Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP partner Alexandra Cunningham and associate Sherli Furst have been shortlisted for Product Liability Lawyer of the Year and Rising Star in Intellectual Property, respectively, for the Women in Business Law Awards 2022. The award honors “the outstanding achievements of women in over thirty different practice areas in business law from across Americas. These are individuals who stand out as leaders amongst their peers and who have been instrumental to innovative approaches in their field.”

As co-head of the firm’s products liability and mass tort litigation practice group, Cunningham represents major corporate clients in all aspects of product liability, mass tort and toxic tort and environmental litigation. Her work spans a wide range from injury and death claims related to benzene, asbestos and other chemicals or claims of bacterial contamination in food and beverage products to large-scale environmental toxin and exposure claims involving PFAS and fluorides. Cunningham serves as National Coordinating Counsel, regional counsel, trial counsel and local counsel for several Fortune 100 and 500 companies in product liability, mass tort and toxic exposure litigation and represents several of the largest companies in Virginia and the US. In addition to advising clients on litigation and legal issues related to COVID-19, she co-founded the firm’s COVID-19 Workplace Risk and Incident Response Team, an integrated and interdisciplinary group that joins the experience and courtroom talent of mass tort litigators with OSHA and employment law lawyers to provide better full-service legal advice and response to workplace exposure incidents, claims mitigation strategy development and defense of COVID-19 claims.

Furst’s practice focuses on complex IP disputes such as trademark and copyright infringement, internet rights and the DMCA, contract and commercial disputes, rights of publicity, and unfair competition. Her experience includes representing clients with intellectual property policing and licensing, IP rights, and credit rights and revenue distribution. She regularly counsels retail, fashion, media, and food and beverage clients on managing intellectual property portfolios and protecting and enforcing those rights around the world. Furst was also recently selected as a Rising Star for Intellectual Property Litigation Law by The New York Times Magazine (2017-2022) and recognized as a Rising Star in Entertainment & Sports by New York Super Lawyers (2017-2018).

Furst is one of only eight attorneys throughout the nation shortlisted for the Rising Star in IP and Cunningham is one of only four for her category as well. A full list of honorees can be viewed here.