For over twenty years, I have worked extensively litigating personal injury product liability cases against major pharmaceutical companies resulting from the sale of dangerous drugs, medical devices and dietary supplements. My firm Andrews & Thornton has unique experience in obtaining compensation for clients despite the wrongdoing company declaring bankruptcy.

Andrews & Thornton is one of the law firms that joined in the founding of the University of California, Irvine School of Law, and we have made various contributions to the school on scholastic levels, including involvement in the school’s moot court competition and the funding of a scholarship endowment. I was appointed to the Dean’s Advisory Committee and have been fortunate enough to be recognized for extraordinary contribution in scholarship and leadership, and was awarded an Honorary Juris Doctorate at University of California, Irvine School of Law by Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

I currently serve as a board member for Mission Plasticos (501c3 nonprofit organization), dedicated to providing reconstructive surgical care to those in need, and generating positive health outcomes through medical team training, public education, and research. Dr. Hans Kierstead, PHD is board chair. Dr. Keirstead is an internationally-known stem cell expert and has led therapy development for late stage cancers, immune disorders, motor neuron diseases, spinal cord injuries, and retinal diseases.

I am honored to be the 2015 recipient of the Distinguished Achievement (Top Gun) Award for Orange County Trial Lawyers Association (OCTLA) for my success in reaching a $200+ million settlement for the New England Compounding Center (NECC) bankruptcy. As Co-Chair of the Official Creditors’ Committee, I have worked with a team of top national attorneys to secure this incredible victory on behalf of the victims of the fungal meningitis outbreak caused by contaminated steroid injections from NECC. I was also formerly the 2005 recipient of the Top Gun Award for my work in mass torts products liability. In addition, my firm is a 2015 Products Liability Finalist for the National Law Journal’s Elite Trial Lawyers.

In October 2021, I was presented with the Mass Torts Made Perfect (MTMP) Legal Innovation Award in recognition of my pioneering of recoveries for mass tort victims inside major bankruptcy proceedings. I have had the privilege of leading seminars and webinars for MTMP for many years and I have relished the chance to speak on the latest innovations in the legal industry and in the field of mass torts.

I have also been given the opportunity to participate in the Artemis Project, founded by the National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC). The mission of the Artemis Project is focused on primary prevention stopping women and men from getting breast cancer and prevention of metastasis stopping deaths from the disease, the project starts clinical trials of a vaccine for breast cancer later this year.