Plaintiffs law firm Keller Postman, which has its sole Texas outpost in Austin, has been hired by the state to pursue a deceptive trade practices lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson and Kenvue over their marketing of Tylenol.
Three lawyers from the firm’s office in Washington, D.C., — John J. Snidow, John M. Masslon II and Roseann R. Romano — and Ashley Keller from its Chicago office all signed on to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Panola County.
In a news release announcing the lawsuit, Attorney General Ken Paxton accused the companies of deceptively marketing the medicine to pregnant mothers without regard to the alleged dangers the drug poses to unborn children.
“These corporations lied for decades, knowingly endangering millions to line their pockets,” Paxton said in the news release. “Additionally, seeing that the day of reckoning was coming, Johnson & Johnson attempted to escape responsibility by illegally offloading their liability onto a different company. By holding Big Pharma accountable for poisoning our people, we will help Make America Healthy Again.”
The 49-page lawsuit accuses the companies of violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the Texas Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act. The TUFTA claim relates to what the lawsuit says was Johnson & Johnson’s decision to “fraudulently transfer its Tylenol-related liabilities to Kenvue.”
In addition to this and other Tylenol litigation, Keller Postman has represented numerous clients in lawsuits alleging injuries tied to talcum powder, the Depo-Provera contraceptive shot, IUDs, the water supply at Camp Lejeune, Zantac, the sickle cell disease medication Oxbryta, infant formula, hair relaxers, 3M earplugs, and in antitrust litigation against Amazon and Ticketmaster.
As it relates to Texas, the firm has represented the state in the biometric privacy litigation against Meta and has represented Texas and a handful of other states in antitrust litigation against Google targeting its advertising technology.
The firm has a total of eight offices: Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Coral Gables, Florida; Lake Mary, Florida; Boston; Twin Cities, Minnesota, Cincinnati, Ohio and Austin.
A search of court records via re:SearchTX did not show that the state has pursued similar, high-profile litigation in state court in Panola County. The county in deep East Texas has a population of about 23,000.
Johnson & Johnson said in a statement issued to The Lawbook Tuesday that the company “divested its consumer health business years ago, and all rights and liabilities associated with the sale of its over-the-counter products, including Tylenol (acetaminophen) are owned by Kenvue.”
Kenvue said in a separate statement issued to The Lawbook that “nothing is more important to us than the health and safety of the people who use our products.”
“We are deeply concerned by the perpetuation of misinformation on the safety of acetaminophen and the potential impact that could have on the health of American women and children,” the statement reads. “Acetaminophen is the safest pain reliever option for pregnant women as needed throughout their entire pregnancy.”
Texas is also represented by Jonathan Stone, Jerry Bergman and Kelley Ownes of the attorney general’s office.