With more than two decades of practicing personal injury law, Rosemary Pinto has earned an impressive record of courtroom victories, most of which were in cases that other lawyers had rejected as unwinnable. Even in law school, Ms. Pinto stood out among her peers as one of the preeminent litigators. She won the Villanova Law School Theodore F. Riemel Moot Court Competition, in which law students presented a series of arguments before trial and appellate judges.
As a trial lawyer representing injured victims, she has achieved some of the largest verdicts in Philadelphia against corporations and medical treaters in cases that were against seemingly insurmountable odds. Ms. Pinto has an extensive background litigating mass tort actions. In the past, she represented asbestos manufacturers and insurance companies in complex matters. Currently, she confines her practice to the representation of victims, including victims of defective drugs and products that have been irresponsibly marketed to the public. Ms. Pinto also has the added advantage in the courtroom of having practiced insurance defense law early in her career. With this background, Ms. Pinto is able to predict what the defense will do in nearly every case.
Ms. Pinto has been recognized by Super Lawyers as a “Top Rated Products Liability Attorney in Philadelphia, PA” since 2005, and has been recognized in Best Lawyers in America© since 2006. She is frequently asked to lecture to other lawyers in the areas of medical malpractice, product liability and improvement of trial skills by the Philadelphia Bar Institute, the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association and the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association. Ms. Pinto has taught at the Beasley School of Law in the Trial Advocacy Program. She also participated in the Philadelphia Bar Association’s program, teaching civics to high school students. She has appeared on television and radio in relation to cases litigated, her pro bono work and her work in the legal community.
Ms. Pinto credits her success in the courtroom to her background. Her father was one of the preeminent trial lawyers in the country and thus she developed a love of the law at an early age. In addition, as a former high school history teacher, Ms. Pinto believes that courtroom trials are very similar to teaching, because in both situations you are exposing a captive audience (that might prefer to be somewhere else) to a new set of facts or evidence, and you need to present the information in a way that is interesting so that the audience becomes involved in the process. Ms. Pinto is a firm believer in our justice system and the ability of a jury of one’s peers to weigh the evidence and come up with a fair decision. She says that it is the collective wisdom of a jury that gives it the ability to see through false statements and red herrings to achieve a just result. Ms. Pinto takes an active role in politics by supporting both political candidates and judicial candidates that support the Constitution of the United States and our justice system in the hopes of ensuring access to justice for all, not just the wealthy corporations and insurance companies. Giving back to the community is important to Ms. Pinto as an attorney, so she continually represents indigent clients, donates to and helps raise money for charitable causes and holds receptions for candidates seeking public office who support the rights of all of our citizens. Ms. Pinto has been on the Board of Governors of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association, the Philadelphia Bar Association, and the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers. She has also served on the Board of Delegates to the Pennsylvania Bar Association.
Judge Jane Triche Milazzo was sworn in as a United State District Court Judge on October 12, 2011, after being unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on October 11, 2011.
Judge Milazzo graduated from LSU Law School in 1992 and immediately went into practice with her family at the Law Offices of Risley Triche, LLC, where she engaged in a general civil practice. Judge Milazzo was the first female to practice law in Assumption Parish and ultimately became the first female elected to Louisiana’s 23rd Judicial District Court.
Judge Milazzo regularly speaks to lawyers on issues of professionalism, advocacy, and complex litigation. She currently presides over the multidistrict litigation, In Re: Taxotere (Docetaxel) Products Liability Litigation. She is married to her husband, John. They have six children and five grandchildren.
A founding partner of Seeger Weiss, Christopher A. Seeger is widely recognized as a highly innovative and accomplished plaintiff attorney. Chiefly known for multidistrict mass torts and class actions involving drug injury, toxic injury, and personal injury, Chris’ versatile practice also includes product liability, property damage, antitrust, and third-party payer litigation, as well as consumer, insurance, and securities fraud. Chris has led some of the most complex, groundbreaking, and high-profile litigations in the U.S. at the state and federal levels. He has received more multidistrict litigation (MDL) appointments than any other lawyer between 2016 and 2019, according to a 2020 ALM study.
Chris served as co-lead counsel in the 3M Combat Arms Earplug Litigation, having been chosen by Judge M. Casey Rodgers from a pool of nearly 200 other applicants to represent more than 250,000 service members and veterans who suffered hearing injuries while using 3M earplugs. After more than four years of litigation, Chris secured a landmark settlement worth over $6 billion in August 2023, successfully resolving the largest mass tort in American history.
Appointed by Judge Joy Flowers Conti to lead the Philips Recalled CPAP, Bi-Level Pap, and Mechanical Ventilator Litigation, Chris represented patients impacted by the company’s recall of more than 10.8 million devices. He was the lead negotiator for an uncapped class action settlement worth a minimum of $479 million that was announced in September 2023, resolving economic loss claims of users and payers impacted by the recall. After receiving final approval for the economic loss settlement, Chris negotiated additional agreements in April 2024 to resolve plaintiffs' personal injury claims for $1.075 billion and medical monitoring claims for $25 million, providing compensation to patients who suffered significant physical injuries caused by the recalled machines.
In the National Prescription Opiate litigation, Chris was appointed to the Executive and Settlement Committees by Judge Dan A. Polster. In 2022, he played an instrumental role in securing settlements worth more than $15 billion with Walgreens, Walmart, CVS, and Kroger. Also, in 2022, a $6.6 billion settlement was reached with pharmaceutical manufacturers Teva and Allergan (AbbVie). Previously, in July 2021, the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee in the federal opioid litigation formally announced the terms for a $26 billion global settlement agreement with opioid manufacturer Johnson & Johnson and the “Big Three” drug distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson. To date, Chris has been involved in over $50 billion in settlements through the National Prescription Opioid Litigation.
Chris serves as co-lead counsel in the Proton-Pump Inhibitor Litigation on behalf of patients who suffered kidney injuries while using proton-pump inhibitor drugs. On October 3, 2023, he announced a $425 million settlement with AstraZeneca and additional agreements with GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, and Takeda, bringing the total value of the resolution to $590.4 million.
Chris’s unprecedented run of recent settlements adds to his impressive legacy of resolving major cases and obtaining billions in compensation for injured plaintiffs. This includes a $4.85 billion landmark global settlement with Merck on behalf of patients who suffered heart attacks and strokes while taking Vioxx, a $21 billion-plus settlement with Volkswagen and Audi over the “clean diesel” scandal—the largest consumer auto industry class action settlement in U.S. history, a $1.5 billion settlement for farmers impacted by Syngenta GMO seed contamination—the largest agricultural settlement in U.S. history, and a $1 billion-plus uncapped settlement for retired NFL players and their families in the historic NFL concussion case.
After starting his career as a corporate defense lawyer representing the interests of big business, Chris was struck by the imbalance of power between corporations and the individuals harmed by them. As a result, he left to become a plaintiff attorney. The son of a union carpenter who worked his way through school, Chris is a former amateur boxer and a current Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt. Now, whether working on a class action involving thousands of people against a multinational conglomerate or an individual case protecting one client’s rights, he fights with the same passion and conviction.
Chris has been recognized for his outstanding work and unmatched success in leading complex federal cases. He has received the National Law Journal Elite Trial Lawyers Lifetime Achievement Award, been named a Lawdragon Legend, a Law360 Titan of the Plaintiff Bar, and been inducted into both the Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame and the Legal 500 Hall of Fame. He is consistently named to annual award lists, including Chambers USA Tier 1 for Product Liability, Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America, and Best Lawyers in America. Regularly quoted by the press regarding his work on nationally and internationally prominent cases, Chris has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Reuters, ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, and ESPN.