W. Mark Lanier

In 2005, Lanier represented Carol Ernst in a lawsuit against Merck & Co., a pharmaceutical company and manufacturer of Vioxx, an anti-inflammatory drug used to treat osteoarthritis and acute pain conditions. Ernst was married to Robert Ernst, a former marathon runner who died after taking the medication. The case was initially decided in Ernst's favor, with a jury awarding her a $253 million verdict. In another case Lanier obtained consumer fraud findings against Merck who it was claimed had misled doctors and patients by concealing information about Vioxx and its risks.[9][10] The first ruling was overturned on appeal in 2008 with the court noting Lanier "had not proved that Vioxx caused Mr. Ernst’s death" and compensatory damages were reduced in the second.[11]

Following the 2010 DePuy Hip Recall, Lanier represented plaintiffs in several lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson and DePuy Synthes, which Johnson & Johnson acquired in 1998.[12] In March 2016, five North Texas residents being represented by Lanier were awarded about $500 million for alleged complications arising from the hip implants.[13] The award was later reduced to $151 million at appeal.[14] In November 2016, Lanier won a $1 billion payout to six plaintiffs affected by the implants,[15] followed by a further $247 million to six New York residents.[16]

In April 2018 a retrial was ordered by the 5th Circuit court of appeals in the case against DePuy Orthopaedics, with the appeal judges accusing Lanier of "inflammatory tactics and outright deception" in the trial. Reuters reported that the ruling had a "truly extraordinary tone" when criticising Lanier's actions at the trial. Lanier had told jurors that in contrast to DePuy’s expert witnesses in the case, his expert witnesses were unpaid when in fact they were compensated $65,000 after the trial. Lanier also insinuated that DePuy were liable because they had been accused of bribing officials during from Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime and claimed that executives at DePuy were racist.[17][18] The retrial began in January 2019[19] and in May that year Reuters reported that Johnson & Johnson had reached an agreement to settle 95% of the 6,000 cases for a $1bn.[20]

In 2018, Lanier led the trial team representing 22 women who had filed suit against Johnson & Johnson. The lawsuit alleged that the company's talcum powder products contained asbestos and that, after several years of use, had caused each of the women's ovarian cancer. The trial lasted six weeks and resulted in $550 million in compensatory damages and $4.14 billion in punitive damages being awarded to the plaintiffs.[6]