Merck Swaps Lead Attorney For Vioxx Appeal

Merck Swaps Lead Attorney For Vioxx Appeal - 8/11/2009

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News	News 2009
HEADLINES \| SETTLEMENTS AND DISMISSALS \| COURT FILINGS LINKS TO OTHER NEWS \| NEWS ARCHIVE	HEADLINES ARCHIVED SETTLEMENTS AND DISMISSALS ARCHIVED

DISMISSAL NEWS:

Merck Swaps Lead Attorney For Vioxx Appeal
Erin Coe

Securities Law 360. August 11, 2009
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EXCERPT: Months after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Merck & Co. Inc.’s appeal of a decision that reinstated a securities class action alleging it concealed the health risks of its recalled painkiller Vioxx, the pharmaceutical giant has reportedly switched up its lead counsel, making its longtime attorney from Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP take a backseat. Merck directed Evan R. Chesler, a presiding partner at Cravath, to step aside and let Williams & Connolly LLP partner Kannon K. Shanmugam head up the company’s case that is arguing for the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court’s revival of the action, according to a Tuesday report by The American Lawyer. The high court granted Merck’s petition for a writ of certiorari in May. Chesler, who will continue to work on the case, initially won the dismissal of the case against Merck at the district court level after arguing that investors waited too long to file the action, according to the report. He also represented the company before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which revived the case last year, the report said. Shanmugam, who argued eight cases before the Supreme Court during his four years as an assistant to the U.S. Solicitor General, will lay out Merck’s case at an oral arguments hearing in the fall, according to the report. Shanmugam joined Williams & Connolly in 2008 and became the firm’s first lateral hire in 22 years, the report said. Shanmugam declined to comment on the report due to the sensitivity of the case. Chesler and a representative for Merck did not return calls seeking comment. Vioxx, once a blockbuster drug, was pulled off shelves in 2004 by Merck after a study showed that Vioxx users had an increased risk of heart attack, stroke and death. That study prompted the class action that was filed in May 2005 in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey on behalf of those who purchased Merck securities between May 1999 and October 2004.

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