Mr. Hollingsworth is a nationally renowned courtroom advocate who specializes in trials and appeals. He has been honored three times by The National Law Journal for the year’s Top Ten Defense Wins—in 1998, 2001, and 2005. Currently in his thirty-eighth year of private practice, Mr. Hollingsworth leads a practice group of sixty-five attorneys. He defends cases involving pharmaceutical and medical device product liability, toxic and environmental torts, and consumer product liability, and he prosecutes and defends complex federal claims involving the government. Over one hundred opinions arising from his cases are published in the federal and state reporters. On behalf of corporate defendants, he has conducted over twenty jury trials, ranging in duration from two weeks to over three and a half months. He has argued in the United States Supreme Court, in most U.S. Circuit courts, before the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, and in many state supreme courts and intermediate appellate courts.
Mr. Hollingsworth tries both high-stakes individual cases and cases that form massive serial litigation. In 2010, Mr. Hollingsworth secured a defense verdict as lead counsel for Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation in the plaintiffs' bellwether selection in serial litigation consolidated in New Jersey. Bessemer v. Novartis Pharms. Corp., MID-L-1835-08-MT (N.J. Super. Ct., defense verdict Oct. 6, 2010), involved a claim that bisphosphonate drugs used in cancer therapies caused a "signature disease" known as osteonecrosis of the jaw ("ONJ"). Mr. Hollingsworth also recently served as lead trial counsel for Norfolk Southern in the largest single tort case in South Carolina history and one of the largest tort cases recently tried anywhere, in which textile manufacturer Avondale Mills sought hundreds of millions of dollars in compensatory damages as well as punitive damages for property damage to its plants following a January 2005 train derailment and chlorine release. Avondale Mills v. Norfolk Southern, Civ. No. 1:05-2817-MBS (D.S.C. 2008). After one month of an anticipated three-month trial, the parties agreed to a confidential settlement. In June 2004, Mr. Hollingsworth conducted the first jury trial in the country involving allegations that hernia repair mesh—used in approximately 700,000 hernia surgeries per year in the U.S. alone—can cause infertility. The Austin, Texas federal jury deliberated for fifty-eight minutes, returning a unanimous verdict for the nation’s largest medical device manufacturer. In 1997, Mr. Hollingsworth tried the first case alleging that the drug Parlodel® could cause serious cerebrovascular events in new mothers, in a case that had substantial pretrial publicity, including being featured on the NBC show “NOW.” The case was tried in state court in Rankin County, Mississippi. Mr. Hollingsworth secured a defense verdict that was upheld by the Mississippi Supreme Court. In another jury trial involving pretrial publicity - a “60 Minutes” documentary about his chemical manufacturer client – Mr. Hollingsworth won a defense verdict after an eleven-week trial. See Jones v. Velsicol Chem. Corp., 625 N.Y.S.2d 934 (N.Y. App. Div. 1995) (affirming denial of motion for new trial).
Mr. Hollingsworth has been lead counsel in numerous MDLs, serial litigations, and mass torts, and currently represents defendants in Omniscan™ contrast dye litigation and Zometa®/Aredia® bisphosphonate litigation, among other serial litigations. Mr. Hollingsworth is also currently defending claims brought by 3,200 Ecuadorans claiming personal injury and property damage from drug interdiction spraying with glyphosate (Roundup®) that is being conducted in Colombia by a firm client at the behest of the Republic of Colombia and the U.S. State Department.
In his appellate practice, Mr. Hollingsworth secured, on behalf of General Electric, a decision eliminating collateral tort liability for property damage due to the release of a persistent contaminant. Based on 100-year-old national precedents, the Georgia Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion on questions certified from the Eleventh Circuit, leading to the vacatur of a $20 million verdict in a case tried by another firm. See General Elec. Co. v. Lowe's Home Centers, Inc., 608 S.E.2d 636 (Ga. 2005) (answering questions certified by Eleventh Circuit); Lowe's Home Centers, Inc. v. General Electric Co., 404 F.3d 1311 (11th Cir. 2005) (vacating judgment in favor of plaintiff).
