Sara Deskins Tucker, Womble Bond Dickinson, Atlanta. (Courtesy photo)

Womble Bond Dickinson has landed a litigation partner, Sara Tucker, from Greenberg Traurig's nationally known product liability defense group.

Tucker, 36, started at Womble on Thursday. She had joined Greenberg Traurig in 2010 from Alston & Bird to work on its pharmaceutical and medical device litigation team led by Lori Cohen.

Cohen, who also chairs Greenberg's pharma and medical device litigation team from Atlanta and co-chairs its global litigation practice, has racked up a string of defense verdicts at trial in mass tort and high-stakes single-plaintiff cases.

Tucker said Cohen was a great mentor, but she was ready to spread her wings.

"I wanted to continue building my own book and developing my own clients," said Tucker,  who has recently been working on multidistrict litigation for vaginal mesh trials. "My end goal is to be the first chair trial attorney. There aren't that many out there who are women—and I think it's a real need that clients are looking for."

Womble has a strong mass torts and product liability practice of its own. Joel Pieper, the Atlanta managing partner and a practice member, said it's a focus for Womble and one of its largest practice groups, with about 85 lawyers.

"There are a fairly small number of attorneys in the country that try these [medical device] cases," Pieper said. "We spotted Sara as a rising star who in a short amount of time has risen to the ranks of some very elite company."

The American Bar Association named Tucker to its 2019 On the Rise class, as did the Daily Report in 2017.

Womble's promotion of diversity is a competitive advantage, Tucker said, since it mirrors the focus of corporate clients or potential clients. Womble is one of 64 U.S. firms that just earned Mansfield Rule certification, for ensuring that women and diverse candidates make up at least 30% of those considered for leadership roles and equity partner promotions.

"I was impressed with the depth of Womble's bench in the Southeast—and the firm's vision," Tucker said, referring to its trans-Atlantic merger in 2017 with U.K. firm Bond Dickinson that expanded its footprint to Europe. Products liability litigation is less common there, she said, but a lot of life sciences companies are opening U.K. offices.

Tucker is very active in pro bono. She won a dismissal last week of a highly publicized wrongful death suit over an Alabama abortion. Ryan Magers, a teenager who claimed to be the unborn embryo's father, brought suit on its behalf against her client, the Alabama Women's Center for Reproductive Alternatives, where his ex-girlfriend had the abortion. Judge Chris Comer of the Circuit Court of Madison County on Aug. 30 dismissed Magers' monetary damages claim for the embryo's estate because abortion remains legal in Alabama and federally.

"This is a very important women's rights issue, so I was thrilled to work on a case that impacts all the women in Alabama," Tucker said.

She's currently representing a Salvadoran woman and her son in an asylum case. U.S. immigration authorities granted the two status to pursue asylum because it found credible her fears of gang activity and unlawful persecution or even death. However, the woman and her son did not cross the Mexican border at an official port of entry, so the Trump administration has claimed they are ineligible for asylum.

In a statement about Tucker's departure, her former firm said:  "On behalf of Greenberg Traurig's products liability group, which includes more than 100 attorneys nationally and over 60 team members in Atlanta, we wish Sara success in the future."