Mark Cheffo Named Among Law360’s Product Liability MVPs

Dechert LLP partner Mark Cheffo, co-chair of the firm’s Product Liability and Mass Torts group, has been selected as one of Law360’s MVPs of the Year in the Product Liability category.

Law360 names just five attorneys from each legal practice area after reviewing more than 1,000 submissions. Those selected as MVPs are judged to have achieved the biggest wins or made the most significant contributions to their practice groups in the past year.

Mr. Cheffo, who built his reputation coordinating large-scale litigation for pharmaceuticals manufacturers and medical device makers, arrived at Dechert in May 2018 along with a large and distinguished team of product liability lawyers that included group co-leader Sheila Birnbaum.

Dechert’s refashioned practice now leads in a number of complex, high-profile tort and consumer fraud matters in the pharmaceutical, environmental and medical products sectors. Indeed, the firm occupies a central role in opioid litigation, environmental toxic torts, and in claims involving the use of talc products — the three highest-profile fields in the product liability space.

As national defense co-counsel for Purdue Pharma, Mr. Cheffo is responsible for devising and implementing a national defense strategy for the company in the opioid litigation. The Dechert team has also scored a number of significant wins for Pfizer, obtaining a sweeping Fourth Circuit affirmance of the dismissal by a South Carolina federal court of more than 3,000 claims in the Lipitor MDL and securing affirmance in the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals of an earlier summary judgment for Pfizer in the Zoloft litigation.

After a highly successful year, the team was named “Litigation Department of the Year for Product Liability” by the New York Law Journal and was earlier honored as “Product Liability Group of the Year” by Law360.

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