Overview

Eric L. Alexander is a litigation and dispute resolution attorney in Holland & Knight's Washington, D.C., office and team leader of the Product Liability – Life Sciences team. Mr. Alexander focuses his practice in the area of product liability litigation for pharmaceutical and medical device companies.

Mr. Alexander's practice has a particular focus on multidistrict litigation (MDL) and other serial product liability and mass torts. For the last six years, he has been the co-lead national counsel in a medical device litigation that has had more than 45,000 cases. He played a key role in connection with finalizing and implementing a national settlement in the litigation, including responsibility for administration of docket control orders. His knowledge and experience include scientific, medical and regulatory issues in product liability cases, expert discovery and motions, preemption and novel theories of liability. In addition to pharmaceutical and medical device product liability litigation, he has worked on commercial disputes, False Claims Act (FCA) cases, has counseled clients on a range of issues, including product labeling and risk minimization, and has experience handling matters involving a wide range of products and issues, with cases pending in courts in the U.S. and around the world.

In his extensive experience, Mr. Alexander has personally tried multiple prescription drug and device cases to verdict and assisted in dozens of trials involving many other prescription drug and medical device cases. In addition to preparing numerous prescription drug and medical device cases for trial, he has taken and defended more than 1,000 fact and expert witness depositions, as well as litigated numerous issues of first impression. Also, he has drafted and argued numerous discovery, Daubert, in limine and dispositive motions, along with post-trial motions and appellate briefs.

Additionally, Mr. Alexander has supervised teams of associates and paralegals with responsibility for more than 60,000 cases in state and federal courts around the country. In all, he has participated in a range of roles during the life of a serial product liability litigation as national, regional, local and trial counsel. He has been centrally involved in paper and electronic document sweeps and productions, class actions and MDL, generic written discovery, depositions of company executives and corporate designees, reports, depositions and motions practice for generic experts, cross-border discovery, case-specific discovery, trials, appeals and mass settlements with administrative follow-up.

Mr. Alexander is particularly known for his work with medical and liability/regulatory experts, as well as presenting corporate executives in deposition and trial. He has assisted in responding to government investigations and consulted with a range of pharmaceutical, medical device and healthcare clients on liability and regulatory issues.

In addition to his legal practice, Mr. Alexander is a regular speaker on litigation and product liability issues for a variety of audiences, as well as providing formal training for co-counsel in serial litigation. He has written regularly for a leading legal blog on drug and device product liability law issues for more than a decade.

Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Alexander was a partner at an international law firm in its office in Washington, D.C.

During law school, Mr. Alexander was a senior editor for the Law and Contemporary Problems. Following law school, he completed a clerkship for the Honorable Jon P. McCalla of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.

Representative Experience

  • Part of national counsel teams in nationwide serial product liability litigation involving prescription weight loss, birth control, diabetes, lactation, Parkinson's medications, hernia repair devices, pelvic mesh devices and other medical products since 1997
  • Won a defense verdict in the first multidistrict litigation (MDL) bellwether trial after a five-week trial
  • Co-tried the second and third MDL bellwether trials to modest (compensatory damages only) plaintiff verdicts
  • Responsible for presenting every corporate witness in four MDL and state bellwether trials over the course of two years
  • Part of a trial team that won a defense verdict in the first MDL bellwether trial concerning a hernia repair product
  • Won a defense verdict in a 2½-week trial in District of Columbia Superior Court for a pharmaceutical company that sponsored a clinical trial on a novel HIV medication
  • Part of a defense team that secured the first low plaintiff verdict in a primary pulmonary hypertension diet drug case
  • Won a defense verdict and a low plaintiff verdict in first multi-plaintiff diet drug trial in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas

Credentials

Education
  • Duke University School of Law, J.D., cum laude
  • Kenyon College, B.A., magna cum laude
Bar Admissions/Licenses
  • Maryland
  • District of Columbia
Court Admissions
  • U.S. Supreme Court
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
  • U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
  • U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan
  • U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado
Honors & Awards
  • Who's Who Legal, Life Sciences
  • Phi Beta Kappa

Publications

News