Practice Expertise

  • Litigation
  • Asbestos & Toxic Tort
  • Pharmaceuticals & Medical Products
  • Aviation & Aerospace

Areas of Practice

  • Asbestos & Toxic Tort
  • Aviation & Aerospace
  • Litigation
  • Pharmaceuticals & Medical Products
  • Product Safety
  • View More

Profile

Todd Grant Gattoni is a product liability and commercial litigation attorney whose clients include many pharmaceutical, medical device and health care companies. Based in the Detroit Office, he defends clients around the nation in high-profile complex civil litigation and class actions. He also represents many well-known consumer products, retail and automotive companies.

Mr. Gattoni represents the country's largest maker of over-the-counter medication in product liability matters. He also provides risk management counseling, including advice on product labeling and warnings. His counsel during a highly publicized voluntary recall of a pain reliever helped prevent widespread national litigation. He also helped the company develop and implement a claims handling system.

General Motors and Ford Motor Company rely on Mr. Gattoni for coordination of chemical exposure/toxic tort litigation. He represents GM and Ford in all asbestos lawsuits filed in Michigan. He is GM's regional counsel in national marine engine asbestos litigation and its national counsel for aviation asbestos litigation. He also defended a leading welding rod manufacturer in mass tort litigation in Michigan involving welding fumes and chemical exposure.

Various industry leading companies, including Trek Bicycle, Sony, Microsoft, Kmart, Sears, Sanmina-Sci Corporation, and Securitas, have relied upon Mr. Gattoni to defend them in product liability and commercial litigation matters. He recently advised Kmart and Sears with regard to a nationwide class action suit involving consumer products manufactured in China. Kmart received indemnity in the matter, thus substantially reducing its exposure.

Prior to joining Dykema, Mr. Gattoni was the interim deputy general counsel for American Protective Services and served on the bench as Judge Pro Tem, deciding cases in the Superior Court of California.

Bar Admissions

California, 1991

Michigan, 1992

Education
DePaul University, J.D. University of Michigan, B.A.

Areas of Practice

  • Asbestos & Toxic Tort
  • Aviation & Aerospace
  • Litigation
  • Pharmaceuticals & Medical Products
  • Product Safety

Professional Career

Significant Accomplishments
Member of national defense team for St. Jude Medical in the Silzone Heart Valve Litigation and Atrial J Lead Litigation; Regional counsel and expert witness team member for Merck in the VIOXX Litigation; Member of the California and national defense teams for Wyeth in the Diet Drug Litigation, including responsibility for defending numerous PPH and valvulopathy cases; Counsel for various product manufacturers, including Pfizer and Valleylab cases involving surgical units and consumer products, Trek Bicycle in various personal injury actions, Chrysler in asbestos friction product cases, and Lincoln Electric in welding rod lawsuits; Counsel for Pinkerton's and APS in highly publicized wrongful death and fire litigation; product liability and risk management counseling for Sony and Microsoft.

Professional Associations
  • Participant, National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA), Instructor Training Program (1995)
  • Participant, International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC) Trial Advocacy Program (1996)
  • Judge Pro Tem in Alameda County, California, Consolidated Courts
  • State Bar of Michigan
  • California Bar Association
Seminars/ Presentation
  • 2006 - Dykema Litigation Seminar for In-House Counsel - "Triage Saves The Day"
  • 1998 - DRI Drug and Medical Device Seminar (Co-author) - "The Impact of Medicare and Other Governmental Rights on the Settlement of Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Cases"
  • 1997 - Fire Retardant Chemicals Association International Conference - "An Overview of Products Liability Litigation in the United States"
  • Inside Counsel Podcast, June 2007 - "Foreign Mass Torts Finding U.S. Courts"


Professional Activities and Experience
Partner with Reed Smith LLP in Oakland, CA. Recognized as one of California's "Super Lawyers". As a member of the California Bar, Mr. Gattoni periodically served as a Judge Pro Tem.

Articles

  • 2007 - Pharmaceutical Technology "The Perils of Purchase-Order Contracting In Pharmaceutical Transactions", (co-authored with Stephen D. Sayre)
  • 2006 - Counsel to Counsel "Litigation Management: Triage Saves The Day"
  • 2002 - Security Management "How to Win Vicariously: An Old Legal Theory Offers a New Defense", (Co-author)
  • 2000 - IADC Newsletter, Drug, Device & Biotech Committee "The End of 'Constitutional Blackmail'"
  • 1998 - Journal of Property Management (Co-author) "Parking Garage Owners Beware: Your Premises Are Inherently Dangerous"
  • Andrews Medical Device Litigation Reporter "The Recent Trend of 'Backdooring' Foreign Mass-Tort Claims Into U.S. Courts", January 2007 (co-authored with Brian Oh)

Blogs

Insurance Coverage Notes and Developments

Insurance Coverage Notes and Developments provides legal insight on topics of special interest to insurance industry professionals. Covering a wide range of industries, Dykema’s Insurance Coverage Notes and Developments blog provides brief but substantive alerts, including updates and analysis on significant developments and trends in the insurance industry.

NextGen Financial Services Report

NextGen Financial Services Report is published by the Financial Industry Group at Dykema. The Financial Services Industry has gone through a tremendous amount of regulatory and operational IT change in recent years, and with a new presidential administration more changes and developments are on the way. Fast-paced changes are also being driven by rapid technology developments, big data, mobile banking/payments, privacy and data security, and social media technologies affecting banks and credit...

The Firewall

The Firewall keeps you up to date on the hottest legal topics in the ever-changing world of data security and privacy. As information security becomes a critical facet of all businesses and industries and the target of many regulators, it is important to stay apprised of new legal developments. The Firewall provides insightful legal analysis of the emerging issues in data privacy and cybersecurity law to help businesses stay ahead of the curve.

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