Weitz & Luxenberg is delighted to announce Ellen Relkin is being inducted into the Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame in April. Ms. Relkin is a partner in W&L and chair of our firm’s Drug and Medical Device Litigation group.
She is being honored in a ceremony at the Mass Torts Made Perfect (MTMP) conference, held at the Wynn Las Vegas from April 1-3, 2025. The ceremony itself is featured during a luncheon on Wednesday, April 2. The Hall of Fame is located at Temple University Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia.
Joining a Group of Select Attorneys
Ms. Relkin is joining a select group of attorneys — people who “have left an indelible mark on the American legal tradition through a lifetime of service to the American public, the Constitution, and the American trial bar.” The honor is given by the Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame each year. (1)
Each attorney selected for the Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame has “exceeded the expectations of the public and their peers by clearly establishing themselves, through their practice, as true champions and crusaders for American justice.” Ms. Relkin is a prime example of such an attorney, distinguishing herself over the years through her efforts to achieve justice on behalf of thousands of people. (2)
Weitz & Luxenberg feels particularly privileged to count Ms. Relkin among several of her colleagues at the firm who were also inducted into the Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame. This includes W&L’s co-founder Perry Weitz and W&L partner Robin Greenwald.
In fact, our attorneys join a select group of legal masterminds who have achieved notable recognition: (3)
- Morris Dees, the Southern Poverty Law Center founder.
- Gerry Spence of Wyoming, renowned legal commentator.
- Fred Levin, namesake of the Fredric G. Levin College of Law of the University of Florida.
- Linda Lipsen, CEO of the American Association for Justice.
- Lisa Blue Baron, former President of the American Association for Justice.
Righting the Wrongs of Big Corporations
Ms. Relkin explains her legal focus, “Over the past four decades, I have witnessed an alarming pattern among manufacturing corporations. Wherever you look, you see companies choosing to do wrong by putting profits before safety. Far too often, companies rush a product or medical device to market without sufficiently testing it first. Frequently, companies fail to sufficiently warn consumers, workers, and neighbors about the risks of their products.”
She emphasizes, “One of the most egregious actions is knowing a product is defective or dangerous, but manufacturing and selling it to consumers anyway. These companies act irresponsibly, because they are more concerned with having numbers that make their shareholders happy, rather than taking the necessary steps to ensure people’s safety, health, and well-being.”
Ms. Relkin admits, “It is heartbreaking to hear client’s stories and realize how many lives were upended by negligent conduct of corporations. These failures ignite something fierce in me that wants to right these wrongs in the most powerful way possible — through the legal forum.”
She summarizes, “The longer I practice law, the more knowledge, experience, and resources I have at my fingertips to hold defendants to account. Sadly, the script never changes and we can predict how corporate defendants make the wrong decisions. It has been my privilege to represent thousands of plaintiffs over the years. I strive to secure just compensation for the wrongs they have suffered. Seeking justice for my clients is what drives me each and every day. There is nothing more rewarding than getting a phone call, email, or card from a client thanking our team for obtaining compensation for their injuries and how that has helped to improve their lives.
Leading Legal Teams to Victory
For decades, Ms. Relkin led teams of attorneys to victory for our clients. Not only is she a leader at Weitz & Luxenberg, she also was appointed by numerous federal and state judges to serve in leadership positions in national and statewide litigations, especially in multidistrict litigation (MDL).
The most recent example being Depo-Provera. She identified the litigation well before other attorneys and led the way by filing the first federal case last year. Then she filed the petition for MDL consolidation and argued before the Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation. In mid-March, she was appointed as Co-Lead Counsel of the Depo-Provera MDL. She will be speaking about the litigation at the morning education session of MTMP on April 2.
Ms. Relkin has overseen complex medical device and pharmaceutical litigation, as well as toxic tort cases affecting thousands of people across the country. She leaves a long line of major victories in her wake. Here are just a few of her wins:
- $2.5 billion settlement in a litigation involving people undergoing revision surgery due to failed DePuy hip replacement devices.
- $1+ billion settlement amount in a case against Stryker for its faulty LFIT hip replacement component.
- $235 million settlement in the case for Altria e-cigarettes contributing to a youth vaping epidemic, which spread nationwide.
- Four major settlements against JUUL Labs for targeting its e-cigarettes to teens and misleading consumers about supposed benefits, including a $300 million class action settlement to consumers.
- Successfully defending an appeal of the $4.5 million verdict in favor of clients John and Irma McDarby, which was the only Vioxx verdict to be upheld on appeal.
Lifetime as Legal Advocate and Proponent of Justice
Ms. Relkin has spent her entire career advocating for people who have suffered inestimable harm at the hands of massive companies and conglomerates. She has received numerous accolades and recognition over the years.
Most recently, Ms. Relkin was honored as a 2024 recipient of the Consumer Attorney of the Year Award, from the Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC). In addition, she received the 2023 inaugural class Compassionate Counsel award bestowed by the Milestone Charitable Foundation.
She is certified by the New Jersey Supreme Court as a Civil Trial Attorney. She is also:
- An elected member of the American Law Institute.
- An elected member of the Summit Council.
- An invited member of the American Bar Foundation.
- An active member of the American Association for Justice (past chair of the Toxic, Environmental, and Pharmaceutical Torts section).
- Co-chair of the New Jersey Trial Lawyers Association Mass Tort Committee and serves on its Board of Governors.
In addition, Ms. Relkin serves on the Board of Advisors of the RAND Kenneth R. Feinberg Center for Catastrophic Risk Management and Compensation. She is also a former president of the Roscoe Pound Civil Justice Institute, currently known as the National Civil Justice Institute.
She is routinely named a Super Lawyer in New York and New Jersey, a nation’s Best Lawyer by The Best Lawyers in America, and a Best Lawyer in New York. She also has been AV rated by Martindale Hubble for over two decades.
The most important aspect of Ms. Relkin’s induction is that she still has many more chapters to write in her exceptional body of work.
