Michael A. London

Michael A. London is one of the founding partners of the law firm Douglas & London, P.C., located in downtown New York City. Mr. London obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, and his Juris Doctor degree from Brooklyn Law School in Brooklyn, New York.  Mr. London is admitted and licensed to practice law in the States of New York and New Jersey, as well as in the United States District Courts for the Eastern District, Southern District, and Western District of New York, as well as the District of New Jersey.

Since obtaining his law degree, he has devoted his entire career to representing consumers and injury victims, primarily in mass tort settings.  His practice area in the law has always focused on and continues to focus on, products liability and complex litigation with an emphasis on pharmaceutical and medical device litigation.

Mr. London has been privileged and honored to have been appointed to, and have served, as lead or liaison counsel in some of the largest national mass tort and complex litigations in recent years.  His formal lead and liaison counsel roles have been in the following matters with the following results:

  • Vice-Chair of Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee, In re: Zyprexa Products Liability Litigation, MDL-1596, before the Honorable Jack B. Weinstein in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (status: resolved, $700 million settlement of approximately 8,000 claims).
  • Co-Lead Counsel of Plaintiffs, Steering Committee, In re: Yasmin and Yaz (Drospirenone) Marketing Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, MDL-2100, before the Honorable David R. Herndon in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois (status: resolved with the defendants paying over $2 billion for all claims).
  • Co-Lead Counsel and Liaison Counsel for Plaintiffs, Steering Committee, In re: Bayer Corp. Combination Aspirin Products Marketing and Sales Practice Litigation, MDL-2023, before the Honorable Brian M. Cogan in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (status: resolved, $15 million class settlement).
  • Co-Lead Counsel of Plaintiffs, Steering Committee, In re: Pradaxa (Dabigatran Etexilate) Products Liability Litigation, daMDL-2385, before the Honorable David R. Herndon in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois (status: resolved, $650 million settlement of approximately 4,000 claims).
  • Liaison Counsel and Plaintiffs, Executive Committee Member, In re: Ortho Evra Products Liability Litigation, MDL-1742, before the late Honorable David S. Katz in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio (status: resolved, individual confidential settlements of approximately 3,000 claims in federal and state courts).
  • Chairperson of the Plaintiffs Executive Committee, In re: Testosterone Replacement Therapy Products Liability Litigation, MDL 2545, pending in the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois (status: all six of the manufacturing defendants have resolved the approximately 7,000 claims in the MDL).
  • Co-Liaison Counsel for all Plaintiffs, In re: Levaquin Litigation, centralized and consolidated litigation before the late Honorable Carol E. Higbee in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Atlantic County (status: resolved, individual confidential settlements of hundreds of claims in federal and state courts).
  • Co-Lead Counsel of Plaintiffs, Steering Committee, In re: E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company C-8 Personal Injury Litigation, MDL-2433, before the Honorable Edmund A. Sargus, Jr., pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio (status: resolved, $671 million settlement of approximately 3,600 claims).
  • Co-Lead Counsel of Plaintiffs, Steering Committee, In re: Invokana (Canagliflozin) Products Liability Litigation, MDL-2750, before the Honorable Brian Martinotti in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, (status: resolutions pending via individual confidential settlements of approximately 2,000 claims).

It is important to highlight, that in the eight litigations in which Mr. London served as co-lead or liaison counsel, each was resolved efficiently through settlements.  And in these eight national mass tort or class litigations where Mr. London held these leadership appointments, the resolutions were accomplished in an impressive span of 18 to 47 months from when MDL centralization occurred until an announcement of settlement parameters.   Also, Mr. London served as the primary negotiator for plaintiffs in six of the nine cases above and his efforts have yielded over $18 billion worth of settlements since 2005.[1]

Mr. London’s current leadership positions in complex litigation include the following:

  • Co-Lead Counsel of Plaintiffs, Executive Committee, In re: Aqueous Film-Forming Foam Products Liability Litigation, MDL-2873, before the Honorable Richard M. Gergel in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina (status: pending).
  • Chair, Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee, In re: Davol, Inc./CR Bard Inc., Polypropylene Hernia Mesh Products Liability Litigation, MDL-2846, before the Honorable Chief Judge Edmund Sargus in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio (status: pending)

