"We are taking these actions to bring certainty to all parties involved in the cosmetic talc cases," Michael Ullmann, general counsel of Johnson & Johnson, said. "While we continue to stand firmly behind the safety of our cosmetic talc products, we believe resolving this matter as quickly and efficiently as possible is in the best interests of the company and all stakeholders."

Plaintiffs lawyers, some of whom petitioned courts in Missouri and Delaware to halt the anticipated filing, which would impose stays on their cases, immediately condemned the move.

"This stinks," said Andy Birchfield, of Beasley Allen in Montgomery, Alabama, whose firm has had multiple ovarian cancer trials against Johnson & Johnson for the past several years. "They claim their product is safe and then attempt to hide behind bankruptcy. J&J can run but it can't hide. The entire nation, Congress and more than 30,000 victims of J&J's dangerous talc product say 'no' to this flagrant and fraudulent abuse of the bankruptcy system."

American Association for Justice CEO Linda Lipsen said in a statement that Johnson & Johnson's "bankruptcy gimmick is as despicable as it is brazen."

"This is an unconscionable abuse of the legal system," she said. "Congress must act to ensure that no other ill-intentioned corporation can ever do the same by passing the Nondebtor Release Prohibition Act of 2021 as soon as possible," she wrote, referring to a bill that would prohibit the use of bankruptcy to release claims against corporations, which also have included USA Gymnastics and the Boy Scouts of America.

Moshe Maimon, a partner at Levy Konigsberg whose talc verdicts include a $750 million punitive damages award in New Jersey in 2020, noted in an email that "99.9% of American companies couldn't think of avoiding their liabilities like J&J—one of the largest and most profitable companies in the world."

Joseph Satterly, a partner at Oakland, California's Kazan, McClain, Satterly & Greenwood who represents mesothelioma victims, called the move "corporate fraud" that will be challenged in bankruptcy court.

"The $2 billion they're claiming they will fund is a fraudulent transfer to cut off liabilities for the thousands of people they've hurt. It's outrageous," he said. "We're going to object to the extension of the automatic stay to the parent company, because they're really not bankrupt. The court will have to determine whether to extend the automatic stay to Johnson & Johnson, the mothership, and, hopefully, the court will see that that's improper."

But Johnson & Johnson, which has not admitted liability, continues to assert that, despite scientific evidence disproving that cosmetic talc causes either ovarian cancer or mesothelioma, the company continues to face an "unrelenting assault by the plaintiff trial bar."

And although Johnson & Johnson has won four ovarian cancer trials in a row this year, an informational brief filed with the bankruptcy petition said it could face hundreds of millions of dollars in defense costs alone. Further, Johnson & Johnson acknowledged that other verdicts have consistently awarded tens of millions of dollars, plus a $4.7 billion award in 2018 for 22 women, later reduced to $2.1 billion, that the U.S. Supreme Court refused to overturn.

"If only a small fraction of the pending cases continued to yield such inconsistent and excessive awards, the assets available to pay current and future claimants could have been exhausted," Johnson & Johnson's lawyers wrote. "And the costs associated with the continued litigation of the claims for decades to come would have been simply unsustainable."

Satterly said he won an Aug. 23 verdict against Johnson & Johnson of $26.5 million in Alameda County Superior Court, and a $27.4 million verdict on Oct. 11 in Los Angeles County Superior Court. He is in the middle of another jury trial involving a 49-year-old woman with both ovarian cancer and mesothelioma.

He also noted the 2018 award as evidence why $2 billion would give "pennies on the dollar of true damages."

"These are women and men that have cancer, terminal cancers in many, many situations," he said. "$2 billion would not be clearly sufficient to cover the thousands of people they've injured."

To handle the bankruptcy filing, Johnson & Johnson has turned to Jones Day's Gregory Gordon, a partner in Dallas, with Dan Prieto, of counsel, and associate Amanda Rush, as well as Brad Erens, a partner in Chicago. Other firms on the bankruptcy filings are Shook, Hardy & Bacon; King & Spalding; and Rayburn Cooper & Durham in Charlotte, North Carolina. White & Case partners Jessica Lauria, in New York, and Michael Shepherd, in Miami, also made appearances for Johnson & Johnson.

The petition lists the 30 plaintiffs firms with the largest tort claims:

*Arnold & Itkin in Houston

*Ashcraft & Gerel in Washington, D.C.

*Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz in Pensacola, Florida

*The Barnes Firm in New York

*Beasley Allen in Montgomery, Alabama

*Cellino Law in Buffalo, New York

*Dalimonte Rueb Stoller in Washington, D.C.

*Dean Omar Branham Shirley in Dallas

*The Driscoll Firm in Belleville, Illinois

*Fears Nachawati in Dallas

*The Ferraro Law Firm in Miami

*Flint Law Firm in Edwardsville, Illinois

*Golomb Spirt Grunfeld in Philadelphia

*The Gori Law Firm in Edwardsville, Illinois

*Honik LLC in Philadelphia

*Johnson Law Group in Houston

*Karst & von Oiste in Spring, Texas

*Kazan, McClain, Satterly & Greenwood in Oakland, California

*The Lanier Law Firm in Houston

*Levy Konigsberg in Lawrence Township, New Jersey

*Maune Raichle Hartley French & Mudd in St. Louis, Missouri

*The Miller Firm in Orange, Virginia

*Motley Rice in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina

*Napoli Shkolnik in New York

*OnderLaw in St. Louis, Missouri

*Simmons Hanly Conroy in New York

*Simon Greenstone Panatier in Dallas

*Trammell PC in Houston

*Weitz & Luxenberg in New York

*Williams Hart in Houston