Kirkland recruits Skadden mass tort team for Philadelphia debut

Highly-regarded trial lawyer Allison Brown joins with four more partners

Allison Brown Credit: Kirkland & Ellis

Kirkland & Ellis has added a team of five partners led by renowned litigator and trial lawyer Allison Brown, in a move that will see the firm open a new office in Philadelphia. 

Brown, who has won numerous trials for Johnson & Johnson, has joined the firm alongside Jessica Davidson, Geoffrey Wyatt, Nina Rose and Christopher Cox. The team is focused on product liability, mass torts and commercial litigation. 

Brown will be based in Kirkland’s new Philadelphia office, while Davidson and Cox will be based in New York and Wyatt and Rose will work out of Washington DC. 

“Alli fits our litigation team perfectly,” said Kirkland executive committee member Andrew Kassof. “She’s one of the very top trial lawyers in the country, she’s beloved by her clients and colleagues, and she consistently wins in the hardest cases anywhere.”

Brown represents multinational corporations across the pharmaceutical, life sciences and consumer goods industries in high-profile jury trials. As lead trial counsel she has secured numerous wins for Johnson & Johnson in cases where plaintiffs claimed the company’s talc-based baby powder caused them to develop cancer and she has also acted as lead trial counsel for Ethicon, Colgate-Palmolive and Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceutical, among others.  

A Skadden spokesperson said of the team’s move: “We thank Alli and our other colleagues for their contributions and wish them the best following their departure from the firm later this year.”

Chicago-headquartered Kirkland is the world’s largest law firm by revenue and has more than 4,000 lawyers globally across more than 20 cities. The firm’s Philadelphia launch follows it opening in Frankfurt last year and Saudi Arabia in 2023, having also set up shop in Miami and Salt Lake City in the preceding two years. 

Other US firms to look to Philadelphia recently include Polsinelli, which opened in the city last year after hiring more than 20 partners from Holland & Knight. In 2023 Goodwin Procter also tapped Troutman Pepper for a large team for its Philadelphia launch. 

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