Christine is an experienced product liability litigation and regulatory compliance attorney with more than 20 years of experience defending manufacturers and laboratories in complex cases in which medical and scientific facts were at issue. She focuses her practice on food and beverage regulation and litigation, as well as smoking and health litigation.
In her practice defending food product manufacturers, Christine relies on her first-hand experience as a small business owner of a company that makes snacks inspired by the dietary restrictions of her children on the autistic spectrum. Establishing this company has required her to navigate state and federal regulatory hurdles, giving her a client’s perspective on the compliance process and related disputes. Christine has earned the Food Defense Awareness Certification from the Food Safety Preventative Controls Alliance as well as the Better Process Control School Certification. She most recently completed the Preventive Controls Qualified Individual (PCQI) training program for FDA-regulated food and beverage facilities, as well as the Produce Safety Alliance Grower Training and the Foreign Supplier Verification Program.
Christine also works with food companies to review their regulatory programs to help ensure compliance, and advises businesses acquiring food manufacturers on regulatory reviews as part of the due diligence process. She also guides food companies through administrative hearings related to product safety concerns, and advises food businesses on labeling and impounding disputes relating to food imports.
Her product liability litigation experience includes litigating cases in both state and federal courts, including in mass tort and class action litigation. Christine has substantial experience in all phases of discovery and trial preparation as well as expert witness development.
Christine spent seven years litigating nearly 30 smoking and health cases in Puerto Rico in both federal and commonwealth courts. All of those cases were decided in favor of the defendants; most were decided via summary judgment, with the summary judgments upheld on appeal. In one of the suits resolved in defendants’ favor on summary judgment, the Puerto Rico Court of Appeals adopted, for the first time, the Daubert standard for expert opinion testimony. That Puerto Rico Court of Appeals ruling was later affirmed by the Puerto Rico Supreme Court.
She also spends a substantial amount of her time doing pro bono work for families who have children with autism and other special needs. Specifically, Christine represents families in dealing with the public schools in Georgia to ensure that special needs students receive from the public schools the special education services to which they are entitled.
