Danielle Ward Mason

Danielle joined Beasley Allen Law Firm as an associate in 2009 and has spent the past seven years in the firm's Mass Torts Section, investigating claims involving dangerous drugs and medical devices. She was named a principal at the firm in 2015 and is the first African-American woman to achieve that status.

Currently, Danielle is the lead attorney handling the firm’s Invokana litigation, representing clients that have suffered adverse side effects, which can include diabetic coma and death, from the blood sugar regulating medicine. In January 2017, Danielle was appointed to the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee (PSC) for consolidated multidistrict litigation (MDL) pending in New Jersey federal court concerning Invokana’s link to kidney damage and diabetic ketoacidosis.

The lawsuits allege Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, failed to properly test the type 2 diabetes drug and warn consumers, health care professionals and the medical community of the risks and consequences of using it. U.S. District Judge Brian R. Martinotti was appointed by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to preside over the MDL, which consolidated 55 cases from across the United States.

She also serves as the firm’s lead attorney for its Reglan litigation, where she has done extensive work in ensuring the survival of those claims despite the challenges created by the Supreme Court’s generic preemption decision, Pliva v. Mensing, in 2011. Reglan is associated with the development of uncontrolled muscle movements, a permanent and incurable condition known as Tardive Dyskinesia.

In addition to her work as lead attorney for Invokana and Reglan claims, Danielle devotes the rest of her practice to talcum powder litigation against defendants Johnson & Johnson, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies Inc., and Imerys Talc America Inc. In February 2016, Danielle, along with her law partners Jere Beasley, Ted Meadows and David Dearing, secured a $72 million verdict against these defendants in St. Louis City Court on behalf of the family of Jackie Fox. The verdict includes $10 million in actual damages and $62 million in punitive damages. The jury found Johnson & Johnson guilty of negligence, conspiracy and fraud.

The talc litigation trial team secured a second verdict in May on behalf of plaintiff Gloria Ristesund, and a third in October on behalf of plaintiff Deborah Giannecchini. The jury awarded Ms. Ristesund $55 million, including $5 million in actual damages and $50 million in punitive damages, and the jury awarded Ms. Giannecchini $70 million, including $575,000 in medical damages, $2 million in compensatory damages, and $65 million in punitive damages against Johnson & Johnson and $2.5 million in punitive damages against Imerys. In May 2017, the team secured a fourth verdict on behalf of Lois Slemp. That jury awarded Ms. Slemp $110 million, including $5.4 million in compensatory damages and $105 million in punitive damages against the two companies.

More than 1,200 others nationwide claim that Johnson & Johnson talcum powder products, when used in the perineal area, significantly increases a woman’s risk of developing ovarian cancer. There are multiple trial settings this year, and Danielle will be a member of the trial team for all upcoming cases. Danielle and the other members of the talc litigation team were nominated as a finalist for the 2016 Public Justice Trial Lawyer of the Year Award in recognition of their work on these cases.

Danielle’s civil litigation experience has focused primarily on claims that impact and highlight important issues in women’s health, a cause for which she is most proud to advance. Prior to moving full-time to the talc litigation, she was one of the attorneys litigating claims related to transvaginal mesh (TVM). Transvaginal mesh is used to repair conditions such as pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence. Reported complications from transvaginal placement of the mesh include erosion of the mesh into the vaginal tissue, organ perforation, pain, infection, painful intercourse and urinary and fecal incontinence. Often women require surgery to remove the mesh. In some cases, this can require multiple procedures without successful removing all of the mesh. The TVM claims involve transvaginal mesh manufactured by Bard, Boston Scientific, Caldera, Cook Medical and Johnson & Johnson and more than 70,000 women have been affected by these unreasonably dangerous products.

As an associate, Danielle was an integral part of the Hormone Replacement Therapy litigation. Hormone Replacement Therapy, including drugs such as Premarin, Prempro and Provera, have been associated with the development of breast cancer, and a black box warning was added to these products to address this very serious risk. The drugs also were promoted for off-label uses, including prevention of cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease, however, these promoted “benefits” were shown to be non-existent. Because of the nature of the injury, Danielle routinely handled the in extremis plaintiff depositions for these cases, where she prepared these very sick and dying women for depositions to preserve their testimony for trial. Danielle was also part of the trial team that secured a $72.6 million verdict in 2011, on behalf of three plaintiffs in Philadelphia, who took HRT drugs and later developed breast cancer.

In August 2010, Danielle was specially appointed by the Chief Justice of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, Ed Carnes, to brief and orally argue a claim on behalf of a pro se petitioner before the appellate court. Despite this being her first time before the 11th Circuit, she won the appeal on behalf of her client.