When it comes to defending product liability lawsuits, it’s tough to top Greenberg Traurig’s Lori Cohen and her 98.3% winning percentage – she’s 57-for-58 lifetime in the courtroom.*
Cohen, a shareholder at the law firm, is chairwoman of GT’s pharmaceutical, medical device & healthcare litigation practice and its trial practice group. Based in Atlanta, she’s saved her medical device and pharmaceutical clients at least $174 million in potential damages over the years.
We asked Cohen recently about her best advice for medtech makers, the secret to winning over juries in cases with sympathetic plaintiffs and when it’s time to settle.
Below, edited for clarity, is a transcript of our conversation:
MassDevice: You’ve had a long and very successful background in product liability defense. What’s the 1st thing you tell medical device companies who are looking to protect themselves against either existing or potential liability claims?
Lori Cohen: Obviously, the most important thing is to have a good product and all that goes with that, including, obviously, good testing, good compliance, regulatory compliance, good safety measures, that sort of thing. If a company, a client starts with a good product then that’s obviously a great place to start and an important place to start and then everything builds from there.