HIGH LITIGATION
STAKES I
Is going all in really the best bet? By Glenn Kauth
t took more than a year, and months of contentious negotiations in a New York conference room, for lawyers to settle the tainted pet-food case against Menu Foods Income Fund. In the case against drug maker Merck Frosst Canada Ltd., litigation
has continued since 2004 over complaints its painkiller Vioxx was caus- ing heart complications.
And in one of the country's messiest and most drawn-out class action sagas,
lawyers battled it out for roughly eight years before finally reaching the final chapter in the case against Servier Canada Inc., the maker of the diet drug Fen- Phen. Litigation in that case involved multiple appeals as well as 65 motions, says Joel Rochon, a partner at Rochon Genova LLP who acts for plaintiffs in many high-profile class actions.
INHOUSE APRIL 2009 • 15
