After a jury came out with a defense verdict in a New Jersey talcum powder case last year, Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Ana Viscomi found herself preparing for a second trial involving the same attorney for Johnson & Johnson, Diane Sullivan.

Sullivan's overarching theme during her closing argument in the prior trial was to attack the plaintiffs' lawyers. At a hearing ahead of the second trial, the judge said she was "horrified" at that conduct, and barred Sullivan from doing it again.

"I really think you went beyond," the judge told Sullivan, a partner in the New York and Princeton, New Jersey, offices of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, at the July 11 pretrial hearing, according to the transcript. "There was so much evidence that you could have commented upon, but the running theme of it was lawyer bashing. And it's not what we do. It's prohibited by the rules. It doesn't fall within the civility and professionalism that I know and that you know and that you have extended during the course of your career, and we can't have that happen here."