Symposium Transcript, In re Opioid Litigation: The Trial Phase

In October 2023, Touro Law Center held a two-day conference on “The Past and Future of Opioid Litigation.” The inspiration for the conference was an extraordinary five-month jury trial in Suffolk County presided over by Hon. Jerry Garguilo. The trial, which was the first in the United States to include all parties in the pharmaceutical supply chain, from manufacturers to wholesale distributors to retail sellers, began in the summer of 2021. Ultimately, in 2022, the case settled. This allowed Judge Garguilo and attorneys from the case – Jayne Conroy, who represented one of the plaintiffs, Suffolk County, and Harvey Bartle, who represented one of the defendants, Teva Pharmaceuticals, to discuss the case in detail. Associate Dean Rodger Citron moderated two 90-minute panel sessions with Judge Garguilo and the attorneys. In the first, the panelists discussed the pretrial phase. In the second, set out below, they discussed the trial phase. The transcript below was prepared by Associate Dean Citron and reviewed by Judge Garguilo, Ms. Conroy, and Mr. Bartle. Edits were made for clarity along the way.