A San Francisco Superior Court judge recently appointed Lawrence J. Gornick and Kenneth M. Seeger as plaintiffs liaison counsel for California’s coordinated DePuy Pinnacle hip implant cases.

Judge Richard A. Kramer directed Mr. Gornick and Mr. Seeger to act on behalf of all plaintiffs in this product liability action against DePuy Orthopaedics Inc., a Johnson & Johnson Company.

Mr. Gornick represents hundreds of plaintiffs who were injured by defectively designed DePuy hip implants. The Pinnacle Acetabular Cup System is a DePuy metal-on-metal hip implant that has caused severe harm to many patients.

The all-metal design of Pinnacle hip implants can cause debris to shed in a patient’s body. Pinnacle hip implant failure has been associated with swelling, pain and damage to bones and tissue.

This is not the only major product liability action DePuy faces. The company designed two other all-metal hip implant devices called the ASR XL Acetabular System and the ASR Hip Resurfacing System.

The ASR hip implant systems have the same flawed all-metal design as DePuy’s Pinnacle implants. The first ASR hip implant lawsuit recently went to trial and resulted in an $8.3 million verdict in favor of a patient. The Pinnacle hip implant litigation has many similar elements to the ASR lawsuits. Mr. Gornick also has been appointed to leadership positions in the litigation involving the ASR systems.

Lawrence J. Gornick is a partner at the San Francisco law firm of Kaiser Gornick LLP, a national leader in product liability litigation. The attorneys at Kaiser Gornick concentrate their efforts on product liability cases and consumer protection lawsuits.