Sherry Knutson has been named co-chair of the Tucker Ellis Health & Life Sciences Group. One of the largest and busiest health and life sciences practices in the United States, the Tucker Ellis team represents more than half of the top 20 pharmaceutical and medical device companies in the country. The team coordinates and defends medical device and pharmaceutical product liability cases nationwide at both the trial and appellate levels, often in the role of lead national coordinating counsel in multidistrict and state coordinated mass tort proceedings. In 2020, legal analytics firm Lex Machina rated Tucker Ellis third in the number of non-MDL product liability cases handled for defendants between 2015 and 2019. The firm is ranked in Chambers USA (Product Liability & Mass Torts: Nationwide) and in The Legal 500 United States (Product Liability, Mass Tort and Class Action – Defense: Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices).
As a participating law firm in the Mansfield Rule, Tucker Ellis is committed to ensuring that the firm considers diverse (women, minorities, and LGBTQ ) attorneys for leadership positions across its six offices, with 63% of its practice groups’ leadership held by diverse attorneys.
With more than two decades of experience, Ms. Knutson tries cases and coordinates the national defense of mass torts in the life sciences area. Her practice ranges from multi-plaintiff, multi-jurisdiction litigations to single-plaintiff cases. She has served as national coordinating counsel in multiple pharmaceutical mass torts and as lead counsel in coordinated proceedings in Chicago. She has tried cases to verdict in Illinois, Wisconsin, New Jersey, and West Virginia. Ms. Knutson is ranked in Chambers USA in the area of Product Liability & Mass Torts (Nationwide). She also has been recognized in publications including Benchmark Litigation, where she is a National Practice Area Star in the area of Product Liability and is listed among the Top 250 Women in Litigation and the Top 100 Trial Lawyers; Who’s Who Legal, in the areas of Product Liability Defence and Life Sciences: Product Liability; and LMG Life Sciences, where she is recognized as a Life Sciences Star in the area of Product Liability. Ms. Knutson received her law degree with high honors from Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology and her undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Marquette University.