Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner

Class Actions and Mass Torts

Counsel - Litigation and Investigations

Andy is a counsel in the firm’s Appellate and Class Actions and Mass Torts Practice Groups. One of the country’s leading preemption authorities, he represents medical-device and pharmaceutical manufacturers, railroads, and other heavily regulated entities. Known for his powerful written and oral advocacy, Andy is often called on to litigate cutting-edge issues of industry-wide significance.

Andy regularly represents clients in the Supreme Court of the United States, the various U.S. Courts of Appeals, and state appellate courts throughout the country. A versatile practitioner and quick study, Andy has led product-liability, antitrust, employment, and regulatory appeals.

In addition to his appellate work, Andy works closely with trial lawyers to craft and preserve legal arguments for later appellate review by drafting motions to dismiss, motions for summary judgment, motions in limine, proposed jury instructions, and post-trial motions. Recognizing the importance of issue preservation, clients frequently ask Andy to brief and argue motions to dismiss and other critical motions.

Clients confronting important recurring issues, especially those implicating unsettled questions of law, have repeatedly tapped Andy to serve as national coordinating counsel. In that role, Andy works closely with the clients’ other outside counsel, preparing model briefs and other guidance to ensure a consistent strategy across the client’s entire litigation portfolio.

Andy has secured precedent-setting victories across a range of cases, obtaining decisions that are routinely cited by other courts when dismissing claims against his clients and others in the same industry. In one notable example among several, Andy, overcoming seemingly adverse case law at the start of multi-jurisdictional litigation, conceived and presented the arguments that ultimately produced what one judge described as a “national consensus” that federal law preempts state-law claims predicated on alleged off-label promotion of medical devices.

In the product-liability space, Andy has successfully briefed and argued a wide variety of issues ranging from federal preemption, personal jurisdiction, and appellate jurisdiction to pleading standards, the viability of negligence-per-se claims, and the application of Restatement (Second) of Torts § 402A cmt. k to medical devices.

In the railroad sector, Andy has successfully litigated myriad issues under FELA, the LIA, the FRSA, and ICCTA, including the preemption of state-law requirements, the preclusion of FELA claims, and the apportionment of damages. Most recently, he persuaded the Ohio Supreme Court that federal law preempts state anti-blocking statutes—and then persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court to not disturb that ruling.

Prior to joining BCLP, Andy was a partner at Winston & Strawn LLP and Mayer Brown LLP. Earlier, he clerked for the Hon. John G. Koeltl in the Southern District of New York. Andy graduated from Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. Before law school, Andy received a Ph.D. from M.I.T. He lived in Germany for four years and is fluent in German.

CIVIC INVOLVEMENT & HONORS

“Key Lawyer” in Product Liability, Mass Tort and Class Action-Defense:  Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices, The Legal 500 (2014-present)

“Key Lawyer” in Appellate: Courts of Appeals/Appellate: Supreme Courts (States and Federal), The Legal 500 (2023)

“Key Lawyer” in Rail and Road: Litigation and Regulation, The Legal 500 (2023)

Ranked in Product Liability and Mass Torts, Chambers USA (2016-present)

“Noted Practitioner” in Rail Transportation, Chambers USA (2020)

“Litigation Star” in Appellate Litigation, Benchmark Litigation (2016-present)

“Life Sciences Stars” in Product Liability, Euromoney’s Legal Media Group (2018-present)

Best Lawyers in America: Railroad Law (2023)

Duffield Smith Outstanding Publication Award, Defense Research Institute (2013)