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Law: For the Defense
Attorney Amy Furness is defending the opioid manufacturer of Percocet
Amy Furness
Title
Co-managing shareholder at Carlton Fields in Miami
Education
Law degree from Widener University Delaware Law School, 1991; bachelor’s in engineering from Drexel University, 1988
Personal
She and her husband, an appellate attorney at Carlton Fields, live in Coral Gables with their 11-year-old son.
Background
In the late-1980s, Furness worked as a research engineer for United Engineers and Constructors in Philadelphia, where she was involved in the sale of a nuclear power plant. After working in-house at an insurance company for several years, she joined the Miami office of Carlton Fields, specializing in product liability litigation.
Perspective
“You have products that are complicated, science that might not be of interest to people. So jurors are focusing on the injury, and they see a big company and wonder how are they going to reconcile this. When I’ve had trials with experts, I’ve had them talk to a jury almost as if we were in a schoollike setting.”
State’s Opioid Lawsuit
Last fall, the Florida Attorney General’s Office sued opioid manufacturers and distributors in state court in Pasco County.
The complaint lists 12 defendants: Seven opioid manufacturers, three distributors — AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal and McKesson — and the nation’s two largest drugstore chains, CVS and Walgreens.
The manufacturer defendants and law firms representing them are:
Allergan: Makes Kadian and Norco and generic opioids. Represented by Hill, Ward & Henderson and Kirkland & Ellis
Cephalon: Makes Actiq and Fentora. Represented by Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
Endo: Makes Percocet, Opana and Percodan. Represented by Carlton Fields
Insys: Makes Subsys. Legal representative not available
Janssen: Makes Duragesic and Tapentadol IR. Represented by Nelson Mullins and O’Melveny & Myers
Mallinckrodt: Makes Exalgo, Roxicodone, Xartemis XR and Methadose. Represented by Phelps Dunbar
Purdue: Makes OxyContin, MS Contin, Butrans, Hysingla ER, Dilaudid, Dilaudid-HP and Targiniq ER. Represented by Dechert LLP and Cole, Scott & Kissane
