James E. Tyrrell

Jim Tyrrell is a partner in the Mass Tort and Catastrophic Loss, Class Action and Antitrust practice areas. He has served as lead counsel in the country’s highest profile cases including Agent Orange, Y2K, Deepwater Horizon and the World Trade Center litigation.

In the tort arena, Jim acted as chief trial counsel in the landmark Agent Orange litigation – one of the largest mass tort cases in American history. After competing against the top 30 mass tort law firms in the country, he was selected to represent the primary defendant, and 150 of its contractors, in the World Trade Center litigation. Appointed by the Court as defense liaison counsel in 13,000 separate cases, Jim became the principal spokesman for more than 500 defendants in the highest profile mass tort litigation of the century.

Jim’s class action expertise has included representation of one of the country’s largest telecommunication companies in the Y2K litigation (favorable settlement of more than 80,000 claims), a maritime enterprise in Deepwater Horizon (court ordered dismissal); and one of two major defendants in the national dialysis litigation (class certification denied).

Jim’s antitrust experience has ranged from price fixing litigation (corrugated containers, fine paper, silver futures) and monopolization (telecommunications and food industries) to mergers/acquisitions (Swedish manufacturer of heavy machinery) and interlocking directorates. He recently defended the generic drug price fixing antitrust litigation.

Jim’s product liability and consumer fraud class action experience has covered chemicals (dioxin, PCBs, phenols), consumer products, drugs, medical devices, food and toys. He is a Harvard trained mediator and has facilitated the settlement of disputes from massive multi-district litigation to trade secret, contract, and intellectual property matters.