Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout-Outs

Diana Watral, Mark Premo-Hopkins, Renee Smith, Kasdin Miller Mitchell, Sarah Donnell and Patrick Weeks received a shout-out for The American Lawyer Litigation Daily's "Litigator of the Week" for their work for Eli Lilly.

"... Shout-out to defense teams at DLA Piper and Kirkland & Ellis representing Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, respectively, in multidistrict litigation where the companies face claims that their blockbuster GLP-1 weight-loss drugs cause stomach paralysis, intestinal obstruction and other gastrointestinal problems. Last week, U.S. District Judge Karen Marston in Philadelphia struck two plaintiffs’ experts testimony about diagnosing gastroparesis–an ailment named in about 85% of cases in the MDL. The judge found that the diagnosis requires “a properly performed gastric emptying study,” which will eliminate plaintiffs who didn’t have the test at the time of diagnosis. “Although unfortunate, it would be perhaps more unjust to hold Defendants potentially liable for damages based on an unreliable diagnosis,” the judge wrote. The DLA Piper team representing Novo Nordisk includes Loren Brown, Lucas Przymusinski, Katie Insogna, Ray Williams, Ilana Eisenstein, Melissa Whitney and Brad Jennings. The Kirkland team representing Eli Lilly was led by Diana Watral and Mark Premo-Hopkins and included Renee Smith, Kasdin Miller Mitchell, Sarah Donnell and Patrick Weeks."