Anita Hotchkiss

Anita Hotchkiss

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Anita Hotchkiss is a trial attorney with over thirty years of experience defending companies and individuals in the state and federal trial and appellate courts. Her practice emphasizes complex pharmaceutical, medical device, and other products liability cases, mass torts, class actions, and medical and legal professional liability matters. She is one of the few attorneys in the country who has tried a medical monitoring class action and is Certified by the Supreme Court of New Jersey as a Civil Trial Attorney.

Anita secured one of the first "junk science" dismissals in the country on the basis of Daubert v. Merrell Dow. She has been involved in other "cutting edge" cases involving recognition of the learned intermediary doctrine and the privilege of self-critical evaluation, as well as rejection of the theory of enterprise liability and the over-extension of consumer fraud acts to skirt the established tenets of liability. She has written several amicus briefs on behalf of the Product Liability Advisory Council in these and other cases of interest and importance to corporate defendants.

Anita has an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell and has been named repeatedly in New Jersey Monthly Magazine's list of "Super Lawyers," with special citation as one of the top fifty women attorneys in New Jersey. She lectures frequently to attorney and corporate members of national and local legal organizations on defense issues and tactics and was an invited member of the faculty at the prestigious Trial Academy run by the International Association of Defense Counsel.

Honors
  • Selected for inclusion in the International Who’s Who of Product Liability Defence Lawyers
  • Selected by the Civil Trial Bar Section of the New Jersey State Bar Association as recipient of the 2002 McLaughlin Award
  • Selected by Morris County Bar Association and NJ Commission on Professionalism in the Law as a recipient of a 2001 Professional Lawyer of the Year Award
  • Named by the Medical Herald in October 1995 as one of the nation's twenty most influential women in the healthcare industry
  • Certified by the Supreme Court of New Jersey as a Civil Trial Attorney
Professional Affiliations
  • New Jersey Supreme Court Appointments: Vice Chair, District X Ethics Committee - 2007 to present; Committee on Model Civil Jury Charges, 1994-1998; District X Committee on Fee Arbitration, 1985-1989; Chair, 1988-1989
  • Product Liability Advisory Council, Appointed Member of Amicus Case Selection Committee
  • NJ Lawsuit Reform Alliance
  • American Board of Trial Advocates
  • Trial Attorneys of New Jersey: Board of Trustees, 1981-2000; President, 1998-1999
  • Worrall F. Mountain Inn of Court; Master and Counselor, 1989-1996; 2001-2004; 2007 - present
  • American Bar Association - Litigation Section: Committee on Corporate Counsel; Subcommittee on Litigation Management Techniques
  • American Bar Foundation; Elected Fellow, 1994-present
  • International Association Defense Counsel; Defense Counsel Trial Academy Faculty, 1996
  • New Jersey Bar Association: Certified Trial Attorneys Section Chair, 1989-1990; Food, Drug & Cosmetic Law Committee, Chair, 1989; New Jersey Task Force on Women and the Law, 1989
  • Morris County Bar Association: Board of Trustees, 1984-1986; Judicial Appointments Committee, 1986-1998, (Chair, 1991-1998); Judicial Selection Committee, 2003-2005
Admitted to Practice
  • New Jersey
  • New York
  • U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey
  • U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Northern and Eastern Districts of New York
  • U.S. Supreme Court
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
Civic Activities
  • Board of Trustees, The Community Theatre at the Mayo Center for the Performing Arts, Morristown; Secretary and Legal Counsel
  • Morristown/Morris Township Public Library Fund Raising Committee, 2005
Other
  • Commentator on Court TV and other radio and television programs.
Education
  • Bates College, high honors, 1959 (Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude)
  • Rutgers Graduate School of Library Service (Master of Library Service, Reference, 1970; Beta Phi Mu, International Library Science Honor Society)
  • Rutgers University School of Law, J.D., with honors, 1975
Publications/Presentations
  • Presenter, “E-Discovery - Turning the Tables on Plaintiffs,” Morris County Inns of Court, September, 15, 2008
  • Presenter, “Maintaining and Enforcing Protective Orders – Not Over Until the Twelfth Of Never,” Morris County Inns of Court, November 26, 2007
  • Presenter, “Boon for Defendants: The Road from Plaintiff’s Bankruptcy to Summary Judgment,” Product Liability Advisory Council Fall Conference, October 2006
  • Author, “Pharmaceutical Defendants – Heed This Warning,” For the Defense, April 2006
  • Author, “Boon for Defendants: The Road from Plaintiff’s Bankruptcy to Summary Judgment,” The Update, Spring 2006
  • Author, “Boon for Defendants: The Road from Plaintiff’s Bankruptcy to Summary Judgment,” For The Defense, January 2006
  • Author, “Like Water and Oil: Consumer Fraud Act Claims Should Not be Viable in Prescription Drug Product Liability Actions,” New Jersey Law Journal, December 5, 2005 
  • Author, “Three for Three – N.J. Supreme Court Issues a Triad of Opinions That Should Please Defendants,” Litigation Update, November 2005
  •  Presenter, “Litigating the Off-Label Case,” National Forum on Off-Label Promotion of Pharmaceuticals, American Conference Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 23, 2005
  • Author, “Protecting and Enforcing Protective Orders: Easier Said Than Done,” Defense Counsel Journal, April 2004  
  • Presenter,  “Keeping Corporate Secrets Secret: Protecting and Enforcing Protective Orders,” IADC Midyear Meeting, Pebble Beach, CA, February 17, 2003
  • “Presentation of Evidence in the Electronic Courtroom,” ABA Litigation Section Meetings, Amelia Island, Florida, June 2001
  • Presenter, “Crisis Management and Crisis Communication,” Product Liability Advisory Council 2001 Spring Conference, Nashville, TN, April 4-6, 2001
  • Author, “Protective Orders Redux: It’s Not Over Until the Twelfth of Never,” Washington Legal Foundation Backgrounder, January 12, 2001
  • Author, “Federal District Courts In New Jersey and Pennsylvania Reject Challenges to Protective Orders,” Litigation Update, November 2000
  • Presenter, “The Presentation of Evidence in the Electronic Courtroom,” ICLE Product Liability: Update 2000, New Jersey Law Center, New Brunswick, NJ, December 2, 1999
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