Peter A. Strotz

Pharmaceutical

• Serves as national coordinating counsel for a major innovator pharmaceutical company in the defense of hundreds of claims that treatment with a widely prescribed branded statin causes diabetes, cardiovascular problems, and liver and kidney problems.
• Acted as California counsel for a major pharmaceutical company in the defense of product liability litigation involving a branded proton pump inhibitor.
• Represents GlaxoSmithKline in product liability cases in California involving claims of birth defects.
• Defends a global pharmaceutical company in product liability cases involving the administration of a corticosteroid.
• Served on the national trial and leadership teams representing a major innovator pharmaceutical company in the defense of claims that an antipsychotic medication causes weight gain, diabetes, and pancreatitis.
• Defended the manufacturer of a dental anesthetic in product liability cases filed throughout the U.S.
• Acted as California counsel representing a major innovator pharmaceutical company in the defense of multiple personal injury cases which involved claims that pain pumps cause degeneration of shoulder joint cartilage.
• Served as California trial counsel for a global brand name pharmaceutical company in an action brought by independent pharmacies alleging a nationwide price-fixing conspiracy among the manufacturers of brand name prescription drugs.
• Represented The Dow Chemical Company as the alleged successor to the manufacturer of the Salk polio vaccine. In numerous product liability actions filed by individual plaintiffs in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Orange counties, Peter led a team that successfully formulated an end-game strategy resulting in the statewide dismissals of all plaintiffs’ claims at the pleading stage.
• Represented SmartHealth Inc., in the defense of the latex glove product liability cases.

Healthcare

• Achieved a defense verdict on behalf of a hospital and healthcare system in a qui tam trial involving allegations of healthcare fraud related to licensing and patient steering brought by a Relator and the California Department of Insurance.
• Represents a South American Public Health Agency in a breach of contract action arising out of its attempted purchase of ventilators to address the Covid-19 health crisis.

Toxic Tort – Benzene

• Represented a number of Fortune and Global 1000 companies, including AkzoNobel, D Aircraft Products, Cytec Industries, Inc., Indopco, Inc., and Chevron U.S.A. Inc., in personal injury cases venued in Northern and Southern California, involving claims of exposure to benzene.
• Toxic Tort – Silica
• Led a team that represented Chevron U.S.A. Inc., Union Oil Company of California and Hewlett-Packard Company in the defense of silica-related product and premises personal injury claims filed in California state court.

Toxic Tort – Asbestos

• Defends Chevron U.S.A. Inc. and Texaco Inc. in cases involving claims of exposure to asbestos at the Abadan Refinery in Iran in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Won summary judgments in four cases and won appellate arguments in the cases where those summary judgment wins have been appealed.
• Handled, through trial verdict, asbestos product and premises liability dockets throughout the State of California on behalf of numerous companies, including Chevron U.S.A. Inc., Texaco Inc., Unocal Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Company, UOP LLC, The Glidden Company, American Cyanamid Company, Fiberite Inc, Flintkote, Western MacArthur, Baxter Healthcare, The Dow Chemical Company and Rhone-Poulenc, for a period of over 25 years. He obtained a defense verdict for Fiberite after a seven-week jury trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court where plaintiff claimed he developed mesothelioma as a result of exposure to a Fiberite molding compound.
• Toxic Tort – Agricultural Chemicals
• Acted as national counsel for the manufacturer of synthetic pyrethrin pesticides in product liability actions filed throughout the United States.
• Served as co-counsel on a trial team that obtained a defense verdict in an alleged Paraquat® exposure trial in a California state action.
• Served on a team that successfully defended Rhone-Poulenc (nka Rhodia) in the personal injury claims of over 400 individuals arising out of a chemical fire at a sulfuric acid regeneration facility in Martinez, California. Lead Paint.

Lead Paint

• Represented American Cyanamid Company in an action being prosecuted by cities and counties throughout the State of California against the manufacturers of paint pigments alleging that presence of lead in paint in commercial and residential buildings constituted a public nuisance.

MtBE

• Represented Chevron U.S.A. Inc. and Union Oil Company of California in Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MtBE) cases involving claims of personal injury and groundwater contamination.

Commercial.

• Represented a paint company in commercial litigation relating to the sales of paint and coating products in state and federal courts in California.
• Obtained a defense verdict in favor of a specialty ink manufacturer in a commercial sales action.
• Defended successfully the manufacturer of food flavoring products in a commercial action filed in federal district court.

Commercial Design Claims.

• Defending a process design engineering company in professional negligence claims and recently won a nonsuit after a five-week jury trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Peter A. Strotz has been litigating tort, product liability, and commercial matters for over 30 years and has first-chaired dozens of trials in courts throughout California and the U.S.  His cases involve novel medical, scientific and legal issues for global manufacturing companies, including pharmaceutical, healthcare, oil, gas, engineered and specialty materials, paints, and coatings companies.  Peter has acted as national, regional and local trial counsel in a variety of commercial, antitrust, and toxic tort matters.  He is the founding and managing partner of the firm’s Los Angeles, California office.

Peter is a senior member of the firm’s Product Liability Practice, which was selected by Law360 as the Product Liability Group of the Year for seven of the last eight years. In what was recognized as a Top Verdict of 2019 by The Daily Journal, Peter achieved a complete defense verdict on behalf of Prime Healthcare against the California Department of Insurance (CDI) and a Relator in a major Insurance Frauds Prevention Act trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court that established a precedent for healthcare providers facing these types of allegations.