The prominent defense attorney at the helm of the United States’ most extensive mass tort litigation is moving to Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
Kimberly Branscome will be joining their team as a partner in their Los Angeles office. Branscome is making the move from Dechert, where she played a significant role in defending 3M (MMM.N) against claims from over 260,000 U.S. military veterans and service members. The plaintiffs in the 3M lawsuit alleged that they experienced hearing loss due to the use of the company’s earplugs.
In a major development this August, 3M agreed to a $6.01 billion settlement for these lawsuits, clarifying that this does not constitute an admission of liability and affirming the earplugs’ safety and effectiveness when used correctly.
At Paul Weiss, Branscome will also serve as the principal attorney for GSK (GSK.L) in ongoing litigation, which involves allegations that GSK’s now-discontinued heartburn medication, Zantac, is carcinogenic, a claim GSK disputes.
Paul Weiss has been at the center of major lateral law moves, including losing one of its own senior lawyers as we recently reported, but has been especially active in the London law market with major recruitment moves, such as Neel Sachdev, another major law star.
Brad Karp, the chairman of Paul Weiss, praised Branscome’s expertise and reputation in the field of product liability and mass torts in a press statement.
Dechert has expressed its best wishes for Branscome as she embarks on her new role and announced that Douglas Fleming and Jay Bhimani will take the lead in the firm’s product liability and mass torts division. Dechert has remained silent regarding its continued role in the 3M and GSK cases following Branscome’s departure. Attempts to reach Branscome for comment were unsuccessful.
Branscome, along with Bhimani, faced sanctions from a federal judge in the earplug lawsuit for purportedly violating a court directive against using disputed evidence during 3M’s closing arguments in a 2021 trial.
However, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later reversed these sanctions, and the judge subsequently withdrew them.
