Joe is a versatile litigator with extensive trial and appellate experience. He handles a broad range of complex matters, including product liability defense, insurance coverage disputes, and complex commercial and bankruptcy-associated litigation. Joe is particularly known for his experience representing pharmaceutical and biotechnology product manufacturers in product liability cases filed throughout the United States, and in related litigation management and counseling. He chairs the firm’s Product Liability & Complex Tort Litigation Practice, as well as an interdisciplinary working group focused on the legal and policy implications of emerging artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics technologies.
Joe specializes in complex commercial and business litigation, products liability, and insurance coverage matters. He chairs the firm’s Product Liability & Complex Tort Litigation Practice.
Joe has extensive experience in complex civil litigation. He has tried cases on behalf of Johnson & Johnson, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Ford Motor Company, Eagle-Picher Industries, Fisher-Price Toys, Cummins Engines, Hollingsworth and Vose Co., and Exxon Corporation, among others. He has represented Georgia-Pacific Corp., General Electric Co., and Johnson & Johnson, among others, in class action litigation. Joe has served in the role of both national and regional counsel for products liability matters.
His trial experience in insurance coverage litigation includes winning each of the three cases that he has tried to verdict in multimillion-dollar comprehensive coverage actions. In addition to his trial experience, Joe has extensive experience representing clients in ADR proceedings, including numerous mediations and arbitrations.
Joe has also argued numerous appeals in both state and federal courts. He has appeared on behalf of clients pro hac vice in many states. He is a member of the bars of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Appeals Court, the United States District Court (Massachusetts), and the United States Courts of Appeals for the First, Second, and Third Circuits.
Joe planned, chaired, and spoken at numerous ACI Drug and Medical Device Litigation conferences, a major annual meeting of attorneys who defend pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotechnology companies in products liability litigation. Joe has testified before the Massachusetts Legislature on important pieces of legislation impacting product manufacturers and the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
While at the George Washington University School of Law, he was an editor of the law review.
Education
- George Washington University (JD)
- Boston College (BA)
Experience
- National counsel to a major bio-pharmaceutical corporation on national products liability litigation involving its biologic pharmaceutical products.
- Currently representing a European-based publicly traded pharmaceutical company as coordinating counsel in multi-jurisdictional product liability disputes involving an FDA-regulated pharmaceutical drug.
- Represented a pharmaceutical company in wrongful death and personal injury actions involving participants in phase III clinical trials.
- Defended a dental product manufacturer in a products liability action involving the alleged failure of its products and resulting injuries. Obtained defense verdict after trial on the merits.
- Represented a pharmaceutical company in a wrongful death action brought by the estate of a person who died while participating in a company-sponsored phase III clinical trial.
- Represented a large diversified manufacturing, mining and electronics defense and space industries company supporting the construction, in a comprehensive asbestos insurance coverage dispute involving the company’s historic asbestos related liabilities and hundreds of millions of dollars.
- Represented a designer and erector of electric power plants in a comprehensive insurance coverage action, including excess insurance issues, relating to thousands of asbestos related liability claims arising out of the company’s operations over many decades.
- Advised a biotechnology diagnostics company in connection with the discovery of errors in certain marketed generic tests.
- Represented a specialty paper manufacturer in a comprehensive insurance coverage action, including excess insurance issues, involving coverage for asbestos related liabilities arising out of the company’s sale in the early 1950’s of asbestos containing paper used in certain cigarette filters.
- Advised a private equity firm with respect to a target medical device company's product liability exposure and associated liability insurance program.
Recognition & Awards
- Massachusetts Super Lawyers: Personal Injury - Products: Defense (2004 – 2017)
- Best Lawyers in America: Product Liability Litigation (2012 – 2019)
- International Law Office and Lexology: “Client Choice Award” – Product Regulation & Liability, Massachusetts (2013 – 2015)
- Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent
- Order of the Coif
- Phi Beta Kappa
Involvement
- Chair, Board of Directors, New England Legal Foundation (NELF)
- Member, Fellows of the American Bar Foundation
- Member, Fellows of the Massachusetts Bar Foundation
- Member, American Bar Association (ABA) Products Liability Committee
- Member, ABA Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Litigation Subcommittee
- Member, International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC)
- Member, Defense Research Institute (DRI)
- Faculty member, 2010 IADC Trial Academy
- Member, Boston Chapter of the American Inns of Court
- Past Vice chair, Board of Directors, New England Legal Foundation (NELF)
- Past co-chair, Law and Policy Committee of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Industry Council
- Past Board member, George Washington University Law Alumni Association
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