Andrew D. Carpenter

Since 2018, Andy has chaired Shook’s Legal Issues Group (LIG), an interdivisional practice group of selected litigators specializing in complex legal writing and analysis. The LIG executes the legal strategy for Shook’s clients in their most complex litigations, including mass actions and MDLs. The Group’s work begins with pre-trial strategy and motion practice, continues through trial to include trial support, appellate preservation, jury instructions and trial motions, and culminates in post-trial motion and appellate practice. As chair of the LIG, Andy focuses on identifying and developing Shook’s writing and analytical talent and putting them into the best positions to support our clients and trial teams. Over the last three years, the LIG has drafted over 3,000 motions and actively supported more than 50 trials for a range of clients in both product liability and environmental litigations.  

Andy’s goal in every case is to create innovative and effective solutions for his clients through incisive analysis, effective writing and persuasive advocacy. He believes that a complete mastery of the law and the facts, combined with active client communication, is the best way to maximize the odds of success. Andy’s proficiency is based on battle-tested courtroom experience; since 2009, Andy has spent an average of more than 60 days a year defending his clients in trial. His cases range from consumer products to medical devices to large-scale property rights class actions and environmental class actions. Andy also enjoys teaching and has taught Products Liability at the University of Kansas School of Law since 2017. In his spare time, Andy writes novels that his agent reminds him are too long to publish. 

Andy offers the type of command of the law that comes from more than 20 years of defending clients such as Philip Morris, Union Pacific, Boston Scientific, DuPont, Chemours, Zimmer Orthopedics, Lorillard Tobacco Company and The Coca-Cola Company in challenging litigation across the United States:

Complex Briefing, Appeals and Legal Strategy: Since 2017, Andy has spearheaded the defense of DuPont and Chemours in a series of individual and putative class action cases pending in the Northern District of New York alleging environmental contamination from the discharge of Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA or “C8”). Andy is also directing the defense of a series of individual and putative class action cases pending in the Eastern District of North Carolina alleging contamination from PFAS and Hexafluoropropylene Oxide Dimer Acid (“GenX”). From 2008 to 2012, Andy directed the Lorillard Tobacco Company Legal Issues Group, which wrote and argued all major briefs and motions and coordinated appeals for the more than 8,000 Engle-progeny cases pending in Florida. Andy was responsible for directing and coordinating Lorillard’s legal strategy in this litigation, as well as all motions and legal issues at trial. Andy wrote and argued many of the key motions and briefs for Lorillard in this litigation. Since 2012, Andy has represented Philip Morris USA Inc., as its legal issues counsel in numerous Engle-progeny trials. Since 2015, Andy has represented Union Pacific in a series of putative class actions involving property rights claims to the railroad’s right-of-way that have resulted in a perfect record of denied motions for class certification.

Class Actions and MDLs: From 2005 to 2008, Andy represented Boston Scientific Corp./Guidant in MDL No. 1708, In re Guidant Corp. Implantable Defibrillators Product Liability Litigation, consisting of nearly 2,000 cases and 74 putative class actions cases pending in the U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota. Andy was responsible for all legal issues and discovery briefing in that MDL. He developed and argued many of the key dispositive and evidentiary motions for the MDL representative lead cases, resulting in several important rulings, including a key choice-of-law victory. He also developed and argued the motion that resulted in the dismissal of all third-party payor claims in the MDL. This litigation was ultimately resolved on terms favorable to Boston Scientific. Andy was also responsible for overseeing the defense of Guidant’s Canadian litigation.

eDiscovery and Class Action MDLs: From 2005 to 2008, Andy served DuPont as its class action and eDiscovery counsel in MDL No. 1733, In re Teflon Products Liability Litigation, consisting of 22 putative class actions pending in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Iowa. In addition to helping coordinate the defense group’s class certification defense, Andy was responsible for DuPont’s document production, privilege logs and eDiscovery issues. The district court denied class certification in every case and rejected each of the plaintiffs’ motions for discovery sanctions.

Product Liability Class Actions: Andy has also successfully defended national clients such as Smithfield Foods, The Coca-Cola Company, Smith & Wesson, Smucker’s, Mitsubishi and Cingular Wireless in class action litigation.

Class Action Settlements: Andy has helped negotiate, brief, implement and oversee the successful resolution of several national cases, including the $1.1 billion resolution of MDL No. 1401, In re Sulzer Orthopedics, Inc. Hip Prosthesis and Knee Prosthesis Liability Litigation, as well as the class resolution of multiple nationwide product liability classes for Mitsubishi Motors and DaimlerChrysler, and a nationwide employment class action for Mutual of Omaha.

Complex Product Liability Defense: As a part of Shook’s Global Product Liability Group, Andy has successfully represented both Philip Morris and Lorillard Tobacco Company in smoking-and-health litigation across the United States, including traditional class actions, third-party payor cost recovery actions, consolidated claims by individual smokers and individual smoking-and-health cases. Beginning as an associate, Andy has been able to learn every aspect of defending a complex case from the ground up, beginning with the Broin flight attendant class action trial in Miami in 1997, the Falise/Johns-Manville Settlement Trust cost recovery trial in New York in 2000, and the Coolidge tobacco trial in Riverside, California, in 2003.

Appellate Advocacy: Andy has successfully briefed and argued appeals before courts such as the U.S. Courts of Appeal, Sixth and Eighth Circuits, as well as in-state appellate courts, including Missouri and Connecticut. Andy also drafted the winning petition in Coca-Cola v. Pennington that resulted in a writ by the Missouri Supreme Court vacating the trial court’s certification of a statewide consumer class against Coca-Cola. Most recently, Andy collaborated with the co-counsel for Union Pacific in the briefing that won 1292(b) interlocutory review of a critical district court ruling, as well as the appellate briefing that won a unanimous panel reversal and victory before the Ninth Circuit that effectively ended the litigation across multiple cases.