Kirk G. Warner
North Carolina
Smith Anderson LLP
150 Fayetteville Street
Suite 2300
Raleigh, NC 27601
Tel: 919.821.6617
Email:
kwarner@smithlaw.com
Web:
www.smithlaw.com
Kirk leads the firm’s Products Liability, Mass Tort and Catastrophic Loss, Asbestos and Toxic Torts, and Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Litigation practice groups and is a senior litigator in the firm’s Commercial Litigation, Complex Contract Disputes and Construction Litigation teams with trial experience spanning across many litigation areas. He also has extensive experience representing a variety of government contractors with issues involving overseas war operations and advising clients involved in government interagency and contingency operations contractor issues.
Kirk has significant experience in litigating, managing, and counseling clients on an array of litigation, including serving as lead counsel nationally, regionally and statewide to multiple major automotive and consumer products manufacturers. He has often represented product manufacturers involved in catastrophic explosion and fire lawsuits and he has investigated, litigated and tried cases throughout the United States in all levels of trial and appellate courts. Kirk has represented all major automotive manufacturers as well as many major pharmaceutical, medical and insurance companies, including many Fortune 500 companies in complex litigation matters in over twenty-five states and Guam. He also has trial experience in most general and commercial litigation categories including environmental coverage, contract, catastrophic loss and injury, wrongful death, commercial, construction, insurance and arson cases.
At the start of Kirk’s career, he was an associate with a national law firm in Cincinnati, and served as a member of the national defense team for the Rely Tampon-Toxic Shock Syndrome litigation. He was also involved in national asbestos coverage and other general and commercial litigation matters. While at that firm, Kirk also served as an Assistant Special Prosecutor for the State of Ohio in the investigation of the Ohio Savings & Loan crisis and the resulting prosecutions. He was a partner for over a decade at a Raleigh law firm where he continued his commercial, fire and catastrophic loss, construction, and product liability defense representation and trial practice.
Product liability claims and lawsuits can threaten a company’s business success, its reputation and sometimes its very existence. This litigation often involves catastrophic risk for the company. It demands experienced, aggressive and resourceful defense counsel to protect a company’s products – and bottom line – from attack.
Major manufacturers, retailers, distributors and insurance carriers have turned to Smith Anderson to advise them on risk-management programs and rely on us to defend and manage major product liability lawsuits filed against them. Our practice covers all aspects of product liability and major tort matters, including preventive counseling, product literature review, liability audits and claims management, governmental investigations, as well as root-cause analysis, trials and appeals. We are among North Carolina’s most experienced product-liability lawyers and have successfully litigated across the State and throughout the nation.
Our team has extensive experience defending cases involving a variety of products, including “hard products” – such as motor vehicles, medical devices, construction equipment, power machines and tools – and also such “soft products” as chemicals, vaccines and pharmaceuticals. Additionally, our attorneys defend plant operators, builders and equipment manufacturers in lawsuits over accidental fires and explosions and have also been involved in legislative initiatives, including tort reform, which directly impact product liability litigation in North Carolina.
Over one hundred years of practicing law has grounded our firm’s culture, informed our perspective and provided us the insight necessary to help our clients succeed. Over time, our core principles have remained unchanged. We remain dedicated to the success, prosperity and betterment of our clients and the communities we serve.