In the course of their representation of manufacturers and other corporations in the defense of thousands of cases nationwide involving pharmaceuticals and medical devices, Mr. Hollingsworth and his group have pioneered important developments in the law critical to corporate tort defendants. Notable examples include four important and widely cited Circuit Court Daubert decisions, see, e.g., Rider/Siharath v. Sandoz Pharms. Corp., 295 F.3d 1194 (11th Cir. 2002) (affirming summary judgment in pharmaceutical case); Hollander v. Sandoz Pharms. Corp., 289 F.3d 1193 (10th Cir. 2002) (same); Glastetter v. Novartis Pharms. Corp., 252 F.3d 986 (8th Cir. 2001) (per curiam) (same); and Schudel v. Gen. Elec. Co., 120 F.3d 991 (9th Cir. 1997) (overturning $14 million jury verdict on Daubert grounds in PCB/solvents case). Mr. Hollingsworth and his group have also secured important precedent-setting victories ranging from winning summary judgment on various grounds, see, e.g., Davidson v. Velsicol Chem. Corp., 834 P.2d 931 (Nev. 1992), cert. denied, 507 U.S. 1051 (1993) (first state supreme court post-Cippolone FIFRA preemption decision); Conde v. Velsicol Chem. Corp., 804 F. Supp. 972 (S.D. Ohio 1992), aff'd 24 F.3d 809 (6th Cir. 1994) (first post-Daubert summary judgment opinion in 6th Cir.); Bly v. Tri-Continental Indus., 663 A.3d 1232 (D.C. 1995) (affirming summary judgment in leukemia cases), to establishing important procedural principles that upset plaintiffs’ case planning, see, e.g., In Re Consolidated Parlodel Litig., 22 F. Supp. 2d 320 (D.N.J. 1998) (deconsolidating claims on forum non conveniens grounds); Yocham v. Novartis Pharms. Corp., No. 07-1810, slip. op., 2007 WL 2318493 (D.N.J. Aug. 13, 2007) (denying motion to remand case brought against in-state defendant where defendant removed case prior to being served). Mr. Hollingsworth and his firm also counsel clients with respect to due diligence and insurance coverage issues relating to toxics liabilities.
Mr. Hollingsworth's practice also emphasizes the pursuit of claims against the government on behalf of contractors and others. He represented Glendale Federal Bank, and successfully argued its breach-of-contract case before the United States Supreme Court, in the landmark “Winstar” litigation, see 518 U.S. 839 (1996), an oral argument featured in The American Lawyer, and a case that concluded with the award of $387 million to his client Glendale. On a national basis, he has pursued indemnity claims against the government on behalf of two former asbestos-containing product manufacturers. In such federal claims litigation, Mr. Hollingsworth has appeared in numerous specialized forums, including the full en banc Federal Circuit.
Mr. Hollingsworth is a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce National Chamber Litigation Center's Constitutional and Administrative Law Committee, a group that helps the Chamber select appropriate cases for amicus participation in the highest appellate courts in the country. Over the course of his career, Mr. Hollingsworth has been sought out hundreds of times for various speaking engagements. He has appeared frequently on behalf of the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institution, Northwestern Law’s Searle Center, and George Mason University School of Law as a lecturer in federal and state judge education workshops and related seminars. He also lectures, and is consulted by media interests, about litigation strategies in complex litigation. See, e.g., The National Law Journal (March 19, 2001) (strategies for successful Daubert challenges). He is a member of the Product Liability Advisory Council (an elite group of the most experienced and talented product liability defense attorneys in the nation), a member of the Defense Research Institute, and a member of the National Association of Railroad Trial Counsel. Mr. Hollingsworth serves on the board of the Atlantic Legal Foundation, the board of the Council for Court Excellence (a nonprofit organization working to improve the administration of justice in local and federal courts), and the board of the Chesapeake Legal Alliance (a non-profit organization dedicated to using the law to improve the quality of the Chesapeake Bay).
Mr. Hollingsworth is recognized in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in American Law. He is named in the 2012 Washington, DC edition of Super Lawyers, as he has been each year since 2007.
