Region Area

Lawyers

Alicia Donahue

Alicia Donahue

Work Department

Product Liability Litigation

Position

Partner

Career

A native San Franciscan, Alicia is a member of Shook's Executive Committee, the immediate past Co-Chair of Shook’s Product Liability Litigation Practice Group, and served as the Managing Partner of the San Francisco office from 2005-2011. For more than 35 years Alicia has represented drug and device manufacturers in complex litigations, coordinated proceedings and MDLs throughout the country. Alicia currently serves as the firm’s relationship partner for Pfizer, Inc., Medtronic, Roche and Genentech. Alicia represents these companies in mass tort litigation throughout the country. She has also represented Bayer in various California litigations, including Mirena and Cipro. She represents Monsanto in its Roundup Litigation and Sanofi-Aventis in the Taxotere litigation.

Alicia also has a broad range of general product liability litigation experience and is nationally known to judges, mediators, arbitrators and lawyers on both sides of the bar in multiple practice areas. Alicia has defended manufacturers and designers of a variety of products including power tools, manufacturing equipment, and play structures.

Prior to joining Shook in 2000, Alicia was at Sedgwick, where she worked on a variety of product liability cases, including acting as Regional Counsel for Bristol Myers Squibb coordinating the defense of individual breast implant cases in six states: California, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, New Mexico and Arizona. While at Sedgwick, Alicia tried five cases on behalf of the Dalkon Shield Claimants’ Trust. Early in her career and before joining Sedgwick, Alicia served as local counsel on the DES litigation in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Awards

The Best Lawyers in America, Product Liability Litigation – Defendants (2018-Present) Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business, San Francisco Business Times (2017) Expert Guides: Women in Business Law (2016) Who's Who Legal, Life Sciences - Product Liability (2016, 2020, 2022), Product Liability Defense (2022) California’s Top Women Litigators, California Daily Journal (2006)

Memberships

International Association of Defense Counsel American Bar Association Inaugural Chair, Tort, Trial and Insurance Practice Section, Pharmaceutical, Medical Device and Bioscience General Committee (2017-2018) Vice-Chair, Tort, Trial and Insurance Practice Section, Products Liability General Committee (2017-2018) Member, Tort, Trial and Insurance Practice Section, General Committee Board Standing Committee (2017-2018) Co-Chair, Tort and Product Liability Section, Drug, Device and Biotechnology Subcommittee Products Liability Section Defense Research Institute National Association of Women Judges, Advisory Committee (Former) National Association of Women Lawyers San Francisco Bar Association

Education

J.D., University of San Francisco School of Law, 1984 B.S., University of California, Berkeley, 1981