Glyphosate Litigation

Following a jury verdict and intense publicity surrounding the alleged carcinogenicity of glyphosate over the summer of 2018, plaintiffs’ lawyers have been filing claims that exposure to certain products causes any one of a variety of injuries. Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP’s product liability team, ranked as a top national firm in The Legal 500 (2021), is well positioned to help defend companies against glyphosate-related litigation. We also help clients proactively manage potential risk by keeping apprised of developments from watchdog groups and government agencies to minimize the likelihood of regulatory action, criminal complaints and civil lawsuits.

Hunton Andrews Kurth’s chemicals, products and hazardous materials practice understands the science behind glyphosate. This familiarity with the technical aspects of glyphosate, along with the team’s technical background in biochemistry, allows our firm to thoroughly and efficiently understand the technical aspects of cases alleging harm arising from ingestion of, or exposure to, glyphosate.

We are also well positioned to counsel clients on issues relating to labeling, advertising and the full range of questions arising out of the uncertain regulatory landscape. The global team comprises lawyers to support client projects across multiple jurisdictions, whether serving as primary outside counsel or operating in tandem with clients’ local counsel. We also work closely with in-house legal staff and with nonlawyer regulatory and technical experts to help our clients achieve optimum results.

Representative Experience

• Representing a US-based railroad company in a class action in which a putative class of property owners alleges that our client’s use of glyphosate along its tracks has caused damage to neighboring property.
• Investigating the chemistry of glyphosate and its intermediate uses in the manufacturing process.
• Successfully defended an aerospace manufacturer in multiple toxic tort class-action suits brought by 3,000 California residents claiming harmful health exposures from hexavalent chromium, TCE and PCE in groundwater, and property damage.
• Successfully worked with a confidential client in Culpeper, Virginia to resolve claims, prior to the filing of a complaint, that hexavalent chromium from an industrial facility contaminated drinking water.
• Represented the owner/operator of a fertilizer plant in South Carolina against mass tort claims of over 1,100 plaintiffs (residents and former residents of neighborhoods in the vicinity of a fertilizer plant owned and operated by the company). Plaintiffs sought damages for wrongful death, personal injuries and property damage allegedly caused by exposure to chemicals used at the plant, through groundwater and other means.
• Defended multiple toxic tort cases, as well as state and federal civil and criminal environmental enforcement actions, in connection with the Kepone pesticide contamination of the James River and Chesapeake Bay in Virginia and Maryland. The civil cases included a class action by thousands of residents and landowners complaining, inter alia, of groundwater contamination.
• Defending an electronics manufacturing company against claims for groundwater contamination by organic solvents from its night vision manufacturing operations.
• Representing a paper products manufacturer in the Kalamazoo River Superfund Site lawsuit. The lawsuit centers on PCB contamination in the Kalamazoo River, and scientific issues concerning the fate and transport in the riverine environment is a central component of the evidence in that case.