Well-known Houston plaintiff’s attorney, Carlene Rhodes Lewis, died on Monday at M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston from the effects of ovarian cancer. The Houston Chronicle obituary on Ms. Lewis’ life is here.
Ms. Lewis specialized in products liability cases, and she was at the forefront of developing the Vioxx cases against Merck. Ms. Lewis began investigating the cases against Vioxx in 2000 and, in August 2005, she was part of a team of three lawyers that won a $253.5 million jury verdict against Merck in Brazoria County district court, just south of the Houston metro area. Over 20 million people took Vioxx before Merck took it off the market in September 2004, and the company is now facing around 11,500 lawsuits by about 23,000 plaintiffs. So far, the plaintiffs and Merck have split the six cases that have gone to trial, and about a dozen other cases are scheduled for trial before the end of this year.
Ms. Lewis moved to Houston after finishing law school in 1984 and joined Sewell & Riggs, where she specialized in the defending product liability lawsuits. About five years later, she and her former Sewell & Riggs colleague, Houston attorney Daniel Goforth, formed their own firm and began pursuing plaintiff’s cases. Over the past 17 years, Ms. Lewis was a respected and well-liked member of the formidable Houston plaintiff’s bar.
A memorial service for Ms. Lewis will be held Friday, June 9, at 3:00 pm at Chapelwood United Methodist Church in Houston. The eulogy will be given by her long-time friend and colleague in various plaintiff’s cases, Mark Lanier.