Ann Elizabeth Sternhell-Blackwell

Liz Blackwell is a partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner. She represents product manufacturers in high-stakes product liability and false advertising litigation in state and federal courts across the country. She is a member of the Firm's Commercial Litigation and Product Liability practices.

Liz has spent nearly twenty years defending agricultural, food and consumer product manufacturers in high profile litigation across the nation. She has defended clients against product design claims, false labeling and advertising claims, targeted marketing claims, and content-based speech regulations in many cases, at both the trial court and appellate level.

Liz has defended national agricultural product liability litigation involving pesticides and genetically-modified seeds, as well as putative food labeling class actions brought under state consumer fraud statues and common lw tort theories.  Liz has also represented tobacco industry clients at trialin several significant cases challenging product designs, marketing and advertising and labeling practices.  These landmark cases include the $280 billion civil RICO case brought by the United States alleging false and misleading advertising and labeling, a statewide medical monitoring class action, and state attorneys general actions.  Liz also defended a tobacco industry client in a multi-billion dollar health care cost-recovery case and served as trial counsel in a mass consolidation of more than 1,200 individual plaintiffs' personal injury claims.

She has served on national legal strategy teams for major consumer product manufacturers for many years. She is regularly called upon to advise clients and develop briefing on complex federal preemption, First Amendment, punitive damages, and federal jurisdictional issues in complex product liability litigation. She has acted as lead legal issues and appellate counsel at trial in many cases, and for many years served on the national punitive damages defense team for a major consumer product manufacturer. She has significant experience developing expert witnesses, taking and defending depositions, and developing strategies for removing cases to federal court.