With Midwestern roots and a national reach, dispute resolution boutique Goldman Ismail Tomaselli Brennan & Baum LLP has developed a market-leading reputation for litigating large aggregated product liability cases in state and federal courts throughout the country. Much of this work takes place in the pharmaceutical/life sciences space, where with four MD/JDs in its ranks, the firm is particularly adept at handling matters with complex and technical issues at their core. Although it does handle work throughout the litigation continuum, the team, under the leadership of  ‘incredibly smart’ Chicago-based Tarek Ismail is best-known for its trial-ready capabilities, where it excels in explaining often highly complex matters in a persuasive and simplified way to juries. A ’top-notch strategist and excellent first-chair trial lawyer’, Shayna Cook, who is also based in Chicago, has gained a number of notable victories over the years, both in bellwether trials and in Daubert challenges, as well as other dispositive motions. Leveraging his science and medical background, Santa Monica-based Ken Baum  is also a key member of the firm’s teams in relation to large MDLs, regularly gaining early dismissals of cases through very effective depositions of key expert and treating physician witnesses. Noted for his ‘brilliant science mind’, Dallas-based Joe Tomaselli co-heads the science and experts group alongside Baum and focuses on developing and implementing winning scientific theories of the case for medical drug and device manufacturers. With ’a poise and confidence that judges and juries both appreciate’, Chicago-based Jennifer Greenblatt is ‘laser focused on winning’, be it in a final trial or through briefing and arguing dispositive motions.  

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • 'They have a team of superb and diverse trial lawyers, including multiple lawyers with the experience and skill to try bet-the-company cases. They combine an exhaustive knowledge of the most complex facts with ability to communicate those facts effectively to both judges and juries.'
  • 'They work toward trial from the minute they start on a case, with every discovery position and legal motion designed to position the case the best way possible at trial.'
  • 'Tarek Ismail is absolutely superb.'
  • 'Joe Tomaselli is a brilliant science mind and an all around good guy and leader.'
  • 'Shayna Cook is a top-notch strategist and excellent first-chair trial lawyer.'
  • 'Tarek Ismail and Shayna Cook are two of the best first-chair trial lawyers in the country - they are both incredibly smart but also skilled at conveying themes in an understandable and persuasive way.'
  • 'Jennifer Greenblatt is a dynamo. She is laser-focused on winning the day, the hour, the minute. And she has a poise and confidence that judges and juries both appreciate.'

Key clients

  • Merck & Co., Inc.; Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC; Schering-Plough Corp.
  • Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals Inc.; Bayer HealthCare LLC; Bayer Corp.
  • Monsanto Company
  • Gilead Sciences, Inc.
  • Johnson & Johnson and Ethicon, Inc.
  • GlaxoSmithKline
  • AbbVie Inc.
  • Dow Chemical Company and Union Carbide Company
  • Medtronic, Inc.; Medtronic MiniMed, Inc.

Work highlights

  • Lead national counsel in all US-based products liability litigation relating to Merck’s Gardasil vaccine, which protects against human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and cervical cancer, as well as other types of cancer caused by HPV infection.
  • Lead counsel for Bayer in products liability cases pending nationwide in state and federal court relating to gadolinium-based radiology-imaging contrast agents.
  • Represents Gilead Sciences, Inc. in mass tort litigation involving thousands of plaintiffs whose cases have been consolidated in California state and federal courts. These cases concern Gilead’s tenofovir-containing antiretroviral medications, which revolutionized the treatment of HIV when released beginning in the early 2000s.

Lawyers

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Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Tarek Ismail

Other key lawyers

Shayna Cook, Joe Tomaselli, Ken Baum, Jennifer Greenblatt, Rami Fakhouri, Betsy Farrington