Johnson & Johnson’s Win Boots Beasley Allen from Talc Suits (2)

Litigation firm Beasley Allen must stop representing plaintiffs suing Johnson & Johnson over exposure to talc products, a New Jersey state court ruled Friday in a landmark ethics decision.

The “prolonged access to J&J’s privileged information, followed by collaborative efforts with its most prominent adversary, leaves us with clear concern for the preservation of trust intrinsic to the attorney-client relationship,” Superior Court Appellate Division Judge Mark K. Chase wrote Friday.

The ruling validates the pharma giant’s multi-year push to exclude one of the top firms bringing cases in a $22 billion fight over claims that asbestos in talc products contributed to plaintiffs’ vaginal cancer. The parties are awaiting a similar ruling on this issue in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey, and an appeal to the New Jersey Supreme Court is expected.

“‘Switching sides’ against a former client does not present a close call—but rather a bright-line ethical prohibition recognized by every court, every ethics authority, and, frankly, every first-year law student,” Erik Haas, Johnson & Johnson’s worldwide vice president of litigation, said in a statement.

The appeals court ruled that former Sidley Austin attorney James Conlan “associated” with the Beasley Allen during a mediation over J&J’s bankruptcy plans. Despite Conlan was acting as a nonlawyer on behalf of his mass tort consulting business Legacy Liability Solutions, there was a clear conflict warranting kicking Beasley Allen out of the litigation where it’s one of the top players.

“It is clear Conlan and Beasley Allen worked together over several months by ‘join[ing] or unit[ing]’ with Conlan for the same common purpose, to have the matter resolved by structural optimization,” Chase said. “Thus, Beasley Allen associated with Legacy and Conlan for purposes” of New Jersey ethics standards.

Beasley Allen’s lawyer Jeffrey Pollock promised an appeal. Since this is a published opinion, the New Jersey Supreme Court is rule-bound to review the decision.

“We respectfully but vehemently disagree with the Court’s analysis and its conclusions,” Pollock, managing member of Pollock Law LLC, said in an email. “This Opinion re-writes the Rules of Professional Conduct and cannot stand.”

‘Not Branches Which Bend’

At oral argument in January, J&J said keeping Beasley Allen in the mix would send a broader message to the legal community that there are loopholes: lawyers like Conlan—who had insider information central to J&J’s defense—could somehow find ways to work with the very firms now suing his former client.

Even though the rules aren’t as strict for non-attorneys, the court said this behavior would interfere with clients ability to retain the lawyer of their choosing and entrust them with confidential information.

“Beasley Allen knowingly collaborated with Conlan on the same issue and in the same litigation that Conlan represented its adversary—J&J. ‘The rules of professional behavior are not branches which bend and sway in the winds of the job market’ but are instead ‘the bedrock of professional conduct,’” Chase said, quoting state high court precedent.

The company confirmed it will try to exclude the firm moving forward.

“The extraordinary and malicious nature of the ethical violation warrants the most fulsome remediation, including disqualification from all related litigation,” Haas said. “Anything less would reward unethical behavior and undermine the fairness every litigant is entitled to expect in our judicial system.”

Sills Cummis & Gross PC, Barnes & Thornburg LLP and O’Melveny & Myers LLP represent J&J.

The case is In re Talc-based Powder Products Litigation, N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div., No. A-000215-24, 2/6/26.