William L. Anderson

William L. Anderson is a retired partner with Crowell & Moring. He practiced for more than 30 years in product liability, toxic tort, and environmental matters that typically involved significant and complex medical and scientific issues, including causation, and national coordination roles. He was also a member of the firm's Mass Tort, Product, and Consumer Litigation Group and the chair of the Firm’s Professional Responsibility Committee. Bill also served as the chair of the International Association of Defense Counsel’s (IADC) Product Liability Committee.

The range of cases Bill managed extends across crop protection and agricultural products, birth defect litigation, alleged toxic exposure to substances in environmental media, product risk and crisis management, medical device, cutting-edge asbestos causation and expert exclusion issues, and national asbestos case management.

His work for Fortune 50 companies included a major crop protection product litigation and crisis management effort involving EPA, state and federal litigation, and one of the first lawsuits in the U.S. to allege injury to bee colonies from neonicotinoids. He represented several scientists and journal editors in defending against plaintiff claims involving scientific publications and studies.

Subject-wise, Bill’s knowledge includes genetic syndrome evidence, blood testing and other assessments of exposure, pharmacokinetics, causation standards, the role of FIFRA in litigation, and a wide array of epidemiology and similar literature. He addressed causation issues regarding many substances, including benzene, dioxins, glyphosate, talc, TCE, vinyl chloride, and asbestos. He also tracked the science in current product and tort controversies, including talc, Roundup and low-dose causation litigation, synthetic turf crumb rubber, and genetic developments.

Bill has extensive experience with expert strategy and science litigation management and trial preparation. He directed a number of Daubert/Frye expert discovery and briefing efforts that have led to the exclusion of unreliable plaintiff expert opinions in low-dose and other matters. He managed national dockets in asbestos litigation for Fortune 500 companies, including trial and motions strategy.

Nationwide Amicus Briefs and Publications

Bill also played a leading role nationally in preparing and filing amicus briefs on critical scientific evidentiary issues, including in the highest state courts of Texas, Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia, New Jersey, Ohio, California, Arizona, and New York, intermediate courts in many states, and before the Seventh and Ninth federal Circuit Courts of Appeals. Several of those briefs contributed to the decisions. Recent briefs:

• New jersey Talc Litigation: New Jersey Supreme Court appeal of cosmetic talc verdict (pending). Carl v. Johnson & Johnson.
• New York Talc-Mesothelioma Appeal: First Court of Appeals case addressing mesothelioma causation from talc exposure (pending). Nemeth v. Brenntag N. America.
• Ohio Supreme Court asbestos any exposure: Appeal of “cumulative exposure” version of any exposure theory; defense win. Schwartz v. Honeywell Intl.
• Pennsylvania Every Exposure Appeal: State Supreme Court appeal of every exposure theory supporting asbestos litigation; defense win. Betz v. Ford Motor Co.
• Texas Every Exposure Appeal: Texas Supreme Court appeal of every exposure theory as applied to mesothelioma litigation; defense win. Bostic v. Georgia-Pacific Corp.
• Georgia Appeal of Every Exposure Theory: Georgia Supreme Court rejection of every exposure theory. Scapa Dryer Fabrics, Inc. v. Knight.

Bill published four leading articles on causation theory, including the latest one entitled “How Much Is Enough: A Judicial Roadmap to Low-Dose Asbestos Litigation.” Other causation articles include “The Any Exposure Theory Round III; An Update on the State of the Case Law 2012-2016.” He has published on genetics and causation in "Genetics: A Path To Resolving Asbestos Litigation?"