Byrd

Chad practices within the Pharmaceutical, Medical Device and Healthcare Litigation group. Best Lawyers in America® listed him as one of its Ones to Watch for Commercial Litigation and Health Care Law.

• Drug & Device Litigation
• Health Law
• Appellate & Written Advocacy
• Groundwater & Chemical Exposure Litigation

Pharmaceutical, Medical Device and Healthcare

Chad currently serves as a member of the team defending Johnson & Johnson in the pelvic and hernia mesh litigation.  In this role, he is responsible for preparing answers, Rule 12 motions, and notices of removal, and as well as other dispositive and evidentiary pretrial motions and briefs. He also has experience handling appeals in the pelvic mesh litigation. including Salinero v. Johnson & Johnson, 995 F.3d 959 (11th Cir. 2021) (affirming summary judgment on failure to warn claim and rejecting “financial interest” exception to learned intermediary doctrine).

In addition to his product liability practice, he also defends Attorneys General consumer protection litigation for clients in a variety of industries at the trial and appellate level.

From 2013-2018, he clerked for Chief Justice William L. Waller of the Supreme Court of Mississippi. He also served as a legal writing adjunct professor at Mississippi College School of Law from 2013-2015.

Chad is the co-author of Mississippi Appellate Practice (MLI Press 2021) and the Appellate Practice & Procedure chapter of the Encyclopedia of Mississippi Law, and he frequently authors articles on litigation-related topics for Butler Snow’s Pro Te: Solutio.  He is a member of the Capital Area Bar Association, Mississippi Bar Association, American Bar Association and Jackson Young Lawyers.

He obtained his J.D., cum laude, from Mississippi College School of Law and B.S.B.A., with honors, from the University of Southern Mississippi. He is admitted to practice in Mississippi.

• Appellate Litigation: Chad has successfully defended medical device companies in appeals in the Eighth and Eleventh Circuits, including:
  • Kelly v. Ethicon, Inc., 2021 WL 4998930 (8th Cir. Oct. 28, 2021) (per curiam) (affirming summary judgment on statute of limitations grounds, and affirming district court’s decisions granting defendants leave to file supplemental summary judgment motion, denying plaintiffs’ post-judgment motions, and awarding litigation costs to defendants)
  • Salinero v. Johnson & Johnson, 995 F.3d 959 (11th Cir. 2021) (affirming summary judgment on failure to warn claim and rejecting “financial interest” exception to learned intermediary doctrine)
• Chad also has experience advising clients on Mississippi appellate practice and procedure and has handled interlocutory appeals and appeals of final judgments in Mississippi state court, including:
  • Blue v. State, 303 So. 3d 714 (Miss. 2020) (vacating defendant’s sentence as unlawful and remanding for resentencing) (pro bono)
  • Johnson & Johnson v. Fitch ex rel. State, No. 2019-IA-00033-SCT (Miss. Oct. 3, 2019) (granting petition for interlocutory appeal to review trial court’s denial of summary judgment in consumer protection action filed by Mississippi Attorney General)
• Trial Support
  • Jarrett v. Ethicon, Inc. and Johnson & Johnson, Case No. 4:20-CV-01517-BRW, U.S.D.C. (E.D. Ark.): Pelvic mesh product liability case; defense verdict, 2022. See “J&J Ethicon Unit Prevails In 2 Pelvic Mesh Trials,” Law360, October 13, 2022.

• Best Lawyers in America®
  • Ones to Watch, Commercial Litigation, 2021-2025
  • Ones to Watch, Health Care Law, 2021-2025
• Mississippi Bar Leadership Forum 2018
• Legal Writing Adjunct Professor, Mississippi College School of Law, 2013-2015

• Mississippi, 2013
• U.S. Court of Appeals
  • 6th Circuit
  • 7th Circuit
  • 8th Circuit
  • 11th Circuit
• U.S. Supreme Court

• Mississippi College School of Law, J.D., cum laude, 2013
  • Hearin Merit Scholar
  • National Order of Scribes
  • Associate Editor, Mississippi College Law Review
  • Board Member, Mississippi College Moot Court Board
• University of Southern Mississippi, B.S.B.A, International Business, with honors, 2010

• Clerkship, Chief Justice William L. Waller, Jr., Supreme Court of Mississippi, 2013-2018

• Capital Area Bar Association
• Mississippi Bar Association
  • Appellate Practice Section - Member at Large, 2023-2024
  • Health Law Section
  • Litigation Section
• American Bar Association
  • Health Law Section
  • Young Lawyers Section
• Jackson Young Lawyers

• Co-Author, Encyclopedia of Mississippi Law, Chapter 6, Appellate Practice & Procedure (ed. 2023).
•  Presenter, "Appellate Practice from the Advocate’s Perspective: Interlocutory Procedure and Preserving the Appellate Record," The Mississippi Bar's Ninth Annual Appellate Practice Spring CLE, May 13, 2022.
• Co-Author, Mississippi Appellate Practice (MLI Press 2021).
• Author, “The Impact of the FDA’s Denial of a Citizen Petition: Lessons from Cerveny v. Aventis, Inc.,” Pro Te: Solutio, Vol. 13 No. 1, April 2020.
• Author, “Express Preemption of Consumer Protection Actions: Preventing a Patchwork of State Drug and Device Regulations,” Pro Te: Solutio, Vol. 12 No. 2, June 2019.
• Author, “50 State Survey” Pro Te: Solutio, Vol. 12 No. 1, March 2019.
• Co-Author, A Bicentennial Review of Mississippi Supreme Court Practice and Procedure, 86 MISS. L. J. 689 (2017).
• Co-Author, A Bicentennial Review of Mississippi Supreme Court Practice and Procedure, THE MISSISSIPPI LAWYER, Fall 2017, at 2029.