Sidley partner Debra Pole is featured in the cover story of the January 2013 edition of The American Lawyer magazine. The story focuses on the representation Ms. Pole and a group of women trial lawyers provided to Baxter Healthcare Corporation in the company’s defense of 15,000 product liability claims surrounding its breast implant litigation, work that led to the lawyers becoming “household names in the products liability bar.”
Ms. Pole played a significant role in Baxter’s defense strategy against these claims. As national trial counsel for the breast implant litigation, she had oversight of the trial teams that ultimately handled product liability cases around the country. She also served as the lead lawyer in eight of Baxter’s 25 product liability trials.
Ms. Pole began representing Baxter in 1984 and took its first product liability case on this particular product to trial, obtaining a defense verdict in 1991. Marla Persky, formerly the chief of litigation at Baxter, told The American Lawyer that Ms. Pole’s performance in the 1991 trial was “impeccable.”
Ms. Pole’s role with Baxter gained her national recognition in the area of products liability litigation. She has stated that her appointment as national trial counsel for Baxter’s product liability litigation was the defining moment in her career.
