Allergan Plc. signage is displayed on the exterior of the company's office in Medford, Massachusetts, on June 25, 2019. Photo: Scott Eisen/Bloomberg

Lawyers suing over Allergan Inc.'s breast implant recall have submitted a proposed leadership team of 26 attorneys, nearly half of whom are women.

In a Jan. 17 letter, plaintiffs attorney James Cecchi, of Roseland, New Jersey's Carella, Byrne, Cecchi, Olstein, Brody & Agnello, outlined an "inclusive and diverse" leadership team, which includes four co-lead counsel, three of whom were women. The team of 14 men and 12 women would steer Allergan lawsuits coordinated in multidistrict litigation in the District of New Jersey before U.S. District Judge Brian Martinotti.

Cecchi, who would serve as liaison counsel, said the lawyers assembled the team on their own through phone calls and an in-person meeting Jan. 12.

"Since the creation of the MDL, plaintiffs' counsel have worked diligently and cooperatively, and have spent much time and energy over the past week to self-organize and reach consensus on a leadership proposal to effectively and efficiently manage and prosecute this litigation," he wrote. "In forming this structure, care was taken to ensure that the proposed leadership slate is inclusive and diverse (gender diverse, ethnically diverse, and regionally diverse), and provides an opportunity for some younger up-and-coming lawyers to gain MDL leadership experience."

Martinotti gave other lawyers until Jan. 28 to object or respond to the proposed slate.

Elizabeth Fegan, of Fegan Scott in Chicago, one of four co-lead counsel on the proposed team, said having so many women on the team was by design.

"All of the attorneys were in consensus that given the MDL was focused on important women's health issue, it was really important to have key women leaders as part of the leadership group, as well as newer attorneys who haven't had as much leadership experience have a chance to play a role in MDL leadership," Fegan said.

Jennifer Lenze, with Lenze Lawyers.

Fegan, who is a lead attorney in a sexual abuse class action against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, joins three other proposed co-leads in the Allergan cases: Virginia Buchanan, a shareholder at Levin, Papantonio, Thomas, Mitchell, Rafferty & Proctor in Pensacola, Florida; Jennifer Lenze, of Lenze Lawyers in Manhattan Beach, California; and Shanon Carson of Philadelphia's Berger Montague.

The proposal comes as judges in multidistrict litigation have encouraged the plaintiffs bar to create leadership teams with more diversity in gender, race and age.

"Judge Martinotti was absolutely interested in having a diverse team," Buchanan said. "We were all very much united in that sense and were pleased the judge wanted that. So we all worked together to try to identify a group with a broad range of different experiences, some with MDL experience and some without."

Some of the lawyers on the proposed Allergan team are younger, or new to MDLs.

"I definitely know there are people within firms that typically are more senior members of the firm who would be the ones with leadership positions, but they put up younger attorneys at their firms," Fegan said.

Others are veterans, like Mark Robinson of Newport Beach, California's Robinson Calcagnie, and Christopher Seeger of Seeger Weiss in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, both proposed as additional members of a settlement committee.

The lawsuits allege that Allergan, based in Dublin, knew that its Biocell textured breast implants, in tens of thousands of women, increased the chances of getting anaplastic large cell lymphoma but failed to warn about those risks. Allergan recalled its implants on July 24.

Allergan also has challenged the costs that plaintiffs sought for removal and medical monitoring of the implants, noting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration made no such recommendation for asymptomatic patients.

Women have filed about 40 lawsuits. Last month, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ordered the cases coordinated in New Jersey.

The team includes seven lawyers on a plaintiffs' executive committee, and 12 on a plaintiffs' steering committee, making it among the larger proposed leadership slates in MDLs during the past year. Some judges have pushed for smaller leadership teams.

"The size of the team that has been proposed to the court reflects the fact we anticipate there are going to be thousands of cases filed in this MDL," Carson said.

Several of the lawyers said the larger leadership team was necessary because the cases are a mix of class actions and individual lawsuits, requiring separate specialties. Fegan also said the MDL would be "a big case about the science," with "significant injuries" and millions of documents in discovery.

"We're still getting calls from women just learning now that the implants they have are associated with their risk of developing lymphoma," she said. "In my mind, women are just now going and getting implants removed and getting tested and monitored for a cancer that developed."