Troutman Pepper was part of a national trial team that secured a defense verdict on behalf of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) in a federal jury trial in the District of Arizona. The case, King v. DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., et al., was the first DePuy Pinnacle metal-on-metal hip implant trial since the completion of the multidistrict litigation (MDL).

The trial team was instrumental in obtaining the unanimous jury verdict, soundly rejecting plaintiffs’ arguments that the product was defective and/or unreasonably dangerous. The victory followed Troutman Pepper’s four other recent defense wins for J&J, including a four-day federal jury trial in Alabama, a nine-day federal jury trial in New Jersey, a 12-day federal jury trial in Florida, and a 10-day federal jury trial in California.

Troutman Pepper’s Eric Rumanek served as trial counsel with critical support from Brett Mason, Frederick King, and Ben Geller. A team from Skadden led by Allison Brown served as co-counsel. The group worked in conjunction with counsel from Barnes & Thornburg, who serve as national counsel for the Pinnacle litigation.