Chilton Davis Varner

Chilton Varner is a partner at King & Spalding. Ms. Varner has 30 years of courtroom experience as a trial lawyer defending corporations in product liability, business torts, contract and other commercial disputes. She is the senior partner in King & Spalding’s product liability practice that was selected by The American Lawyer in January 2012 as one of the top three product liability practices in the nation and by Chambers USA each year since 2005 as one of the best in the country.  Based on interviews with peers and clients, Chambers USA for the past nine years has listed Ms. Varner as one of a small number of Band One product liability lawyers in the country.  In 2015, Chambers also listed Ms. Varner in Band One of Trial Lawyers (nationally) and Band One of Georgia commercial litigators.  In 2012, Benchmark honored Ms. Varner as Georgia’s Litigator of the Year and in 2013 and 2014, as one of the top ten women litigators nationally.  She was selected by Chambers as a national finalist for Woman Litigator of the Year in 2012.  Law360 recognized Ms. Varner twice in 2011-12, first, as one of ten “MVPs” in product liability, and second, as one of the top 15 women litigators in the country. In 2015, Law360 named her to a short list of “trial aces” recognized for actual courtroom experience and success.  U.S. News and Best Lawyers listed her as a “leading lawyer” in products liability and mass tort defense in 2012, as Lawyer of the Year for Appellate Litigation in her region in 2011, as Lawyer of the Year for “Bet the Company” Litigation in 2013, and as Lawyer of the Year for Mass Torts and Class Actions (Defendant) in 2014.  In 2012, BTI Consulting Group recognized Ms. Varner as one of only three lawyers in the country providing the most outstanding client service, based on a survey of corporate counsel at large and Fortune 1000 companies.

Ms. Varner completed her 2012-13 term as President of the American College of Trial Lawyers, an organization that selects the best of the trial bar as its members.

Ms. Varner was appointed by Chief Justice Rehnquist in 2004 and re-appointed by Chief Justice Roberts in 2007 to the Federal Civil Rules Advisory Committee, where she participated in the Committee’s drafting of amendments governing electronic discovery and changes to the Rules governing summary judgment, expert discovery, and information-gathering from third parties and corporate executives.

Ms. Varner has served as trial and appellate counsel for a number of the country’s largest pharmaceutical, medical device and automotive manufacturers.  She is experienced in mass tort litigation, class actions and MDL litigation, including the complex issues of discovery, attorney-client privilege and Daubert challenges to expert testimony that accompany such suits.