Alexandra B. Cunningham

Ms. Cunningham’s litigation and risk management practice focuses on product liability, toxic tort and environmental litigation, food contamination claims, and wrongful death and personal injury defense, including mass torts, class actions and multidistrict litigation.

Ms. Cunningham is head of the firm’s litigation team. She represents major corporate clients in all aspects of product liability, mass tort and toxic tort and environmental litigation, including successfully defending catastrophic injury and death claims; asbestos, benzene, formaldehyde, hydrogen sulfide, solvent and silica-related premises and product liability claims; large-scale environmental toxin and exposure claims, involving PFAS, PAHs, fluorides, coal combustion residuals and hexavalent chromium; and claims of bacterial contamination in food and beverage products. Ms. Cunningham also advises clients on legal issues related to COVID-19, including potential claims risk and mitigation, wrongful death, personal injury and nuisance claims defense strategies, and is actively defending companies in COVID-19 litigation. She also represents clients in general product liability and commercial litigation.

Ms. Cunningham is admitted to practice in Virginia, Georgia, New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and before the federal courts in those jurisdictions and many others. She has appeared as trial counsel in state and federal courts around the country, and has led appeals to the Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia and United States Supreme Courts. Ms. Cunningham has also led arbitrations before the International Chamber of Commerce and American Arbitration Association.

Relevant Experience

• National coordinating counsel, national regional counsel, trial counsel and local counsel for several Fortune 100 and 500 companies in mass tort and toxic exposure litigation.
• Provides strategic premarket and workplace litigation risk advice to product manufacturers and industrial employers, including guidance on potential risks of product or manufacturing operations or changes, regulatory compliance, investigations, litigation avoidance, and risk management and incident response for product failure, fatalities, crises or other catastrophic events, including COVID-19 fatalities or outbreaks.
• Substantial experience in representing international companies in US-based litigation, including forum and jurisdictional-based defense strategies and international discovery.
• Trial counsel in asbestos and mass tort cases around the country, including New York, California, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Virginia, where served as trial counsel for consolidated trial of 1,300 asbestos claims—the largest asbestos trial in Virginia history.