On November 19, 2015, The National Law Journal published an article on the composition of the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee in Ethicon’s power morcellator MDL.

According to the publication, Judge Kathryn H. Vratil from the U.S. District Court of Kansas “approved a committee of 20 members, 11 of whom are women.” This historic appointment would mark the first time a plaintiff’s steering committee in an MDL is composed “of a majority of women members.”

All lawsuits coordinated under the MDL are concerned with injuries to women. They involve cases “alleging that Ethicon Inc.’s power morcellators—medical devices used in laparoscopic uterine surgeries—have caused women to develop an aggressive form of cancer