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Overview

Nancy McDonald is a seasoned litigator with more than three decades of experience representing companies in various industries in complex multi-party toxic tort and mass tort litigation. Nancy manages asbestos litigation on behalf of premises owners, manufacturers and distributors of various types of products, including boilers, valves, electrical components and automotive components, among many others. She also represents a mineral product supplier in asbestos-related talc litigation in New York. Her defense of product manufacturers includes toxic-tort litigation related to benzene, vinyl chloride and other chemical-exposure claims. She has tried a number of asbestos cases to verdict and otherwise achieved favorable resolutions of matters in state and federal courts in New York and New Jersey, among other states, including Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Delaware. 

Nancy also has extensive experience in general liability and commercial litigation and previously was involved in defending clients in pharmaceutical and medical device litigation. 

Related to her appellate practice, Nancy has extensive experience handling appeals in toxic tort, product liability, and commercial and construction-related litigation, a number of which have resulted in reported decisions.

Nancy is a member of the New Jersey Asbestos Advisory Committee that works with the Honorable Ana C. Viscomi, J.S.C., the New Jersey asbestos judge. Nancy has presented on asbestos-related topics and continuing education programs in New Jersey and elsewhere. She authored the toxic torts chapter of LexisNexis Practice Guide: New Jersey Personal Injury Litigation

Experience

  • Tried, as lead or co-lead counsel, six mesothelioma and one lung cancer case to verdict. Four of those cases resulted in defense verdicts, including one deceased case that was tried in a consolidated group of thirteen cases in the Superior Court of New Jersey over five months. In addition, Nancy has started numerous asbestos trials in New York County and other counties in New York and New Jersey that have settled prior to verdict.

  • Served as local counsel in New York and New Jersey for a multinational corporation that has taken a no-pay position in its national asbestos litigation docket for the past several years. Leading the company’s defense, Nancy coordinated and supervised the preparation of the company’s cases for trial, including dispositive motions, expert retention, corporate witness preparation and in limine motions.  

  • Defended an electrical equipment manufacturer in a mesothelioma case, consolidated with two others, brought by an electrician in New York County Supreme Court. After the five-month trial, the jury returned a $3 million verdict, the lowest mesothelioma verdict in New York City in more than a decade. The client was allocated a small share of liability and paid nothing, as the settlement amounts received by the plaintiff exceeded the verdict.   

  • Tried as co-lead counsel a deceased mesothelioma case to verdict in New York County. The $20 million verdict in favor of the plaintiff was later remitted to $6 million. The jury’s recklessness finding was vacated as a result of the post-trial motion prepared by Nancy.  

  • Obtained a directed verdict as co-lead counsel in a lung cancer case tried in the New York City Asbestos Litigation (NYCAL) court, prevailing on the defense that the plaintiff failed to prove the decedent would have followed a warning had one been provided by the client. 

  • Obtained a defense verdict as co-lead counsel for a boiler-manufacturer client, again prevailing on the defense that the plaintiff failed to prove the decedent would have followed a warning had one been provided by the client.

  • Tried a mesothelioma case in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey on behalf of a former insulation manufacturer, which resulted in a plaintiff’s verdict against Nancy’s client and two other corporations. Nancy’s client was assessed the smallest percentage of liability. 

  • Acted as the relationship partner and local counsel in her prior firm’s representation of a major boiler manufacturer in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Delaware.

  • Representative appellate matters: 

    • Wayne Soifer v. Arvin Meritor, Inc., Case No. 2023-05622:  Appeal in Supreme Court of New York, Appellate Division, First Department of trial court’s denial of summary judgment motion; motion for interim stay of trial pending appeal granted by First Department; appeal withdrawn due to favorable settlement following stay order. 
    • Matter of New York City Asbestos Litig. (Seger v. Amchem Products, Inc., et al.), 206 A.D.3d 442 (2022): Successful appeal in the Supreme Court of New York, Appellate Division, First Department of trial court’s denial of client’s motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction.
    • Whelan v. Burnham LLC, et al. 455 N.J. Super. 569, 190 A.3d 1090 (App. Div. 2018): Opposition to Appeal in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division by plaintiff of order granting summary judgment to boiler manufacturer in asbestos product liability action. 
    • Barile v. 3M Company, et al.: Successful Opposition to plaintiff’s appeal of partial directed verdict and remaining no-cause verdict in favor of petroleum producer client in asbestos premises liability case in both the Appellate Division and the Supreme Court of New Jersey.  (2014)
    • Mull v. Exxon Mobil Corp., et al.: Successful interlocutory appeal in benzene-exposure case of trial court’s order requiring production of sensitive database, including successful emergent appeal to New Jersey Supreme Court to stay case pending appeal in intermediate appellate court. (2008)
    • Prudential Ins. Co. of America v. U.S. Gypsum Co., et al., 359 F.3d 226 (3d Cir. 2004):  Successful opposition to plaintiff’s appeal of dismissal of RICO claims for asbestos property damage as barred by the statute of limitations.
    • Class v. American Roller Die Corp., 308 N.J. Super. 47, 705 A.2d 390 (App. Div. 1998):  Successful appeal of trial court’s equal apportionment of liability among seriatim successor corporations and adopting client’s argument that damages should be apportioned based upon the number of years that the successor corporations manufactured the product line.
    • Jackson, Andrews, Dickens, Fay v. ExxonMobil, et al.: Successful opposition in the New York Court of Appeals to plaintiffs’ appeals of orders granting summary judgment to petroleum producer clients in alleged benzene exposure cases brought on behalf of merchant seamen. (1995)
    • Stevenson v. Keene Corp., 254 N.J. Super. 310, 603 A.2d 521 (App. Div. 1992): appeal involving issue of whether modifications to joint and several liability apply in asbestos-related personal injury actions.
    • Bd. of Educ. of Clifton v. W.R. Grace, 258 N.J. Super. 94, 609 A.2d 92 (Law Div. 1992): Summary judgment granted to client based on government contractor defense in asbestos-in-school case. 

Recognition

  • Recognized in The Best Lawyers in America®; Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions—Defendants, 2019–2024; Health Care, 2022; and Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions—Defendants, 2022
  • Listed in New Jersey Super Lawyers, published by Super Lawyers®; 2006, 2008–2016

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Education

  • Seton Hall University School of Law, JD, magna cum laude
  • Carleton College, BA, cum laude

Bar Admissions

  • New Jersey
  • New York

Court Admissions

  • US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
  • US District Court, District of New Jersey

News + Insights

Speaking Engagements

2024 Asbestos Litigation Conference, New Jersey State Bar Association