Paula Bliss has devoted her entire legal career representing people in state and federal courts throughout the country, mostly concentrating on those injured by pharmaceutical drugs that have been inadequately tested and labeled. She manages the firm’s Mass-Tort department where she has been successfully representing thousands of plaintiffs around the country in product liability lawsuits against drug and medical device manufacturers as well as tobacco companies who have targeted children with their deadly and dangerous products.
Paula has always felt passionate about giving a voice to and finding justice for those who have been harmed by large multi-million-dollar companies. Her career began by representing hundreds of women who were seriously injured by a diet drug “fen-phen.” Most of these women took the product to lose weight but without knowing what the company knew, caused a serious and deadly disease that took many lives. She fought for these women in trials and settlement negotiations with focus and tenacity to assure the manufacturers were held accountable. In addition to fen-phen, Paula represented hundreds of women and children who suffered devasting strokes after taking an over the counter cold medication (which is no longer on the market).
Paula has been involved in leading national mass-tort litigations involving hundreds and thousands of Americans injured by defective products like breast implants, hormone replacement therapy for menopausal women that caused breast cancer, birth control pills that caused strokes, dialysis products that caused cardiac arrest, defective hip replacements, and other medications that have hidden and failed to warn patients of dangerous side effects. She has litigated cases involving:
DES
Fen Phen - diet Pills
Phenylpropanolamine
YAZ®/YASMIN®/OCELLATM
Hormone replacement therapy
Abilify
Defective Hip Implants
Breast Implant
IVC filter
3M earplugs
transvaginal and hernia mesh implants
Talc
Essure
Toxic environmental exposures
Paula is currently leading the charge against tobacco companies in Massachusetts for targeting children in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s with free samples of cigarettes in effort to get them hooked. She has tried a number of jury trials and just recently secured a verdict of $21 million for a local woman who lost her husband to cigarette related disease years after being handed cigarettes at the age of 12. Paula is also managing the litigation involving the lawn care product Roundup which has been shown to cause Non-Hodgkins lymphoma. She is representing hundreds of unsuspecting victims of this product in courts all over the country.
Finally, Paula has successfully represented and continues to represent multiple plaintiffs in medical malpractice cases and other defective product cases when consumers have been injured by failures in treatment and/or warning of serious side effects.
Paula earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Shortly after graduation, Paula opened and operated several restaurants before deciding that law was her real passion. In 2001 she earned her law degree from Northeastern University School of Law. During law school, she interned with the late Chief Justice Ralph Gants while he was a judge of the Massachusetts Superior Court.
She is a member of many national and local bar associations, many of which focus on the advancement of efficiency in the trial courts and women in leadership. In her spare time, she has volunteered as a coach for a local high school’s mock trial team and volunteered to help high school students with college essays.
HONORS
• Top Women of Law – Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly – 2015
• Massachusetts Super Lawyers®- routinely.
ADMISSIONS
• Massachusetts, 2002
• USDC for the District of MA, 2003
• United States Supreme Court, 2014
EDUCATION
Northeastern University School of Law
J.D. 2001
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
B.S. 1991
PRESENTATIONS & PUBLICATIONS
Articles
2005 “What to Expect in High Stakes Litigation” SEAK, Inc.
Presentations
Paula has presented a number of times over the years for the following organizations:
Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys
American Association for Justice
Kentucky Bar Association
National Trial Lawyers
Massachusetts Bar Association
Boston Bar Association
Women en Mass
Northeastern University School of Law: Women in the Law Conference
Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education
Harris Martin Conferences
Massachusetts Women's Bar Association
Kentucky Women’s Bar Association
