ELIZABETH C. CURTIN, a partner in Sidley’s Chicago office, has extensive experience advising and defending pharmaceutical, medical device, manufacturing and consumer goods clients in complex litigation matters. She provides clients with essential advice at every stage of the litigation process from pretrial litigation to trial, including the coordination of case-specific discovery, depositions, court appearances, strategic planning, expert development, fact investigation and the drafting of pleadings, motions, and briefs in state and federal jurisdictions. She also advises companies on litigation risks associated with business decisions and transactions and performs pre-litigation risk assessments.
Representative engagements:
- Representing a medical device manufacturer in a products liability MDL related to its hip resurfacing devices, culminating in a defense verdict in the first bellwether trial
- Lead counsel for a medical device manufacturer in a nationwide litigation involving adverse event reporting and marketing allegations
- Represented a major medical device company in products liability litigation involving allegations of manufacturing and design defect in state and federal courts
- Tried a case involving alleged chemical exposure and birth defects to a defense verdict in the Circuit Court of Cook County for a manufacturing client
- Represented a major pharmaceutical company in national coordinated litigation involving a cardiac surgery drug, with a particular emphasis on sales and marketing issues and witnesses
Elizabeth has significant experience with FDA regulatory issues, including the interface between regulations and sales and marketing conduct and development of FDA experts for deposition and trial. Also, she has extensive experience with scientific and medical aspects of products liability cases, having deposed medical and scientific fact witness and expert physicians in a variety of fields, and drafted Daubert/Frye motions. She has developed defense experts in areas ranging from FDA regulatory to medical specialties, on a case-specific and national litigation level.
Elizabeth has repeatedly been recognized by Who’s Who Legal Life Sciences (most recently in 2021), where she was described as a “standout name in the product liability space.”