Product Liability

When accidents occur, WBM’s lawyers are trial advocates and counselors to corporate clients. We recognize the reality that in-house counsel faces with their organization being a cost center, and offer competitive rates and efficient staffing. We handle a full range of product liability, toxic tort, environmental tort, and industrial accident litigation from single plaintiff matters to nationwide class actions. We also do a significant amount of asbestos trial work.

National and Local Industrial Clients

Many of our liability clients are manufacturing or transportation companies with plants and headquarters in the U.S. The bigger the company, the more likely there are to be accidents — products/toxic tort, accidents at manufacturing facilities, environmental releases, etc. — and we handle them all. In addition to national clients, WBM welcomes representation for local/regional counsel roles with bigger litigation for industrial and manufacturing clients in the Midwest, and locally in Chicagoland.

Relentless Approach

WBM is known for attacking liability cases in an efficiently relentless manner. At the outset, we identify the critical issues to winning the case. We then build our litigation strategy and work around those issues. We propound and defend discovery in a targeted manner. We take depositions to elicit the admissions that we need to win at trial. Our motion practice is focused on case shaping or dispositive issues, and we constantly think about potential winning legal arguments. Our staffing is lean and our work is focused. We don’t churn; we focus on winning. Because we have tried so many cases, we are not afraid to take them to trial, and are well suited to counseling on the potential risks.

Focus on Winning

As a rule, WBM is focused on the mission of putting the client in the best position to win. This goal-oriented approach, rather than the typical task-based approach of big litigation, is designed to put the client in the best position to resolve the case favorably — through motion practice, negotiated resolution, or at trial. Partner Thomas J. Morel has tried and litigated numerous products and toxic tort cases, including trying two class actions to verdict.