GTP CLASSIC: Kila Baldwin | Ebaugh v. Ethicon Women’s Health and Urology | $57.1 million verdict

The Great Trials Podcast

This week we’re replaying a classic episode where your hosts Steve Lowry and Yvonne Godfrey interview Kila Baldwin of Kline and Specter, PC (https://www.klinespecter.com/)

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Episode Details:

A Philadelphia attorney with a strong track record leading complex cases against medical device manufacturers, Kila Baldwin of Kline and Specter, PC discusses the high-profile trial in which she represented Ella Ebaugh, a woman who sustained lifelong injuries due to defective transvaginal mesh implants designed by Ethicon, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. In her 40s, Ella was diagnosed with stress urinary incontinence, which caused her bladder to leak unexpectedly. She was implanted with a TVT-Secur and TVT sling and later endured three mesh removal surgeries because the mesh had eroded into her bladder and urethra. Today, Ella is incontinent, wears adult diapers and suffers from frequent urinary tract infections. Using Ethicon and Johnson & Johnson's actions against them, including statements made in internal emails, Kila Baldwin was able to successfully persuade the Philadelphia jury to decide in favor of Ella. In 2017, the jury returned a verdict of $7.1 million in compensatory damages and $50 million in punitive damages, citing Ethicon and Johnson & Johnson’s negligent design of the products and willful disregard for patient safety.

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Guest Bio:

Kila Baldwin

Kila B. Baldwin, a partner at Kline & Specter, has been involved in a number of the firm's high-profile cases, including as lead counsel in trials that resulted in verdicts of $80 million, $57.1 million and $41 million against Johnson & Johnson in transvaginal mesh cases.

Baldwin was selected as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer for 2019 and 2020. From 2011-2018 she was named a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer — Rising Star and for 2014-2019 as a New Jersey Super Lawyer -- Rising Star, designating her as among the top 2.5 percent of attorneys in the two states who are 40 or younger. She also was selected for the 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 editions of the peer-review publication Best Lawyers in America.

In her latest major case, Baldwin in February 2020 achieved a $12.75 million settlement with a medical device manufacturer, Monteris Medical Inc., whose NeuroBlate Sidefire broke during surgery and caused brain damage to the patient. (Read article) Prior to that case, Baldwin obtained a $75 million settlement in a wrongful death case, the largest pre-trial settlement in a case in Pennsylvania history.

In May 2019, Baldwin was co-counsel in a six-week trial that resulted in an $80 million jury verdict against Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon Inc. for a Media, Pa., woman injured by a surgically implanted vaginal mesh device. The verdict in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court included $50 million in punitive and $30 million in compensatory damages, making it the country's largest compensatory award to date in a vaginal mesh case. (Read article)

A few months earlier, Baldwin won a $41 million verdict -- including $25 million in punitive damages – against a J&J for a Lancaster, Pa., woman who suffered permanent injuries from a vaginal mesh device designed and marketed by a company subsidiary. (Read article)

In late 2017, Baldwin won a major jury verdict against J&J for a Pennsylvania woman injured by a vaginal mesh device made by the company's Ethicon Inc. subsidiary. The award included $7.1 million in compensatory and $50 million in punitive damages for the behemoth drug and device maker's reckless behavior in selling the defective product implanted in women across the country. (Read article) The verdict was featured on the BBC program Panorama. In earlier cases, Baldwin was co-counsel in two trials that resulted in verdicts of $12.5 million and $13.5 million for two other women injured by the surgically implanted vaginal mesh products. (See the Hammons and Carlino cases.)

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Free Resources:

Stages Of A Jury Trial - Part 1

Stages Of A Jury Trial - Part 2