Bowman and Brooke has been recognized by UK-based The Legal 500 for Product Liability, Mass Tort, and Class Action Defense excellence across multiple practice areas, including Motor Vehicles, Life Sciences, and Consumer Products. The firm saw significant gains in this year’s rankings; the Life Science practice landed in Band One for the first time and Consumer Products rose to Band Three, up from last year’s Band Four placement.
The Legal 500 offered the following comments for each of the designated practice areas:
- Pharmaceutical/Medical Devices – Band One – "Bowman and Brooke LLP’s Minneapolis-based practice has deep experience handling high-profile cases and class actions. Paul Cereghini in Phoenix, Robert Wise in Richmond, and Susan Burnett in Austin successfully obtained denial of class certification for Breg in litigation alleging violations of California’s consumer protection laws, fraud and breaches of warranty regarding the company’s Polar Car 500 cold therapy device. Michelle Gilboe has been serving as national counsel to Enhancement Medical in all personal injury and product liability claims concerning its hyaluronic acid product Expression. Kim Schmid heads the practice." Full rankings from The Legal 500 in Pharmaceutical/Medical Devices can be found here.
- Automotive/Transport – Band One – "Bowman and Brooke LLP continues to defend a number of manufacturers in high-profile mass torts and class actions, often serving as lead national and trial counsel. In Detroit, Thomas Branigan has been serving as lead counsel to BMW against class action and personal injury claims in the ongoing Takata airbag multi-district litigation (MDL). The department is jointly headed by Vincent Galvin in San Jose and Paul Cereghini in Phoenix; the Miami office significantly bolstered its offering with a number of lateral hires from Carlton Fields and Arnstein & Lehr LLP." Full rankings from The Legal 500 in Automotive/Transport can be found here.
- Consumer Products – Band Three – "With deep experience handling high-profile litigation, Bowman and Brooke LLP’s product liability and mass tort team has seen an increase in work for clients in the fitness and construction industries. Phoenix-based group head Paul Cereghini has been serving as lead counsel to Riddell in various concussion litigation, successfully obtaining a dismissal with prejudice of a product liability claim alleging manufacturing defects brought by a number of college athletes before the Southern District of Indiana. Also in Phoenix, Cereghini and William Auther have been defending Beazer in a class action brought by a number of homeowners alleging the improper installation of a tile roof system. The team includes David Campbell in Detroit, Michelle Gilboe in Minneapolis and Robert Wise in Richmond." Full rankings from The Legal 500 in Consumer Products can be found here.
In addition to these practice area honorifics, Bowman and Brooke leaders Paul Cereghini and Vincent Galvin, Jr. were again both named to
The Legal 500's exclusive list of “Leading Lawyers” for Automotive/Transport-- additionally highlighting their inclusion to its inaugural Hall of Fame, limited to Leading Lawyers listed six years in a row.
To compile the annual rankings, researchers from The Legal 500—including both qualified journalists and lawyers—spend months conducting in-depth research into the market, pitting national firms against one another, practice area by practice area, and gathering feedback from peers and clients to assess overall visibility and reputation. The result is a highly detailed, objective analysis of the U.S. market highlighting the best of the best.