Christopher B. Essig

Practice Areas

Chris focuses his practice in the areas of products liability, class actions, and intellectual property. He has deep experience with significant nationwide product liability matters, as well as consumer fraud class actions, involving multidistrict and consolidated litigation in both state and federal courts. He also has substantial experience representing major pharmaceutical companies in disputes involving intellectual property.

Chris has represented sophisticated defendants in nationwide products liability and class action matters in both state and federal courts for two decades. Currently, Chris is national counsel for a pharmaceutical manufacturer in almost 900 products liability lawsuits pending across the country involving the manufacture of opioid medications. Among other matters, he also represents a major chemical manufacturer in environmental and products liability claims alleging groundwater contamination and personal injury. Chris has played significant roles on trial defense teams for a range of clients including global aerospace manufacturers, as well as major firm pharmaceutical and medical device clients such as Medtronic, Pfizer Inc., and Wyeth.

Further, Chris has defended various clients in some of the largest consumer fraud class actions in the United States. For example, he has litigated claims in several cases nearing US$2B based on the allegation that his client’s products violated several state consumer protection statutes.

Chris also has represented pharmaceutical companies in other contexts. He has spent years defending multinational corporate clients in pharmaceutical patent infringement litigation surrounding the filing of Abbreviated New Drug Applications and the Hatch-Waxman Act. Most recently, Chris was trial counsel for a client who prevailed in litigation involving Sensipar® (cinacalcet), a prescription drug with more than US$1B in sales per year.

Chris has notably invested significant time in pro bono matters, some of which have garnered media attention. For example, Chris successfully led Winston’s pro bono team and obtained asylum for an Iranian photojournalist who published several controversial and award-winning projects focusing on youth and female identity.