Overview
Mandy Williams is an experienced litigator with more than 15 years of experience representing corporate defendants in complex, high-volume litigation, with an emphasis on asbestos and talc, product liability, premises liability, toxic torts, and alternative dispute resolution. She has led results-oriented teams in both national and local counsel roles, and has extensive experience developing and implementing a diverse array of litigation strategies tailored to the needs of clients facing latent disease or other complex injury claims. Levering her knowledge, experience, and expertise, she helps companies manage current and future liabilities amidst an ever-shifting legal landscape.
As a Certified Litigation Management Professional, Mandy also brings an understanding of the broader business considerations surrounding complex litigation, including risk transfer, coverage issues, and long-term claims management. This perspective allows her to help clients and carriers evaluate not only the immediate demands of individual matters, but also the potential impact of litigation strategy on their broader business objectives. A trained mediator, Mandy views alternative dispute resolution protocols as an essential component of an effective litigation strategy. Beyond the courtroom, and in fact, well before it, she has utilized these skills to help develop and implement administrative agreements and non-traditional quasi-litigation plans designed to manage large groups of existing and future claims while balancing litigation risk, business objectives, and cost considerations.
Mandy’s practice has encompassed all phases of litigation, including case assessment and development, discovery, depositions of fact, expert, and corporate witnesses, expert workup, motion practice, settlement negotiations, and trial preparation. She has served as National Coordinating Counsel for a legacy defendant, developing and overseeing nationwide litigation strategy for products and premises claims while coordinating with corporate representatives, insurance carriers, outside counsel, and local counsel across multiple jurisdictions. In her capacity as local counsel, she has worked to support and defend claims for defendants ranging from small companies to large corporations, from mom and pop operations to leaders in their industry, and everything in between.
Education
- Southern Illinois University School of Law, Carbondale, Illinois
- Juris Doctor, 2008, with concurrent graduate level coursework in Nonprofit Administration
- Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, Illinois
- Bachelor of Liberal Studies, 2005, accelerated pathway with Double Minor in Business and Pre-Law
Admissions
- Missouri
- Illinois
- U.S. Supreme Court
Experience
- Served as National Coordinating Counsel for a legacy defendant, developing, implementing, and managing multi-jurisdictional litigation strategy involving products and premises claims, as well as supervising local counsel across the country as they implemented same.
- Developed document management and discovery protocols for a nationwide litigation portfolio to enable client to tell their story with documentary and testimonial support and therefore strengthen the their overall defense.
- Encouraged client interest in non-traditional management of known and potential liabilities by exploring personalized options to meet their goals, forecasting likely outcomes of various combinations of efforts, and assisting with negotiating favorable terms with opposing counsel across jurisdictions.
- Led local counsel team handling hundreds of high-risk asbestos cases for an industrial manufacturer whose local caseload led their nationwide objectives, requiring constant collaboration with corporate representatives, insurance carriers, outside counsel, and National Coordinating Counsel.
- Consistently and methodically secured dismissals for entrenched cases, stalled dockets, and other aged matters as part of overall efforts to clear inventory and refocus on broader client goals.
- Skilled at negotiating the resolution of individual and groups of high-value cases while simultaneously preparing matters for trial on an ongoing basis, including through trial opening.
- Conducted and defended hundreds of depositions of plaintiffs and fact, expert, and corporate witnesses and handled written discovery, pleadings, motion practice, legal research, settlement negotiations, and trial preparation in complex personal injury and products liability matters.
- Developed and presented educational programs for attorneys, clients, carriers, and industry groups addressing evolving case law, emerging litigation issues and trends, deposition strategy, evidentiary concerns, alternative dispute resolution, leadership, and trial preparation.
Publications & Presentations
- “The Intersection of Law and Science” HarrisMartin’s Midwest Asbestos Litigation Conference Presenter (2022)
- “When Discovery Isn’t Just Discovery” Bespoke Presentation (2021)
- “The Deposition IS Trial Preparation” CLE Speaker (2018)
- “Defense Strategy: Adjust, Pivot, or Stay the Course” Panelist (2018)
- “Getting Your Experts What They Need: Fact Witness Deposition Skills” Presenter (2018)
- “Roadmap of the Litigation: The Highway versus the Back Roads” Panelist (2017)
- “Jurisdictional Update: Toxic Tort Developments in Illinois and Missouri” Panelist (2017)
- “Using Personal Jurisdiction as a Sword, not a Shield” Presenter (2017)
- “Trends and Targets: Focusing on What Really Matters” Bespoke Presentation (2017)
- “Judicial Hellholes” CLE Panelist (2016)
- “Secondary Exposure” HarrisMartin’s Midwest Asbestos Litigation Conference Presenter (2016)
- “Finding Hidden Value in Comprehensive Depositions” CLE Speaker (2016)
Distinctions
Honored as Emerging Lawyer by Leading Lawyer- Emerging Lawyers have been identified by their peers to be among the TOP LAWYERS who are age 40 or younger unless they have practiced for no more than 10 years. Less than 2% of all lawyers licensed in each state have received the distinction of Emerging Lawyer.
Associations
- Madison County Bar Association
- St. Clair County Bar Association
- The Women Lawyers’ Association of Greater St. Louis
- National Association of Women Lawyers
- Leadership Council on Legal Diversity
- Defense Research Institute
Civic Involvement
- Law Day Youth Ambassador
- Center for Animal Rescue and Enrichment Foster and Volunteer
- Optimist Club of Belleville- Board of Directors, retired
Outside the Office
Having grown up in the litigation hotbed of Madison County, Illinois, Mandy started her legal journey as an assistant at prominent local law firm, answering phones and making copies after class while in high school. Working her way up the ladder, she followed the urging of her mentors and switched the focus of her education from Engineering to the Law. Embedded amongst some of the best local trial attorneys, she gained invaluable hands-on experience in the practice of law that allowed her to start running before she hit the ground. However, just as importantly, her unique insight into the behind-the-scenes operations necessary to actually effectuate the litigation of a case inspired her wholistic defense management philosophy and her signature collaborative leadership style.
Now making her home across the Mississippi River in the City of St. Louis, Mandy loves nerding out over local history and architecture, collecting vintage local maps, post cards, photographs and trinkets that showcase a snapshot of that history. In her free time, she can be found doting on her senior pups, Thurgood Marshall and Eleanor Roosevelt, and indulging her insatiable sweet tooth with her (in)famous cookie concoctions.