William V. Essig

Product Liability and Mass Tort

Bill defends strict liability, negligence and wrongful death cases involving prescription and over-the-counter drugs and medical devices. With diverse litigation experience, Bill contributes to product liability trial teams, as well as national coordinating counsel strategy and discovery efforts. Bill recently led a team of partners from several firms to prepare and defend company detail representatives in a pharmaceutical MDL.

Bill has defended manufacturers of antibiotics, anticoagulants, anticonvulsants, antipsychotics, cough and cold medications, and oral contraceptives. Bill has represented makers of medical products such as latex gloves, surgical staplers and clip appliers, knee replacements, orthopedic implants, surgical mesh, contact lenses, vaccines and tampons.

Representative Experience

• Trial team member defending prescription antipsychotic medication in various products liability actions; co-trial counsel in defense verdict in a pharmaceutical failure-to-warn case in the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia; also involved in expert and company witness depositions on scientific and medical issues
• Member of trial team and national counsel team defending a prescription fluoroquinolone medication in more than 1,500 cases in a MDL litigation and more than 2,000 cases in state courts; participated in four trials to verdict to date (three defense verdicts); also involved in depositions of expert witnesses, company witnesses, prescribing and treating physicians and plaintiffs
• Member of national counsel team defending gadolinium-based contrast agents used in magnetic resonance imaging in products liability MDL and state cases; assisted in briefing and other issues
• Member of national counsel team in latex glove allergy litigation in MDL and more than 30 state courts that obtained defense verdicts in the client’s only two cases tried to verdict; involved in brief writing, witness preparation and taking depositions of plaintiffs, prescribing and treating physicians
• Defending various individual products liability and wrongful death cases involving prescription and over-the-counter medications, surgical staplers and clip appliers, knee replacements, surgical mesh, contact lenses, vaccines, tampons and other products

General and White Collar Litigation

Bill has served as trial counsel in white collar health care fraud litigation, and he has experience defending general commercial litigation, as well as consumer fraud and other class actions.

Representative Experience

• Second-chair trial counsel defending a former enteral nutrition products salesman for Fortune Global 200 corporation in a criminal trial involving federal Medicare anti-kickback statute in the Southern District of Illinois, and wrote successful Rule 29 motion for judgment of acquittal, which the Court granted at the conclusion of the government's case-in-chief
• Member of team representing Big Ten university in highly-publicized wrongful death case brought by Johnnie Cochran on behalf of the family of a football player who died during conditioning drills
• Represented major pharmaceutical companies in consumer fraud class action cases involving allegations related to product efficacy and advertising claims
• Represented product manufacturers in benzene and other toxic tort litigation
• Represented various current and former pharmaceutical marketing professionals in criminal trials and grand jury investigations, as well as representing corporate financial officers in SEC investigations and civil and administrative enforcement proceedings

Faculty Positions

• Northwestern University School of Law — Adjunct Professor, Complex Litigation seminar, 1998-2008

Personal Interests

Prior to law school, Bill was a financial reporter and editor for the AP-Dow Jones International News Service in New York City. At Yale, Bill was the editor-in-chief of the Yale Daily News.