LISE T. SPACAPAN, Partner Publications · Professional Activities Chicago Office Office: (312) 923-2912 Fax: (312) 840-7312 Email: lspacapan@jenner.com  Add to Outlook Contacts

Lise T. Spacapan is a partner in the Firm’s Litigation Department.  She is Co-Chair of the Products Liability and Mass Tort Defense Practice and a member of the Class Action and Environmental Litigation Practices.  She is also Chair of the 1400 Member Toxic Tort and Environmental Law Committee of DRI, the largest defense bar in the country.  Ms. Spacapan is AV Peer Review Rated, Martindale-Hubbell’s highest peer recognition for ethical standards and legal ability.

Ms. Spacapan has handled complex litigation matters in jurisdictions throughout the country, including significant cases in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Colorado, New York, Florida, Louisiana and Texas.  She has appeared in jury and bench trials in courts in five states.  She has argued before Federal Appellate Courts for the Seventh and Eleventh Circuits and the Illinois Court of Appeals.  She is a member of the Northern District of Illinois Trial Bar.

Ms. Spacapan has significant experience defending class actions, medical monitoring claims, personal injury, property damage and indemnity disputes.  State and federal environmental laws are often a component of these matters.  Her broad experience handling cases involving complex technical issues enables her to develop the engineering or scientific defense to a case, and convert the technical concepts into propositions that are meaningful to a judge and jury.  Ms. Spacapan successfully has defended the manufacturers of chemicals, prescription drugs, vaccines, medical devices, automotive products, insecticides, building and industrial products.  She has presented successful Daubert motions and Frye motions to bar scientific evidence which resulted in summary judgment for her clients.

In toxic tort/product liability litigation, Ms. Spacapan currently represents a chemical company, a pharmaceutical company and a food company.  Recently Ms. Spacapan obtained two summary judgments for a chemical company in cases involving allegations of environmental contamination from dioxins and PAH’s.  She won dismissal in a class action involving pentachlorophenol.  In another matter, she obtained a favorable Daubert ruling barring two scientific experts and summary judgment in a case involving chlorinated solvents.  She represented a pharmaceutical company in mass tort litigation involving a diabetes drug and obtained a ruling in state court under Frye barring plaintiff’s experts from testifying.  She currently is defending a chemical company in multiple pesticide cases involving a putative class action, and individual claims for medical monitoring and property damage.  She has represented a utility in multiple toxic tort cases, including a putative class action and individual injury claims, based on allegations that cancer was caused by coal tar contamination in the soil.  She was a member of the national team that tried one of the largest ever class actions involving silicone breast implants.

Ms. Spacapan also has broad commercial litigation experience involving contract, warranty and licensing disputes in a variety of business contexts, including chemical requirements contracts, automotive recalls, and technology licensing.  She represented a major plastics company in a patent dispute that successfully settled after the firm obtained favorable Markman rulings and partial summary judgment for the client.  She also defends qui tam and defamation actions for health care providers.  Ms. Spacapan counsels companies in many such business cases which are resolved successfully without resort to litigation.

Ms. Spacapan is an editor of a 43-chapter book published by PLI on Product Liability Litigation Strategies.  In addition to her current role as Committee Chair, Ms. Spacapan also was Program Chair/Vice Chair of the annual two-day DRI Toxic Tort and Environmental Law seminars that were held in 2006-2008.  She spoke at the first ABA Product Liability Committee Institute on Chemicals about the potential impact of biomonitoring advances in toxic tort litigation.  In 2005, she co-edited the ABA Monograph entitled The Use of Toxicology in Tort Litigation:  A Survey of Federal and State Jurisdictions and in 2003, she authored two chapters of the ABA Monograph entitled The Use of Epidemiology in Tort Litigation: A Survey of Federal and State Jurisdictions.  She also has been active in the ABA Litigation Products Liability Committee activities and served as Newsletter editor.

Ms. Spacapan was on the faculty at the first Annual Judicial Symposium sponsored by the National Foundation for Judicial Excellence ("NFJE").  More than 135 state appellate judges from 39 states attended the conference, at which Ms. Spacapan conducted a direct examination and presented arguments in a mock Daubert hearing.  She currently serves on the NFJE Planning Committee for the 2010 symposium.

Ms. Spacapan earned her B.S. from Vanderbilt University and her J.D. from DePaul University College of Law, where she served as editor-in-chief of the DePaul Law Review.  She currently sits on the Advisory Board of the Center for Intellectual Property Law & Information Technology, DePaul University College of Law.