Sherry Knutson

Practice Areas

• Life Sciences Litigation

• Mass Tort & Product Liability

Career

Appreciated by clients as “a fantastic trial partner,” Sherry Knutson has tried cases to verdict in Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, New Jersey, Georgia, and West Virginia. Sherry has over 25 years of experience in product liability and toxic tort cases, with an emphasis on defending pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Her practice ranges from multi-plaintiff, multi-jurisdiction litigations to single plaintiff cases. She has served as national coordinating counsel in multiple pharmaceutical mass torts, and as lead counsel in several coordinated proceedings in Chicago. Sherry co-chairs the Tucker Ellis Health & Life Sciences Group – a multidisciplinary team with a distinctive combination of medical, scientific, and technical knowledge and decades of industry experience – that represents clients in a broad range of health and life sciences matters across the country.

Professional Memberships

• International Society of Barristers

• IADC

• DRI

Experience

• Served as co-lead trial counsel for defendants in transvaginal mesh product liability case; obtained a defense verdict on failure to warn after plaintiff’s counsel requested over $8.6 million in compensatory damages during closing

• Served as lead trial counsel for defendant in multi-defendant talcum powder product liability case alleging decedent developed ovarian cancer causing her death; obtained full defense verdict in favor of all defendants after plaintiff’s counsel requested over $84 million in compensatory damages during closing

• Served as co-lead trial counsel in a case involving transvaginal mesh in Chicago, securing a defense verdict on two of three claims; jury awarded only $55,000 in compensatory damages (past medical expenses) and no punitive damages on remaining claim despite plaintiff’s request for $85 million

• Served as co-lead trial counsel in a case involving a diabetes drug in West Virginia, securing a defense verdict on three of four claims; jury awarded only $155,000 in compensatory damages and no punitive damages on remaining claim

• Served as co-lead trial counsel in the first bellwether case involving a diabetes drug in Chicago, obtaining a defense verdict in less than two hours following a trial lasting longer than three weeks in which plaintiff requested over $10 million in damages