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Alexandra Cantamessa

Alix is extensively experienced with all phases of asbestos litigation, from inception through resolution, including pleadings, deposition, discovery, investigations, and drafting and arguing motions, including appellate motions and briefs. She provides both nationwide and local defense for major clients and is known for devising novel legal theories and strategies to remove clients from cases.

While she has focused on toxic tort in recent years, Alix’s broad background litigating securities, contract, labor and employment, intellectual property, and pharmaceutical product liability matters has made her extensively familiar with procedure and strategy. Alix also draws on her time representing plaintiffs in medical device product liability cases at a previous firm. The experience helps her understand opposing counsel’s goals, plans and strategies, often leading to faster resolutions in the cases she defends today.

Alix is particularly passionate about the intensive research required in the asbestos field and loves to be the one to find the argument that will win a case. She also appreciates that toxic tort cases usually allow her to fully get to know clients, learning about their products and business structure. Alix aims for clients to view her as a true part of their company.

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Synthetic dyes, once regarded as harmless ingredients that simply made foods more visually appealing and marketable, are now the subject of a dynamic bipartisan movement for reform. Thousands of food items in grocery stores in the United States utilize synthetic dyes, which have been linked to potential health risks, including behavioral effects in children and carcinogenicity in animal tests. One of these items, Red Dye No. 3—which is commonly used in candy and cereal—has been identified as carcinogenic by the FDA based on rat studies. Abroad, the EU mandates warning labels, while Australia and Japan restrict or ban them.

On December 21, 2024, Governor Kathy Hochul of New York vetoed, for a third time, the Grieving Families Act (“Act”), a significant bipartisan legislative proposal in New York aimed at reforming the state’s wrongful death statute, which has remained largely unchanged since 1847. The Act’s provisions, including expanding recoverable damages, extending the statute of limitations, and broadening the definition of beneficiaries, have significant implications on civil law in New York, including asbestos litigation.

The Third Circuit recently affirmed entry of summary judgment in favor of General Electric (“GE”) on grounds of derivative sovereign immunity. The Third Circuit found that GE was entitled to derivative sovereign immunity under current established doctrine in Yearsley and Boyle because all of GE’s work and equipment at issue was performed and/or designed pursuant…