Fern Phillips O'Brian

Partner, Thompson Hine LLP

Fern is a partner in the firm's Product Liability Litigation, Business Litigation and Life Sciences practice groups and the Washington, D.C. office chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Initiative. She focuses her practice on health effects litigation and regulatory matters involving product liability and toxic tort. She has litigated numerous cases involving medical and pharmaceutical products, consumer products, environmental exposures to heavy metals, chemicals, and tobacco, among others.

Fern also represents emerging technology companies and research organizations, including those developing and commercializing nanotechnology-enabled products. She represented Wyeth in "fen-phen" diet drug litigation. She served as national counsel for a major bloodbank in US AIDS and hepatitis C cases.

Fern regularly counsels clients on liability prevention, regulatory matters, and liability-related transactional issues, including due diligence. She also represents companies in the homeland security and biodefense areas; recently she advised a private research and university consortium in pursuing a bid for a national bioterror research laboratory.

Fern is a frequent author and speaker on product liability and mass tort issues such as class actions, admissibility of expert evidence, and product liability prevention. Prior to private practice, she served as a law clerk to former Circuit Judge Kenneth W. Starr of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Fern is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, the commonwealth of Virginia, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, United States District Court for the District of Maryland, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, District of Columbia Court of Appeals, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.