Not only has he held the court-appointed positions identified above but he has also been involved in other complex litigations in various committee roles, including serving on discovery committees, expert committees, law and briefing committees, and class action committees. Mr. London has represented hundreds of women exposed in utero to the drug Diethylstibestrol (“DES”) in litigation formerly pending before the Honorable Jack B. Weinstein.  He also represented and continues to represent people and families who were victims of other toxic and mass torts for which formal Plaintiffs’ Steering Committees were not established, including representing hundreds of individuals who were injured as a result of the September 11, 2001 bombings of the World Trade Center in the World Trade Center Disaster Site Litigation, representing individuals who suffered from glenohumeral chondrolysis in In re: Ambulatory Pain Pump-Chondrolysis Products Liability Litigation where he firm colleague Rebecca Newman secured some of the earliest and largest settlements in the country, representing children and families who were victims of the Chorionic Villi Sampling (‘CVS’) device/procedure, and others.

Mr. London served as trial counsel in multiple tobacco trials, including the first successful verdict against the tobacco industry in the state of New York, where he and law firm partner, Gary Douglas, secured a $20 million-plus verdict for the widow of a former smoker.  And before that, Mr. London served as co-trial counsel in the first two tobacco cases to be tried in the State of New York, both in the year 2000.  Mr. London was co-trial counsel in the very first Norplant products liability trial in the State of New York.  Mr. London has assisted in non-court room activity and with jury selection in various other trial teams over the years.

Mr. London is an active member in the following legal associations: Board of Directors and Executive Committee Member of New York State Trial Lawyers Association (NYSTLA); Board of Governors and Sustaining Member American Association of Justice (AAJ); Member of Public Justice (America’s Public Interest law firm); and Member the Tobacco Trial Lawyers Association (TTLA).  He serves on the President’s Advisory Council at Brooklyn Law School.  He has been asked and invited to lecture to attorneys on many types of cases that he has handled, as well as on specific topics such as preemption, virtually all aspects of mass tort litigations and specific mass tort cases, medical malpractice and jury selection in various types of cases.  He has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, in the New York Times, in New York Magazine, Forbes, as well as in many other local New York and regional papers and other publications across the country.  Additionally, he has written numerous articles for publication in legal journals on such topics of vaccine use, the Learned Intermediary Doctrine, jury selection in products liability cases, mercury exposure, youth smoking, and light cigarettes litigation, generally and has been asked to lecture and speak over 50 times throughout the country on various aspect of mass torts and complex litigation. In addition, Mr. London is the attorney in charge of Douglas & London’s New Jersey Practice. Further, Mr. London also serves as the firm’s general counsel.

[1] During the prior 20+ years, Mr. London has also been asked to serve and have been formally appointed to sit on Plaintiffs’ Steering Committees without elevated roles as lead or liaison counsel or chairperson of the committee.  These national litigations included: Court-appointed member of the general Plaintiff Steering Committee; In re: Kugel Mesh Hernia Patch Products Liability Litigation, MDL-1842, pending in the United States District Court of Rhode Island (status: resolved);   In re: Heparin Products Liability Litigation, MDL-1953, pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio (status: resolved);  In re: Imagitas Inc. Drivers’ Privacy Protection Act Litigation, MDL-1828, pending in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida (status: resolved); In re: Light Cigarettes Marketing and Sales Practices Litigation, MDL-2068, pending in the United States District Court for the District of Maine (status: resolved); In re: Bextra/Celebrex Products Liability Litigation, pending in the New York State Supreme Court (status: resolved); In re: Zimmer NexGen Knee Implant Products Liability Litigation, MDL-2272, pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division (status: resolved); In re: Denture Cream Products, MDL-2051, pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida (status: resolved); and In re: DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., ASR Hip Implant Products Liability Litigation, MDL-2197, pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio (status: resolved).