Kristen Fournier is a litigation partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Kristen has extensive experience in multidistrict litigations as well as mass tort and product liability litigation. She provides state-of-the-art defense strategies to companies facing high-profile, high-risk matters. Kristen is known for her sophisticated understanding of jury trends and her unique ability to craft messages that drive home her client’s objectives. She leverages her knowledge of human behavior to build long-term, litigation-wide strategies that ultimately guide judges and juries to the right conclusion for her clients.
She has served as national coordinating counsel in several high-profile matters, including for Johnson & Johnson prolific talc docket in which the company faced allegations that its talcum powder products cause fatal cancer; and for the Dow Chemical Company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Union Carbide, in relation to its substantial asbestos docket. In each of these matters, Kristen ensured that a uniform approach was applied and her clients maintained a consistent defense and achieved desirable results nationwide. Kristen also routinely negotiates multimillion dollar settlements involving multiple cases and claims.
Kristen is also a first chair trial lawyer who has tried many mass tort cases in some of the most difficult jurisdictions across the country, including New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New Orleans. She has represented clients in a wide variety of toxic tort and product matters over time, including cases alleging exposures to polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and trichloroethylene/trichloroacetic acid (TCE/TCA), vinyl chloride and ethylene oxide.
Kristen is ranked Band 1 in Chambers USA for Nationwide Toxic Tort, and is further ranked in both product liability and mass tort and has been every year since 2016. Clients hail Kristen as a “true service provider” who is “one step ahead of knowing what a client needs” and has a “great gift for long-term strategy.” They further note she is “a very skilled trial attorney who is strategic, smart and efficient” and “connects well with judges.” The Legal 500 United States also hails her as an “outstanding trial lawyer” who is “very talented at developing, implementing and organizing national strategy.”
