Gwendolyn Prothro Renigar

Partner

• grenigar@steptoe.com
• vCard
• Washington Office

Gwendolyn Prothro Renigar is a partner in the Washington office of Steptoe & Johnson LLP, where she is a member of the firm’s Litigation Department.  Ms. Renigar concentrates her practice in the following areas:

• Complex Litigation
• Consumer Products

Complex Litigation
Ms. Renigar maintains a multi-faceted commercial practice.  She works with clients across a spectrum of industries, from financial services and insurance, to manufacturing.

Ms. Renigar serves as national counsel to defendants facing multi-forum, high-stakes claims in federal and state courts around the country, both in class action and individual plaintiff settings, addressing consumer fraud, RICO, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and contract disputes.  She also has settled class actions and advised clients on significant issues arising out of the administration of class action settlements. 

Ms. Renigar’s recent experience includes the following:

• Served as national defense counsel to food processor and distributor, setting overall defense strategy, handling scores of commercial claims, as well as defending several lawsuits and arbitrations arising from nationwide recall of food product.
• Defended former directors of snack food manufacturer in putative class action arising from certain investments made by the company’s pension plan.
• Served on national team defending investment firm in large-scale litigation matters, including several putative (but not ultimately certified) class actions, arising out of sophisticated tax strategies.
• Represented government corporation in class action litigation arising from a $1 billion class action settlement.
• Defended large bank in class actions arising out of consumer programs.  Representations included defeating class action certification by obtaining early dismissal of one action, developing a favorable class action settlement on behalf of the client in another action, and counseling the client on administration of a class settlement.
• Represented third party that successfully avoided implication in large scale product liability class action arising out of alleged automotive defect.

Consumer Products Regulatory and Counseling Experience
Ms. Renigar counsels manufacturers, importers, and distributors of consumer products in their day-to-day product development and operations, as well as during crises.  She has also counseled clients on the development of product safety programs, monitored litigation, and spoken to groups on liability avoidance issues.  She has over 13 years of experience advising clients on US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) regulations for the manufacture, testing and distribution of products in the US consumer marketplace, filing Section 15 reports, defending against preliminary hazard determinations, negotiating voluntary corrective action plans, and implementing nationwide product recall programs.  She works with company management, tailoring the strategies to take into account case merits, damages, as well as the clients’ ongoing business relationships and interests. 

Ms. Renigar assists companies in successfully navigating regulatory requirements to bring consumer products to market on the front end, and, where there are problems on the back end, in navigating the storms to minimize the business disruption to clients and their customers, and to mitigate the long term risks to the businesses and brands.

Selected Publications

• RU 486 Examined, 30 Mich. J. L. Ref. 715
  1997
• The Caffeine Conundrum, 27 Cumber. L. Rev. 65
  1997