Allison M. Brown

In 2022, Ms. Brown was named as a Northeast Trailblazer by The American Lawyer, an honor recognizing attorneys who “are truly agents of change” and “have moved the needle in the industry.” Additionally, in 2020 and 2021, Ms. Brown was recognized as a Law360 Product Liability MVP in its ranking of the five most valuable product liability lawyers in the country for her “string of victories representing Johnson & Johnson” in high-stakes jury trials. In 2021, she was named by Courtroom View Network (CVN) as one of its 10 Power­house Trial Attorneys for being an “expert litigator who navigates high-stakes trials.” Clients describe Ms. Brown as a “go-to for major products litigation” and a trial lawyer they “trust immensely,” praising her “unique style” in the courtroom and her “down to earth” approach to talking to juries.

As lead trial counsel, Ms. Brown recently secured three major back-to-back-to-back jury trial wins for Johnson & Johnson in notoriously plaintiff-friendly jurisdictions where plaintiffs sought billions of dollars in damages for alleged personal injuries resulting from their use of Johnson’s baby powder. In late December 2019, Ms. Brown secured a defense verdict in the city of St. Louis following a two-week jury trial in which the plaintiff sought $5 billion in damages, which landed as No. 2 on CVN’s list of the Top 10 Most Impressive Defense Verdicts of 2019. In July 2021, she secured a unanimous defense verdict in a three-week jury trial held outside of the city of St. Louis, despite significant and unexpected evidentiary exclusions during trial. Ms. Brown was recognized as The American Lawyer’s Litigator of the Week for this win. In September 2021, she secured a unanimous defense verdict in less than an hour in a three-week jury trial in which three plaintiffs sought $1 billion in damages, which again earned Ms. Brown recognition from by The American Lawyer as a Litigator of the Week runner-up.

Prior to joining Skadden, Ms. Brown served as lead trial counsel in a wide range of matters. Her representations include:

• Johnson & Johnson in:
  • a personal injury action in South Carolina state court alleging contraction of peritoneal mesothelioma from exposure to Johnson’s baby powder. Following a two-week jury trial in May 2019, the jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of the company;
  • a personal injury action in New Jersey state court alleging contraction of pleural mesothelioma from exposure to Johnson’s baby powder. Following a four-week jury trial, in March 2019 the jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of the company;
  • a personal injury action in New Jersey state court alleging contraction of pleural mesothelioma from exposure to Johnson’s baby powder. Following a four-week jury trial, the jury returned a unanimous defense verdict in favor of the company; and
  • a multidistrict litigation in New Jersey federal court involving more than 15,000 plaintiffs alleging they contracted ovarian cancer from exposure to Johnson’s baby powder. Following a two-week Daubert general causation hearing, the court denied all of the plaintiffs’ challenges to Johnson & Johnson’s experts and excluded significant proffered testimony from two of the plaintiffs’ experts.
• Repsol, a Spanish energy company, in a billion-dollar complex environmental action concerning pollution of the Passaic River in New Jersey. Ms. Brown successfully argued a significant summary judgment motion on an alter ego theory of liability, effectively eliminating claims against the company in this decade-long litigation;
• Procter & Gamble in a consumer fraud class action lawsuit regarding a popular probiotic;
• a transportation equipment leasing company in an international mass tort arising from a major train derailment in Lac Megantic, Quebec, Canada, which involved complex bankruptcy and contractual indemnification issues. She also served as lead trial counsel for the same company in a first-of-its-kind multimillion-dollar breach of contract case regarding damage to transportation equipment; and
• a national office supply company in a high-profile antitrust case brought by the Federal Trade Commission to block a multibillion-dollar merger.

In 2019, Ms. Brown was honored as a Litigation Trailblazer by The National Law Journal. Additionally, she was named by Benchmark Litigation as its 2020 Product Liability Attorney of the Year, one of its Top 100 Trial Lawyers in America (2020-22) and one of its Top 250 Women in Litigation (2019-22). She also was named Trial Lawyer of the Year – Non-IP Litigation by LMG Life Sciences in 2020 and Litigator of the Week three times by The American Lawyer (September 2021, March 2019 and October 2018). Additionally, Ms. Brown has been named to The Best Lawyers in America and has been repeatedly recognized by Chambers USA, The Legal 500, Lawdragon and Law360.