Stephen McConnell

Firm/Organization: Reed Smith LLP

Latest Articles

New York Holds that Registration to do Business does not Constitute Consent to General Personal Jurisdiction

February 26, 2020

When we see a case title with the same name on both sides of the v, we think of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce, the will contest described by Dickens in Bleak House. That fictional case dragged on for years and throughout the course of the book, ending only when legal expenses devoured all the estate funds. When a case is Surname X vs. Surname X, it is usually a family law matter. That is not the…

Drug & Device Law

Taxotere Court Finds that Distributor was Fraudulently Joined; Denies Remand

By Stephen McConnell

February 19, 2020

Plaintiffs will go to great lengths to stay out of federal court, including naming local defendants against whom the plaintiffs have no real intention of pursuing the lawsuit with even a smidgen of seriousness. Sometimes that is called “improper joinder,” but we prefer the term “fraudulent joinder” because that more accurately captures what is afoot. Why dress up an ugly reality with euphemisms? It is terribly easy for plaintiffs to lob in a local defendant…

Drug & Device Law

D.Utah Rejects Personal Jurisdiction over Parent Company; Trims Claims Against Subsidiary

By Stephen McConnell

February 14, 2020

Don’t stop us if you’ve heard this before, because you have. A plaintiff brings an lawsuit over injuries allegedly from a medical device, sues not only the company that made and marketed the device but also a parent company that did not make or market the device, said parent moves for dismissal for want of personal jurisdiction, and the court grants the motion. That is what happened in Marcovecchio v. Wright Med. Grp., 2019…

Drug & Device Law

Court Keeps Child Custody/Support Issues Out of Hip Implant Case

By Stephen McConnell

February 5, 2020

You have probably heard the old truism about how a person representing him or herself in a lawsuit has a fool for a client. You’d think that having a pro se opponent would make the case a breeze. Not necessarily. When we worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, that work seemed harder, not easier, when prisoners scribbled their own complaints and briefs. That meant we faced the extra step of trying to decode what the…

Drug & Device Law

Washington State Court Rules that Pharmacy Cannot Be Liable for Failure to Warn

By Stephen McConnell

January 29, 2020

We usually represent manufacturers, not pharmacies, in personal injury cases, so why should we care whether pharmacies can be on the hook? Well, if the pharmacy’s presence in the case prevents federal diversity jurisdiction, then solid case law shielding the pharmacy from liability will be crucial to our argument that the pharmacy was fraudulently/improperly joined. That is why we have blogged about pharmacy cases, including here and here, for example. Plus, the world is…

Drug & Device Law

The Defense Strikes Back – with a RICO Suit

By Stephen McConnell

January 22, 2020

What a virile week we’re having. Tomorrow the blog will discuss a viagra product liability lawsuit. Today we reach back to a case from last March involving a battle between sellers of other male, um, performance products. Put all that together with last week’s post on cannabis and we are reminded of the scene from one of our favorite films, Dr. Strangelove, in which the pilot of a B-52 about to go down in the…

Drug & Device Law

Court Rolls Up CBD Class Action (at least for now)

By Stephen McConnell

January 15, 2020

We keep reading in Law360 and other publications about defense law firms that are ramping up cannabis practice groups. Our own firm is one of them. These developments sparked an interest. After all, won’t many of the principles we’ve worked with over the years for prescription and OTC medications apply to pot and its dressed-up cousins? Or is that just wacky? We’d like to be invited to join a CBD group, even as an…

Drug & Device Law

Constitutional Limitations on Product Liability?

By Stephen McConnell

January 8, 2020

How many of us entered law school dreaming of following the paths of Brandeis, Marshall, etc. in the field of constitutional law? How many of us now can go weeks, or even months, without reading a Supreme Court case? Paying off student loans led many of us to work for law firms where there was far less available to do in constitutional law than in, say, commercial disputes, securities, or product liability law. But we’re…

Drug & Device Law

S.D. Cal. Dismisses Negligent Misrepresentation Claim for Lack of Rule 9(b) Specificity

By Stephen McConnell

January 2, 2020

There is an exhibition at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC showing a warrior with eyes on the back of his head and a blank, eyeless face on the front. That odd image reflects the profound truth that we have seen what has already happened but are blind to the future. (We are reminded a bit of Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, the muppet character who has no eyes. But Dr. Honeydew does…

Drug & Device Law

Alternate Pleading Dooms Res Ipsa Claim

By Stephen McConnell

December 26, 2019

Early on in law school we were taught the virtues of alternate pleading. Different theories against the same defendant, or different theories against different defendants, were perfectly acceptable even if inconsistent. There is something counterintuitive about that. It seems to lift the veil in front of the law, revealing it to be an opportunistic enterprise more wedded to winning than reality. And then there’s that old story told by renowned Texas trial lawyer Race Horse…

Stephen McConnell

New York Holds that Registration to do Business does not Constitute Consent to General Personal Jurisdiction

Taxotere Court Finds that Distributor was Fraudulently Joined; Denies Remand

D.Utah Rejects Personal Jurisdiction over Parent Company; Trims Claims Against Subsidiary

Court Keeps Child Custody/Support Issues Out of Hip Implant Case

Washington State Court Rules that Pharmacy Cannot Be Liable for Failure to Warn

The Defense Strikes Back – with a RICO Suit

Court Rolls Up CBD Class Action (at least for now)

Constitutional Limitations on Product Liability?

S.D. Cal. Dismisses Negligent Misrepresentation Claim for Lack of Rule 9(b) Specificity

Alternate Pleading Dooms Res Ipsa Claim

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