The First Section • Since 1941

December 8, 2014 Dinner Meeting

Address:  Westin - Wheeling, IL
601 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Wheeling, IL 60090

Phone: (847) 777-6500

Schedule:

4:00 - 5:00 PM - Executive Board Meeting

5:00 - 6:00 PM - Social Hour with cash bar and Appetizers

6:00 - 8:30 PM - Dinner & Presentation

Title: What’s Cooking in Food and Beverage Litigation, and Tips For Staying Out of the Stew.

Anthony J. Anscombe is a partner at Sedgwick, LLP, in Chicago.  He co-chairs his firm’s class action and food industry task forces, and represents food and other life science companies in class action, products liability, commercial and other matters.  A substantial part of his practice includes risk management counseling.  He speaks and writes frequently on topics of interest to those in his practice areas, especially on class action litigation and the food industry.  He obtained his BA from Yale in 1983, and his JD from the University of Virginia in 1988.  He is licensed in Illinois, California, and in many federal district and appellate courts around the country.   He invites you to connect with him through Linkedin.  > View Full Profile

Title: What’s Cooking in Food and Beverage Litigation, and Tips For Staying Out of the Stew.

Speaker: Anthony Anscombe, Lawyer - Sedgwick Lawfirm

Over the last six or seven years, the food industry has come under enormous and unprecedented legal scrutiny.  Foodborne illnesses have always generated lawsuits and always will.  In recent years, however, food and beverage companies have also found themselves confronting a spate of class action lawsuits.  These cases usually allege that products did not conform to advertising or to customer expectations: “natural products” contain GMOs or refined sugars, or contain trace levels of constituents that allegedly present remote health risks.  Damages in these cases often sound trivial, even outlandish, but when multiplied by the number of individual product sales, they can add up to staggering amounts of money.

Mr. Anscombe will review current trends in food litigation, to give IFT members an idea of the types of issues that have led to these lawsuits.  He will provide some ideas on how to spot such issues in advance, to lessen the risk that your company will be sued.  He will also offer some practical advice on how to discuss sensitive legal issues internally, so that if and when you find your company at the center of litigation, a jury will know that you and your company acted reasonably and responsibly.

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