Catherine’s primary areas of practice are complex product liability, toxic tort, pharmaceutical, environmental, and personal injury litigation. A trusted advisor to a number of sophisticated multinational clients, she currently serves as: a member of the National Counsel Team representing a global pharmaceutical company; New England Regional Counsel for Fortune 100 companies operating in the industrial technology and biotechnology markets; and National Counsel for the subsidiary of a Fortune 500 manufacturer of industrial products.
Catherine has represented scores of manufacturing companies, coordinating their asbestos litigation across the United States, including in Texas, New York, California, Oregon, Washington, the Midwest and East Coast. As lead trial counsel, she has tried cases to verdict in courts throughout the country, including consolidated trials with hundreds of plaintiffs. Her appellate experience is also substantial, with recent achievements that include helping to secure a unanimous and precedent setting decision in Massachusetts’ highest court finding the state’s statute of repose setting a six-year limit on construction-related personal injury claims also applies to asbestos related illnesses and other diseases with extended latency periods. Catherine also has experience defending manufacturers in talc personal injury litigation.
Over the past decade, Catherine’s mass tort litigation matters have involved all manner of causative agents including radiation, benzene, and pharmaceuticals. Her recent representations of note include: conducting nationwide depositions of plaintiffs and treating physicians in anti-psychotic medications litigation; successfully obtaining summary judgment for a brand name pharmaceutical company in Connecticut; and favorably resolving hundreds of radiation cases filed in El Paso, Texas as lead trial counsel for a global technology company.
Catherine’s decades of experience defending claims asserted by every major plaintiffs’ firm representing asbestos and products liability personal injury claimants, combined with her well-developed network of relationships across the country make her a powerful advocate for manufacturer clients fighting products liability claims and a go-to litigator for other law firms who often retain Catherine as referral and local counsel in these cases.
Catherine devotes a significant portion of her practice to defending companies in high-stakes personal injury, wrongful death, and premises liability disputes. Her experience includes matters involving motor vehicle accidents involving employee use of company vehicles, matters involving hazardous materials, and on-site accidents involving company equipment.
Catherine is the immediate past chair of the firm’s Products Liability, Mass Torts and Consumer Class Actions group. She was a member of the firm’s Executive Committee from 2010 to 2016 and served on the firm’s Compensation Committee in 2015. She founded our Hartford office in 2001 and was its managing partner until 2003. In 2011, Catherine became the first woman to serve as Treasurer for the firm, a position she held for 10 years. She continues to serve on the firm’s Finance Committee and is also a member of the Social Justice Project Task Force.
Committed to public service, Catherine is an active member of the firm’s pro bono practice, most recently representing children in Immigration Court through the Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) program, and volunteering with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Immigration Freedom Initiative at the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia. In her community outside of work, Catherine is a former President of the Greater Hartford Legal Aid Foundation, and continues to serve on the organization’s board. She also served as Deputy Mayor of Wethersfield, CT, and was a member of the Wethersfield Board of Education for four years.
