Amanda M. Blau

AMANDA BLAU advises and defends leading pharmaceutical, medical device, consumer product, and life sciences companies in complex product liability, mass tort, and commercial litigation. She has significant experience managing federal multidistrict litigation (MDL) and state court coordinated proceedings, representing clients in matters that often carry high financial and reputational stakes.

Amanda is known for her ability to oversee all stages of litigation — from strategic case assessment and briefing, through fact and expert discovery, motions practice, negotiation, jury exercises, and trial. Clients value her pragmatic approach to risk management and litigation avoidance strategies, as well as her ability to partner closely with in-house counsel to achieve favorable outcomes.

Amanda also maintains an active pro bono practice and has been a recipient of the Sidley Austin Pro Bono Award (2018–2024).

While attending law school at the University of Michigan, Amanda successfully argued two family law cases before the Michigan Court of Appeals. Prior to joining Sidley, she was an intern at The Office of White House Counsel and for United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan Judge Judith E. Levy.

• Trial counsel for Monsanto in a five-week product liability trial in Missouri state court involving allegations that the company’s weedkiller, Roundup, caused the plaintiff’s cancer.
• Member of the Monsanto trial team that secured a complete defense jury verdict in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas after a four-week trial involving allegations that Roundup herbicide caused the plaintiff’s cancer.
• Trial counsel for a consumer health products company that obtained a unanimous jury verdict after a five-week trial of claims that client’s talcum powder product contributed to a woman’s ovarian cancer diagnosis.
• A large pharmaceutical company, as national counsel, in a consumer class action litigation where the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed all claims with prejudice. Also, successfully defeated plaintiffs’ petition to coordinate more than 30 product liability lawsuits in a multi-district litigation for this client.
• Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health (BIAH) in a sharply contested litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York.