From left: Raymond Biagini, Phyllis Jones, Michael Imbroscio, Paul Schmidt and Shankar Duraiswamy.

The leaders of Covington & Burling's products liability and mass torts practice credit their success in recent years to the quality of the group's 61 lawyers and collegiality they show to each other and the other law firms they work with.

The firm doesn't dole out origination credit, and its compensation system "leads to the sense of sharing and getting the right people involved in the cases at the right time," without having to jockey for a certain position, says Michael Imbroscio, a co-chair of the group.

"In many ways, our group is a microcosm of our firm more broadly," Imbroscio says. "Most of the cases in this space … involve multiple firms aligned to help a particular client in a major problem. There are different firms that play different roles. What we're known for is working really well in that setting, because of our culture, because of our collegiality."

Covington & Burling secured a major victory for Hoffmann-La Roche in 2018 after persuading the New Jersey Supreme Court that it should exclude the expert testimony plaintiffs used to support their claims that Accutane, an acne medicine, caused Crohn's disease. That decision led to the dismissal of 2,100 cases in New Jersey, protecting Accutane from enormous potential damages. One Accutane case, which Covington had overturned on appeal, netted the plaintiff $25 million from the Swiss health care company.

Phyllis Jones, the vice chair of Covington's practice, says that, because of the scale of products liability cases, they represent major exposure for clients. It's on her team to find ways to streamline "the universe of plaintiffs."

Finalists: Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer; Dechert; O'Melveny & Myers.

"That's really valuable and meaningful for clients who are really interested in trying to focus on the business of what they do on a day-to-day basis," Jones adds.

Boehringer Ingelheim faced a predicament when its blood thinner, Pradaxa, was accused of causing serious or even fatal bleeding in patients. A similar lawsuit waged against the makers of Xarelto, another blood thinner, initially garnered a $28 million result for those plaintiffs.

In Boehringer's case, the German pharmaceutical company was staring down nearly 3,000 lawsuits in Connecticut state court. It brought in Covington, which successfully represented the company through three bellwether trials.

The Covington team also had a role in crafting the $260 million settlement struck in Ohio on the eve of the first jury trial in the opioid litigation. Imbroscio and his colleagues are representing McKesson, one of the largest distributors of pharmaceuticals in the United States.

The trials and settlements the Covington products liability and mass torts practice works on require a lot of trust on the part of leaders like Imbroscio, Jones and Paul Schmidt, who co-leads the practice with Imbroscio. But they have plenty of trust to go around—and they're not worried about who might get credit for what.

"To me, a trial like that encapsulates everything we're talking about in terms of our practice—the ability to do a case like that and still manage our work," Schmidt says of the opioid litigation.

The future will be busy for the Covington team. It's playing a central role in defending Monsanto from 12,000 lawsuits over allegations that its weed killer, Roundup, causes cancer. It is also representing Eli Lilly and Co. as it fights off claims that Cialis, an erectile dysfunction medicine, can cause melanoma, a type of skin cancer.

Chris Gramling, Eli Lilly's head of litigation, recognizes that the firm is an asset for his company and plenty more.

"Covington's strategic excellence extends from early pre-suit counseling to critical litigation and trial work," Gramling says. "Its experienced, collaborative and diverse teams continue to achieve impressive results for numerous clients in their most sensitive matters."