Katharine Westfall Durante

Katharine provides clients with thoughtful risk management counsel and sophisticated representation throughout the litigation process.

Katharine focuses her practice on product liability, toxic tort, and environmental litigation, and personal injury and wrongful death claims. She also has experience in general commercial litigation and consumer class action defense, and has provided employment counsel to clients in the context of workplace risk and incident response. Katharine represents a broad spectrum of corporate clients in both state and federal courts.

In addition to representing clients in products and premises liability litigation involving allegations of toxic exposure, Katharine provides pre-litigation counsel to manufacturers and employers on legal risks relating to both established and novel environmental and workplace exposure issues (e.g., asbestos, benzene, combustible/inhalable dusts, PFAS, and SARS-CoV-2). She has also led both plaintiff- and defense-side briefing efforts in state and federal actions involving commercial contracts and consumer product claims.

While at William & Mary Law School, Katharine was selected as a Legal Writing & Practice Fellow and was awarded the Gambrell Professionalism Award and Thomas Jefferson Prize for best student note at graduation.

Relevant Experience

• Represents Fortune 500 companies in product liability, mass tort, commercial, and consumer class action litigation in jurisdictions throughout the United States.
• Counsels employers on workplace-related issues and potential tort risk arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, including wrongful death and personal injury defense, and provides both practical and strategic advice on compliance with relevant executive orders and federal, state, and local guidance.
• Provides clients with pre-litigation counsel and risk analyses relating to the evolving PFAS litigation and regulatory landscape, including retention of experts to consult on scientific issues.
• Counsels product manufacturers on potential and actual tort liabilities associated with corporate acquisitions and process changes.
• Provides advice to manufacturers on product safety instructions and warnings language in the context of state and federal regulations and applicable industry standards.
• Coordinated a corporate client’s plaintiff-side docket of breach of contract claims, from pre-litigation negotiations through litigation and/or settlement.
• Member of a defense team that won dismissal of a high-profile federal lawsuit involving allegations of unsafe COVID-19 working conditions brought against one of the largest meat processing companies in the United States.