Julia Reed Balzano

Julia Reed Balzano, Esq. focuses her practice on pharmaceutical mass torts and complex civil litigation involving personal, financial, and environmental injuries. She currently litigates pharmaceutical, medical device and environmental cases, and formerly acted as National Counsel for the National Wildlife Federation on matters relating to the Deepwater Horizon Disaster /Gulf Oil Spill. 

Practicing law for almost 20 years, Attorney Balzano has a diverse professional resume. She is experienced in many areas of litigation including pharmaceutical and medical device litigation, environmental litigation, and fraud. Her litigation experience began with her work as a toxicologist in South Florida supporting environmental litigation cases through expert testimony. After starting a career as an environmental consultant working on several litigation and risk analysis matters including projects at Cape Canaveral and many current/former Department of Defense sites, she attended law school at Rutgers. Upon graduation, she served as a law clerk to the only mass tort judge in the state of New Jersey at the time, the Honorable Marina Corodemus (Ret.), assisting with the management, litigation and trial of thousands of product liability and consumer actions pending before the court. She became a member of the bars of Florida and California and began her national practice representing plaintiffs.

Since 2001, Attorney Balzano has litigated and served on national leadership committees and represented hundreds of plaintiffs pursuing their individual claims based on personal injuries and fraud against large corporations.

In Re: Bard IVC Filter Litigation MDL 2641 (District of Arizona) 

• Attorney Balzano serves as a member of the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee (PEC) who, in conjunction with Co-Lead Counsel Ramon Lopez and Mark O’Connor, manage litigation on behalf of twenty-two law firms and thousands of plaintiffs.
• Attorney Balzano was a member of the trial team who delivered the opening statement in Booker v. Bard Peripheral Vascular, et al resulting in a $3.8 million verdict including $2 million in punitive damages. This verdict is included in the top ten product liability verdicts in the state of Arizona. She also successfully opposed a motion to dismiss all cases in the litigation based on preemption.

In Re: Cook IVC Filter Litigation MDL 2570 (S.D. Indiana) 

• Attorney Balzano serves as Co-Lead Counsel for litigation related to injuries associated with the failure of IVC filters (blood filtering medical device) designed, manufactured, and sold by Cook Medical.
• Attorney Balzano served as Co-Lead in the Brand v. Cook Medical trial where an Indianapolis jury awarded Ms. Brand $3 million for defectively designing the intravenous filter that injured her.
• Attorneys Balzano and Smith serve as members of the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee.
• Attorney Balzano successfully opposed motions to dismiss thousands of cases in the litigation based on a preemption theory.

Doe v. Xytex (Various Districts) 

• Attorneys Balzano and Smith litigated on behalf of mothers against a sperm bank who accepted and sold sperm from a donor who suffered from certain genetic diseases. The litigation has been resolved.

In Re: Incretins Mimetics Litigation MDL 2452 (S.D. California) 

• Attorney Balzano serves as a member of the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee and focuses on pharmacovigilance/adverse event discovery.

In re Pradaxa Litigation MDL 2385 (S.D. Illinois) 

• Attorneys Balzano and Smith served as a discovery attorney leading post-marketing pharmacovigilance/adverse event discovery and ESI production. The litigation has been resolved.

In Re: Oil Spill by the Oil Rig Deepwater Horizon Litigation (E.D. Louisiana)  

• Attorney Balzano participated in Science Committee literature gathering and analysis, development and building the PSC Science Library of resources for expert support. She also served as National Counsel to the largest conservation organization in the United States, the National Wildlife Federation. This aspect of the litigation has been resolved.

Chantix Product Liability Litigation MDL 2092 (N.D. Alabama)  

• Attorneys Balzano and Heaviside conducted discovery in one of the first bellwether cases selected for trial including successful law and motion efforts opposing Daubert Challenges and successfully striking defense experts from bellwether trial participation. Attorney Balzano also managed a team of discovery attorneys and paraprofessionals for adverse event source file collection and review.

O’Shea v. Cordis Corporation (Circuit Court, Palm Beach County, FL) 

• Attorney Balzano served as a member of state court coordinated litigation related to drug-eluting stents and acting Co-Lead counsel regarding discovery and litigation of post-Riegel v. Medtronic PMA claims. Attorney Reed led motion practice and discovery matters including oral arguments resulting in discovery sanctions awarded to Plaintiff. The litigation has been resolved.

Gregg v. Sanofi-Aventis (Superior Court, New Jersey) 

• Attorneys Balzano and Heaviside led consolidated litigation involving serious liver injury cases related to the use of the antibiotic Ketek. Attorney Balzano served as Co-Lead counsel for all litigation and settlement matters including successfully defeating a motion to dismiss a contract research organization for pre-market work. The litigation has been resolved. 

McBride v. Pfizer – (Superior Court, California) 

• Attorney Balzano served as Co-Lead Trial and Settlement Counsel, lead counsel for discovery matters related to pharmacovigilance and regulatory matters with successful motion practice resulting in discovery sanctions. The litigation has been resolved.

Park v. Chattem, Inc. (U.S.D.C. W.D. WA 2004) 

• Attorneys Balzano and Heaviside served negotiators in this class action settlement involving the PPA-containing appetite suppressant Dexatrim® sold by Chattem, Inc. The estimated value of the settlement: $56 million and included some 175 individual claimants.

In Re: Delaco (Bankruptcy - S.D. NY 2004) 

• Attorneys Balzano and Heaviside served on the Creditors Committee for this class settlement, which was structured as a Chapter 11 Reorganization, involving the PPA-containing appetite suppressant Dexatrim® that was sold by Delaco's predecessor, The Thompson Medical Company. The estimated value of the settlement: $122 million and included some 300 individual claimants.

- American Bar Association

- American Association for Justice

- Trial Attorneys for Public Justice

- Florida

- California

- U.S. Central District of California

- U.S. Southern District of California

- U.S. Middle District of Florida

- U.S. Southern District of Florida