors and celebrates individuals making invaluable contributions for the betterment of Northeast Ohio’s Jewish community. The “18 Difference Makers” awards were created to recognize...

Ulmer & Berne LLP is pleased to share that Associate Michael Davis Hoenig has joined the Board of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Cleveland regional office, which serves Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Western Pennsylvania. The ADL is dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism and threats to our democracy, including cyber hate, bullying, bias in...

Ulmer & Berne LLP continues to grow its Product Liability Practice Group with the addition of four talented associates – Elaine M. Stoll, Michelle M. Thompson, Kaeanna K. Wood, and Mengxue Xie. Stoll, Thompson, and Wood join the group in the firm’s Cincinnati office, while Xie is based in the firm’s Cleveland office. “We’re...

Ulmer & Berne LLP is pleased to announce that 11 of the firm’s attorneys have been recognized by Cincy Magazine as Cincy Leading Lawyers. Attorneys selected as Cincy Leading Lawyers are considered to be the best in the Tristate area. Members of Greater Cincinnati’s legal community nominate their colleagues each...

Representative Experience

  • Secured reversal in Ohio Supreme Court of trial court’s certification of class action in OxyContin litigation.
  • Secured dismissal of several product liability lawsuits involving asbestos containing products in Madison County, Illinois.
  • Currently serving as national counsel for four companies in multidistrict litigation involving dietary supplements containing ephedra currently pending in the Southern District of New York. Appointed to Defendants’ Steering Committee for MDL and have primary responsibility for Daubert hearing and coordination of defense effort relative to experts and causation issues.
  • Serving as national counsel for a pharmaceutical manufacturer in multidistrict litigation pending in the District of Arkansas and state coordinated proceedings involving claims arising from use of hormone replacement therapy products. Appointed to Defendants Steering Committee for MDL.
  • Served as national counsel for welding rod distributor in welding rod product liability litigation. To date, have succeeded in having company summarily dismissed from more than 17,000 cases in nearly two dozen states, including the multi-district litigation pending in the Northern District of Ohio.
  • Secured dismissal of welding rod product liability claim brought by more than 3,200 plaintiffs in state court in West Virginia.
  • Secured dismissal of $40 million product liability action arising out of an explosion at a data center in Salt Lake City, allegedly caused by onsite computer systems.
  • Successfully defended product liability action involving heat wraps for one of the world’s largest consumer products manufacturers.
  • Secured summary judgment in trial court in case involving allegations that ingestion of prescription drug caused father to murder two-year-old son. The trial court’s decision was affirmed by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. This case attracted national attention, including a story on the CBS News program “48 Hours”.
  • National counsel for multiple pharmaceutical companies for their cases involving claims arising from use of anti-depressant drugs. Secured dismissal of claims against clients on a number of occasions during early part of proceedings as a result of thorough fact investigation and technical expertise.