WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Lanier Law Firm was among 24 national firms honored for excellence in appellate work during the past year at the National Law Journal’s Legal Awards event in Washington, D.C. The annual awards highlight the top litigation and appellate practices in specific areas, as well as individual attorneys.
As one of the leading trial firms in the nation, The Lanier Law Firm has achieved significant verdicts in high-profile pharmaceutical, personal injury and product liability cases. Those verdicts have included multibillion-dollar awards against corporations such as Johnson & Johnson, DePuy Orthopaedics, Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly & Co.
“This award acknowledges that attorneys in our Issues and Appeals Section have successfully defended and protected these verdicts, which have provided substantial compensation to victims,” says the firm’s founder Mark Lanier. “Much of this success is due to having members of the firm’s appellate team closely monitor and participate in trial planning, strategy and presentation, enabling us to effectively counter the defendants’ claims on appeal.”
Key members of this team include:
- Kevin P. Parker, head of The Lanier Law Firm’s appellate section, has personally handled more than 20 cases at the appellate court level.
- Ken Starr, a former U.S. Solicitor General who has argued 36 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and served as United States Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia.
- Harvey Brown, author of more than 1,000 judicial opinions as a District Judge and as a Justice on the 1st Court of Appeals for the State of Texas.
Members of the appellate team have secured numerous favorable rulings before the Supreme Court of Texas and at several other state and federal Circuit Courts of Appeal.
That work includes securing a milestone opinion from the Supreme Court of Texas denying the sovereign immunity protection claims of GTECH, a contractor that produced and printed scratch-off tickets for the Texas Lottery Commission. The June 2020 opinion clarified that government contractors do not enjoy such protections, even if operating under the direction of a state or municipal agency in Texas.
In addition, in 2020 the Lanier Law Firm appellate team secured a $2.11 billion judgment from a Missouri Court of Appeals against Johnson & Johnson. While reducing the damages awarded by the trial court jury, the 83-page opinion affirmed that J&J failed to warn consumers about the potential for asbestos contamination in the company’s talcum powder products, which led to the ovarian cancer diagnoses of the 22 plaintiffs. In rejecting numerous arguments by J&J attorneys seeking reversal of the jury’s verdict, the court found that the “Plaintiffs proved with convincing clarity that Defendants engaged in outrageous conduct because of an evil motive or reckless indifference.”
The Missouri Supreme Court declined to hear further appellate motions, and in May 2021 the U.S. Supreme Court denied J&J’s writ for certiorari in the case, leaving the appellate court award intact.
About the Lanier Law Firm
For more than 30 years, the men and women at The Lanier Law Firm have worked tirelessly, throughout the United States, to find unique and effective solutions for their clients. More than 60 skilled attorneys practice law in a broad array of areas, including business litigation, pharmaceutical litigation, asbestos exposure, oil and gas litigation, personal injury as well as defective and dangerous products, among others. Named an Elite Trial Law Firm by The National Law Journal, The Lanier Law Firm has offices in Houston, New York and Los Angeles.
