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Anita Hotchkiss Earns Lifetime Achievement Award

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Anita Hotchkiss Earns Lifetime Achievement Award

February 23, 2015

The New Jersey Law Journal has honored Goldberg Segalla partner Anita Hotchkiss with a Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing the significant impact she has made on the practice of law and the defense of complex pharmaceutical, medical device, and other products liability cases.

Anita was among the publication’s first-ever group to receive this award, which also included U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and other prominent members of the bench and bar.

Anita, a member of the firm’s Product Liability and Life Sciences Practice Groups, has helped shape the law in New Jersey over her nearly four decades of practice. She set important precedent when she secured one of the first “junk science” dismissals in the country on the basis of Daubert v. Merrell Dow. She has been involved in a number of other cutting-edge cases in New Jersey and federal trial and appellate courts that helped build strong case law favorable to defendants in product liability actions, mass torts, and class actions.

Regional and national organizations have honored Anita for the major strides she has made for the defense bar. In 2013, the New Jersey State Bar Association presented her with the William A. Dreier Award for Excellence in Product Liability Law. She has been named by Medical Herald as one of the country’s 20 most influential women in the health care industry. She has been invited to be a member of the Product Liability Advisory Council and a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America — both highly exclusive organizations of the best trial lawyers in America.

A true trailblazer, Anita began her career at a nationally recognized New York law firm at a time when there were very few female attorneys in the profession. She has been a mentor and influence to many women in the legal profession, and she has been tireless in her service to the New Jersey legal system, various moot court and other legal-education initiatives, and her beloved community of Morristown.

The New Jersey Law Journal Lifetime Achievement Award winners will be profiled in a special issue published in March and will be honored at an awards dinner May 27. View the full list of honorees here.