Butler Snow LLP

Pharmaceutical, Medical Device & Healthcare Litigation

Susanna practices in the firm’s Pharmaceutical, Medical Device and Healthcare Group and focuses her practice on product liability law, drug and medical devices, and appellate matters.  She has served as a lead motion coordinator in two of the largest MDLs in history, overseeing the preparation of thousands of briefs within a short time frame. She was selected as one of Law360’s 2022 Rising Stars (Life Sciences) and has been recognized by Best Lawyers in America®. She has successfully defended drug and medical device companies in appeals in the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeal. Susanna also serves as embedded appellate counsel at trial.

Susanna has served as a national motions coordinator for some of the largest MDLs in history, including In re: Ethicon Pelvic Repair Sys. Prods. Liab. Litig. This included coordination of “wave” motions practice, which required the filing of thousands of summary judgment motions, Daubert motions, and choice of law motions in a short time frame.

Susanna also has an active appellate practice. She has represented clients in dozens of appeals in federal courts of appeals across the country. She recently obtained a ruling in a pelvic mesh case affirming summary judgment on a failure to warn claim and rejecting an exception to the learned intermediary doctrine in Salinero v. Johnson & Johnson, 995 F.3d 959 (11th Cir. 2021).  Drug and Device Law Blog named this ruling one of “The Ten Best Prescription Drug/Medical Device Decisions of 2021.” See also “No ‘Financial Bias’ Exception to Learned Intermediary Rule in Florida – or Anywhere Else,” Drug and Device Law Blog, May 7, 2021.

She also serves as embedded appellate counsel at trials. In 2022 and 2023, Susanna has served as trial appellate counsel at four federal pelvic mesh trials, all of which resulted in defense verdicts.

Susanna is active in Products Liability Advisory Council (PLAC) and Defense Research Institute (DRI), as well as a number of national and state bar associations. She also served as an Adjunct Professor at Mississippi College School of Law (2009-2010).

She frequently writes and speaks about product liability litigation. For example, in 2020, she co-authored “Mass Torts in the United States,” Chapter 6 – Management of Mass Torts by the Judiciary, American Bar Association.  She also has authored a number of articles for Butler Snow’s publication for the pharmaceutical, medical device and healthcare industries, Pro Te: Solutio. In 2018, she spoke at the IADC Mid-Year Meeting on “Personal Jurisdiction Post-Daimler: State of Law and Strategy.”

Susanna obtained her J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Mississippi and her B.A. from Yale University.  Following law school, she clerked for Judge Southwick of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She is admitted to practice in Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana and New York.