William L. Allinder

William L. Allinder is an attorney and a partner in the law firm Shook, Hardy and Bacon, (SHB), longtime national counsel for Philip Morris. He also worked for Brown & Williamson (B&W). In 1992, SHB billed Allinder's projects for B&W at $190/hour. His duties included document review and collection. Allinder practices out of SHB's offices in Kansas City, Missouri, where he is licensed to practice law. He is vice chair of SHB's National Product Liability Litigation Division, and specializes in defending major products liability litigation. From his SHB profile, he serves as national coordinating counsel for industry liability claims against manufacturers of hazardous products, including tobacco, alcohol beverage and silica litigation. His area of special expertise is issues relating to attorney-client privilege and work product protection.

Allinder is also national coordinating counsel and senior litigation advisor for Lorillard Tobacco Co. He has served as counsel for Lorillard in numerous state and federal courts. He was lead trial counsel for Lorillard Blue Cross/Blue Shield of New Jersey v. Philip Morris, et al. in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, a landmark case of aggregated subrogation claims. He has also served as national coordinating counsel for Lockheed Martin Corp. in silica litigation.

Allinder worked on the Rose Defrancesco Cipollone case with Patrick M. Sirridge, who is also with SHB and represents PM. The Cipollone case was important because it was the first tobacco case ever in which the plaintiff was awarded damages. The award was small, but made it a landmark case. Sirridge is important because he authored a legal analysis in 1983 about why internal studies being done by scientists Victor J. DeNoble and Paul Mele at PM in the early 1980s (on the behavioral effects of nicotine) posed a danger to the tobacco industry (they revealed hallmarks of addiction).

Contact
William L. Allinder Shook, Hardy and Bacon 2555 Grand Blvd. Kansas City, Missouri 64108 USA Phone: 816-474-6550 (Main) Fax: 816-421-5547