Bettina J. Strauss

  1. People /

Bettina J. Strauss

Bettina J. Strauss

Partner

  1. People /

Bettina J. Strauss

Bettina J. Strauss

Partner

Bettina J. Strauss

Partner

St. Louis

T: +1 314 259 2525

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Biography

Bettina serves as co-leader of the firm's Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Class Action and Mass Tort Team. She was the leader of the firm’s Product Liability Client Service Group from 2006 to 2014. She focuses her practice on the defense of companies facing liability in connection with products in all types of proceedings including consolidated actions, MDL proceedings and class actions. She has extensive experience in pharmaceutical and medical device litigation. She also has defended automotive litigation for the entirety of her career. She has a national practice, defending cases in state and federal courts across the country from New Jersey to California. Her cases routinely involve multi-million dollar risk in some of the most difficult venues in the country, including three well known trial courts in her home area: the City of St. Louis, Missouri and Madison and St. Clair Counties in Illinois.

Bettina is a trial lawyer who has led and co-chaired the defense of companies in venues across the country. She has experience on national and regional counsel teams in both product liability and product-related class actions. She has worked with lawyers throughout the United States and on many cooperative teams with other firms including but not limited to multi-firm trial and defense teams. She is a member of the prestigious Product Liability Advisory Counsel. She has defended product cases for a wide variety of companies in various industries including automotive, pharmaceutical, child-products, medical devices, chemicals, industrial equipment and many consumer products.

Bettina has worked with medical, engineering and other technical experts in many different fields and is experienced at mastering the technical issues involved in developing company defenses. She enjoys the art of preparing company witnesses to adjust to and excel in the litigation arena. She aggressively prepares her cases and develops facts to support Daubert and other legal challenges. She is a problem solver who connects with her clients, learns their products and works vigorously and creatively to extricate them from the dangerous litigation they face.

Areas of Focus

  • Pharmaceutical & Medical Devices (Class Actions)

Civic Involvement & Honors

  • Benchmark Litigation Missouri Local Litigation Star
  • Benchmark Litigation U.S. Litigation Star
  • Benchmark Litigation Top 250 Women in Litigation
  • Chambers USA - Missouri Litigation: General Commercial, 2013-2022
  • Expert Guides: Women in Business Law 2020-2021
  • Georgetown University – Managing Editor, The Tax Lawyer; Legal research and writing fellowship
  • Legal 500, 2019
  • Martindale-Hubbell® Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers™ 2011
  • Super Lawyers - St. Louis: Products Liability 2011-2022

Professional Affiliations

  • Product Liability Advisory Council
  • Defense Research Institute
  • American Bar Association
  • The Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis
  • Missouri Organization of Defense Lawyers
  • Women Lawyers Association

Admissions

  • Illinois, 1994
  • Missouri, 1993
  • United States District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri, and Northern and Southern Districts of Illinois

Education

Georgetown University, J.D., 1993

Saint Louis University, B.A., cum laude, 1990

Related Practice Areas

  • Class Actions & Mass Torts

  • Financial Services

  • Litigation & Dispute Resolution

  • Antitrust Class Actions

  • Shareholder Securities and Mergers & Acquisitions

  • Food, Ag & Nutrition (Class Actions)

  • Regulation, Compliance & Advisory

  • Catastrophic Accidents

  • Consumer Fraud

  • Consumer Products

  • Food, Ag & Nutrition

  • Insurance (Class Actions)

  • Class Actions

  • Mass Torts & Product Liability

  • Pharmaceutical & Medical Devices (Class Actions)

  • Employment Class & Collective Actions

  • Sports (Class Actions)

  • Data Privacy, Telecommunications & Collections

  • Toxic Tort

  • Pharmaceutical & Medical Devices (Mass Torts)

  • Aviation, Aerospace & Defense

  • Business & Commercial Disputes

Related Insights

Insights
Jun 28, 2023

Does the Supreme Court’s extensive personal jurisdiction jurisprudence risk going off the rails?

The Supreme Court held on Tuesday that a corporation can be subject to personal jurisdiction in a state in which it has registered to do business—solely on that basis, and regardless of the extent of its operations in that state. In Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co., 600 U.S. ___ (2023), the Court affirmed a 1917 precedent that the lower court held had been implicitly overruled by Daimler and other key cases on personal jurisdiction.  The Court seemingly distinguished those cases, holding that state statutory schemes that require out-of-state corporations to agree to be considered as in-state corporations via registration functions as consent to be subject to suit in those states separate from a contacts-based personal jurisdiction analysis. While the ruling is limited to Pennsylvania’s unique statute, this decision could have profound effects if other state statutes are similarly interpreted and/or other states adopt similar statutes that explicitly tie corporate registration to personal jurisdiction.  
Awards
Jun 08, 2023

Legal 500 US 2023

News
Jun 01, 2023

Chambers USA 2023

Awards
Jun 01, 2022

Chambers USA 2022

Awards
May 20, 2021

Chambers USA 2021

Awards
Apr 23, 2020

Chambers USA 2020

Related Insights

Insights
Jun 28, 2023
Does the Supreme Court’s extensive personal jurisdiction jurisprudence risk going off the rails?
The Supreme Court held on Tuesday that a corporation can be subject to personal jurisdiction in a state in which it has registered to do business—solely on that basis, and regardless of the extent of its operations in that state. In Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co., 600 U.S. ___ (2023), the Court affirmed a 1917 precedent that the lower court held had been implicitly overruled by Daimler and other key cases on personal jurisdiction.  The Court seemingly distinguished those cases, holding that state statutory schemes that require out-of-state corporations to agree to be considered as in-state corporations via registration functions as consent to be subject to suit in those states separate from a contacts-based personal jurisdiction analysis. While the ruling is limited to Pennsylvania’s unique statute, this decision could have profound effects if other state statutes are similarly interpreted and/or other states adopt similar statutes that explicitly tie corporate registration to personal jurisdiction.  
Awards
Jun 08, 2023
Legal 500 US 2023
News
Jun 01, 2023
Chambers USA 2023
Awards
Jun 01, 2022
Chambers USA 2022
Awards
May 20, 2021
Chambers USA 2021
Events
Oct 13, 2020
Strauss to Present CLE on Mitigating COVID-19 Liability: Waivers and Other Risk Management Tools
News
Jul 07, 2020
Strauss in ‘Consumer Reports’ on COVID Liability Waivers
Insights
May 18, 2020
Liability Waivers Related to COVID-19 in the United States
Awards
Apr 23, 2020
Chambers USA 2020