What if all those Vioxx cases don't pan out for the plaintiffs' lawyers who spent millions of dollars advertising for them? The lawyers might go broke. As I said here, however, one group of lawyers is certain to strike it rich: the defense lawyers. It's a hunch that's been confirmed by a recent article from Law.com, "Awash in Vioxx Suits, Merck Is Recruiting Big-Time Help," which states:
Merck could pay well over $100 million to outside law firms in 2005 for litigation related to Vioxx, of which the lead firm could get as much as $20 million to $50 million, says one of the company's former legal consultants.
The article specifically mentions these defense firms as possible recipients of Vioxx work: Hughes Hubbard & Reed; Reed Smith; Dechert; Drinker, Biddle & Reath; and Shook, Hardy & Bacon.
One defense firm the article doesn't mention is Bryan Cave, which I can confirm has the Vioxx business in St. Louis and Southern Illinois. Congratulations to Dan Ball, the senior partner on the files, who once worked at Thompson Coburn and taught me never to write "the exact same" in anything I handed in to him. It's a redundancy that would drive him nuts, and I've never forgotten the lesson--as well as a number of others.
But it's no time to get teary-eyed and sentimental. After all, it seems we're soon going to be on opposite sides of some of the exact same cases!
Somewhat related post: Braggin' Rights: Carey & Danis
UPDATE 2/14/04. For all of my collected Vioxx posts, look here. If you are (a) someone who was harmed by Vioxx or (b) a lawyer who wants to refer your Vioxx cases to a highly-competent team of mass-tort lawyers, look here.
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