Mary Rose Alexander is the Managing Partner of the Chicago office of Latham & Watkins and a member of the Complex Commercial Litigation and Environment, Land & Resources Practices. She represents clients in complex commercial litigation and trials involving products, class actions, toxic torts, environmental matters, industrial accidents, insurance, and commercial contracts in state and federal courts and arbitration forums across the country.
A nationally recognized trial lawyer, Ms. Alexander represents Fortune 500 companies in some of their most difficult, high-stakes litigation, often in the most hostile jurisdictions.
She has been recognized by publications such as Chambers USA, Law Dragon, The American Lawyer, The Legal 500, Crain’s Chicago Business, and Best Lawyers in America for her trial work. Recently, Ms. Alexander was named to the Top 250 Women in Litigation 2021 by Benchmark Litigation, which recognized lawyers who “participat[ed] in some of the most impactful litigation matters in recent history.” In representing clients, she draws on considerable success defending against multi-state, multi-plaintiff litigation, particularly with energy, manufacturing, and chemical company clients.
Ms. Alexander has tried scores of complex commercial cases across the country related to:
- Product liability / failure to warn / consumer fraud
- Public Nuisance / Toxic torts / Major industrial accidents
- Class actions
- Insurance coverage
- Environmental regulations
- Energy / oil and gas contracts
Her diverse platform and unique skill set led to her appointment as the firm’s Vice Chair of the Litigation & Trial Department, Local Chair of the Environment, Land & Resources Department, and Global Co-Chair of the Environmental Litigation Practice.
A sample of the disputes Ms. Alexander has handled includes representing:
- Weyerhaeuser in multiple putative class actions / product liability and consumer failure to warn / fraud lawsuits involving building products following national recall; recent jury trial (defeated punitive damages)
- DTE Energy in putative class action / failure to warn litigation involving June 2021 flooding
- Dow Chemical in public nuisance, product liability / failure to warn litigation relating to PCE released from multiple California dry cleaner sites; 2022 jury trial setting
- Clorox in alleged public nuisance / failure to warn litigation regarding ocean plastic
- Netflix in multiple putative class actions involving state franchise taxes; multiple 2022 jury trial settings
- Syngenta in ICC arbitration involving industrial action; 2021 remote trial
- Marathon Oil involving alleged public nuisance relating to methane release; June 2022 trial setting
- Nalco in numerous class actions (personal injury, property damage) arising out of the Gulf of Mexico 2010 oil spill; obtained summary judgment that claims are preempted by federal law
- LG Polymers India in litigation and regulatory matters arising from 2020 industrial accident in Vizag, India
- SK Capital in personal injury and property damage litigation arising from industrial accident at portfolio company
- CONSOL, in a recent state court trial involving a midstream gas joint venture; obtained complete trial victory
- Mercuria Energy Trading in litigation involving a take-or-pay contract for a crude by rail facility; recent state bench trial
- Northern States Power Company of Wisconsin in CERCLA litigation involving PAH contamination; recent federal trial
- Georgia-Pacific in CERCLA litigation involving the US$1.6 billion remediation of alleged PCB contamination in the sediments of the Fox River in Wisconsin; recent federal trials
- Chevron in toxic tort litigation involving nuclear contamination on the University of Tulsa’s Oklahoma campus; recent motion to dismiss victory
- Arizona Public Service in arbitration involving a coal supply contract with the Navajo Nation
- Monsanto in multiple product liability / public nuisance lawsuits involving PCB contamination in various water bodies
- Chevron Corporation in “Hot Fuels” MDL involving numerous class actions; obtained complete dismissal
- Buckeye Pipeline company in a 400-plaintiff toxic tort litigation involving alleged drinking water contamination; obtained complete resolution
- Kuhlman Electric in multi-plaintiff, multi-jurisdiction toxic tort litigation involving alleged PCB personal injury and property damage; obtained complete resolution
- General Dynamics Ordinance and Tactical Systems in a CERCLA mediation involving alleged solvent contamination at Crab Orchard Site