Morgan Branch

MORGAN BRANCH is a trial lawyer and litigation strategist who helps clients in their most important trial-level litigation matters. Morgan represents life sciences, pharmaceutical, medical device, food and beverage, chemical, manufacturing, commercial, and other consumer goods clients in complex product liability cases, including mass torts, state coordinated proceedings, and multi-district litigation (MDL) in state and federal courts across the country. She has served as trial counsel and/or national counsel and/or trial counsel in numerous cases; has taken/defended critical fact and expert witness depositions all over the world; and has briefed and argued successful dispositive, evidentiary, and discovery motions in both state and federal court. In addition to serving as trial counsel in high-stakes trials, she also has significant experience managing and developing bellwether trial strategy in coordinated proceedings.

Within these areas, Morgan counsels clients at every stage of the litigation process, from case management and discovery strategy through fact and expert witness depositions, mediation, jury exercises, arbitrations, and high-stakes trials.

Representative Trial Work

• Represented Monsanto as part of a winning trial team that secured a complete defense jury verdict in a product liability trial in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas after a four-week trial involving allegations that Monsanto’s weedkiller, Roundup, caused the plaintiff’s cancer.
• Represented Monsanto in a closely-watched five-week product liability trial in Missouri state court involving allegations that Monsanto’s weedkiller, Roundup, caused the plaintiff’s cancer.
• Co-lead trial counsel representing plaintiff in Section 1983 civil rights action, Wyatt v. Owens (W.D. Va.), alleging use of unconstitutionally excessive force in effecting arrest. Jury returned a plaintiff’s verdict and awarded substantial compensatory and punitive damages.
• Co-lead trial counsel representing team member in first bellwether case defending a major medical device company in high-profile product liability litigation concerning a Class III medical device.
• Represented an Alabama Death Row inmate as part of Sidley’s Capital Litigation Project, in a petition for post-conviction relief during a week-long trial in July 2021.
• National and trial counsel for a major food and beverage company in winning a motion to dismiss in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in a first of its kind product liability action challenging the manufacturing and marketing of so-called “ultra-processed foods.”

Representative Litigation Matters

• National counsel rigorously defending a major medical device company in high-profile product liability litigation concerning a Class III medical device. Served as a trial team member for the first bellwether case, which resolved shortly before trial.
• National counsel for a pharmaceutical company in a series of product liability actions in state and Federal court involving challenges to a life-saving medication, including failure to warn, fraud, and design defect claims.
• Coordination counsel for Monsanto in product liability matters related to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
• Counsel for pharmaceutical company in consumer class action involving allegations of deceptive labeling.

• SidleyWomen
• Women’s Bar Association of D.C.