Sheila Boston

Partner at Arnold & Porter (NYC Office)

Sheila S. Boston is a trial lawyer and litigation strategist who defends clients from initiation of the case through trial and/or settlement.

Sheila is valued by her clients for her advocacy skills, dependability, and collaborative spirit. Sheila has successfully litigated before both state and federal courts, with significant MDL experience in mass tort actions, providing litigation avoidance counseling, and conducting audits to evaluate the potential product-related liabilities in proposed corporate acquisitions and reorganizations. She helps her clients by assessing litigation risks and defending lucrative products by weeding out frivolous individual personal injury lawsuits, defending against class actions and mass torts, and devising creative settlement solutions.

Experience 

  • Bayer Corporation, as co-trial counsel, in a personal injury action in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas involving the drug Xarelto, a blood thinner; defense verdict. 
  • Bayer Corporation, as co-trial counsel, in a personal injury action in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas involving the drug Yasmin, a birth control pill; settled favorably. 
  • Takeda, as co-trial counsel, in a personal injury action in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas involving the drug Actos, a diabetes medication; plaintiff verdict with low damages settled during appeal process. 
  • Pfizer, as co-trial counsel, in the Rezulin (diabetes drug) Litigation in mass tort litigation including MDL in SDNY, class actions in U.S. and Canada, and state coordinated proceedings, as well as individual actions. Served as co-trial counsel in Mississippi and Alabama state cases and National Coordinator of Experts. 
  • Sodexho Inc., as co-trial counsel, in a promotion discrimination class action brought on behalf of more than 2,400 African-American mid-level manager plaintiffs; resolved favorably in $80 million settlement with injunctive relief.

Activities 

  • President, New York City Bar Association 
  • Member, Second Circuit Attorney Grievance Committee 
  • NY Governor Appointee/Member, New York’s First Department Judicial Screening Committee 
  • Chair, Federal Bar Council Board 
  • Chair, DRI’s Drug and Medical Device Seminar 
  • Chair, Minority Partners in Majority Firms Division, National Bar Association 
  • Member, Metropolitan Black Bar Association 
  • Member, Defense Research Institute (DRI) 
  • Member, Board of Governors, National Bar Association

Education 

  • J.D., Columbia Law School, 1993 
  • A.B., Princeton University Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, 1990