Cynthia Weiss Antonucci
Member

Ms. Antonucci is a member of the firm.  She is leader of the Mass Torts and Industry‑Wide Litigation and the Insurance Litigation and Product Liability Defense Practice Groups and serves on the Medical and Life Sciences Industry Team.  Selected among the Best Lawyers in America and listed in New York Super Lawyers, Ms. Antonucci has devoted more than 25 years of her practice to the defense of products liability and toxic tort matters, including mass tort, chemical exposure, drug and device product liability, medical malpractice claims, and related complex litigation matters.  Ms. Antonucci’s legal practice focuses on the litigation of toxic torts involving indoor air pollution, sick building syndrome, mold, pesticides, aerosol products and other chemical exposures on behalf of Fortune 500 companies and their insurers.  Products Ms. Antonucci has defended include floor waxes, strippers and polishes, various commercial grade pesticides, operative dye products, blood products, paints, solvents, aerosol ant and roach sprays and foggers, aerosol and plug-in air fresheners, personal insect repellants, DEET-containing pesticides and liquid drain cleaners, and a variety of asbestos-containing products.  Ms. Antonucci served as national coordinating counsel to a manufacturer of floor tile in asbestos litigation.  She has tried numerous mass tort, toxic tort and multi-plaintiff related product liability and other personal injury cases in state and federal courts.  Ms. Antonucci also represents defendants in multi-party litigation involving heavy machinery, including trucks, forklifts, cranes and lifts.  Ms. Antonucci has also acted as a consultant to the insurance industry in addressing pharmaceutical coverage claims under the Bermuda form arising out of underlying U.S. litigation.

Ms. Antonucci brings a unique perspective and experience to the practice of law in the health care area.  She was a former registered nurse at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center where she specialized in high-risk obstetrical care, including labor and delivery, operating and recovery room and antepartal testing.  Ms. Antonucci has defended claims concerning defective medical equipment including autoclaves, electro-cautery units, catheters, anesthesia delivery equipment, dialysis equipment, dental implants and equipment, electric wheelchairs, stretchers, and Hoyer lifters.

She represents physicians, dentists and ancillary health care professionals such as nurse anesthetists, nurse midwives, physical therapists, and respiratory therapists before administrative tribunals and in high-exposure medical malpractice claims.

Representative cases of interest include:

• Stephenson by Coley v. S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc.(New York State Appellate Division Second Department): In a products liability/negligence claim where an older boy ignited spray from sample aerosol can and created a blow torch, burning a child, the defendant was entitled to summary judgment as intervening acts of older boy were not normal result of defendants' negligence so as to be reasonably foreseeable, and in absence of manufacturer's knowledge of similar past occurrences, intervening assault severed causal nexus as a matter of law.
• Zwillinger v. Garfield Slope Housing Corp. (U. S. District Court, EDNY): In an action for damages for "multiple chemical sensitivity" allegedly caused by carpet off-gassing, summary judgment awarded to defendants based upon Daubert standards.