Stephen A. Sheller has served as the founding member of Sheller, P.C., a renowned plaintiff’s legal practice in the United States, since 1977. In a variety of cases, including but not limited to class actions, consumer protection, mass tort litigation, complex catastrophic personal injury, consumer product liability, pharmaceutical and medical device products injury, and whistleblower/qui tam litigation, Mr. Sheller and his firm represent clients nationwide.
In high-profile, nationwide litigation, Mr. Sheller has played a key role, acting as the lawyer representing insiders in the pharmaceutical sector who have accused others of malfeasance. He has played a key role in helping the US government recover damages totaling over $6.4 billion. Notably, Mr. Sheller reached settlements with Astellas Pharma in April 2014 for $7.3 million and Shire Pharmaceuticals for $58.9 million in September of the same year. AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson reached a $2.2 billion settlement in 2013, AstraZeneca and Pfizer Inc. reached a $520 million settlement in 2010, Pfizer Inc. and Eli Lilly & Company reached a $2.3 billion settlement in 2009, and Eli Lilly & Company and Johnson & Johnson reached a $1.4 billion settlement in 2009. These are all precedent-setting agreements. In these historic cases, Mr. Sheller served as the primary attorney and was instrumental in securing four of the top eight civil and criminal whistleblower settlements in American history. He is still in the vanguard of advocating for whistleblowers today and is renowned as one of the nation’s leading authorities on qui tam whistleblower and False Claims Act cases.
Representing clients who have suffered injury as a result of dangerous medications has become Mr. Sheller’s life’s work. His dedication to helping kids who have been hurt by antipsychotic medications was highlighted in a program on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. He has also brought legal actions in Pennsylvania and New Jersey on behalf of hundreds of clients who have been harmed by the antipsychotic medications Risperdal® and Invega® nationwide.
Trial Lawyers for Public Justice named Mr. Sheller a finalist for the Trial Lawyer of the Year Award in 2003. This resulted from his innovative effort in developing a legal plan to deal with the fraud present in lite cigarettes and the related litigation. Due to this creative solution to the problem, Phillip Morris was found to be liable for $10.1 billion. Since then, many states across the United States have used Mr. Sheller’s tactics as a model. At the winter 2011 American Association for Justice conference, the Tobacco Control Resource Center presented him with the “Pioneer Award” for his groundbreaking work in this field.
Mr. Sheller filed a case in Palm Beach County, Florida, in the month of November 2000. The butterfly ballots used in the 2000 American Presidential Election were the subject of this case. Due to his position as a key legal representative in the disagreement over the election results in Bush v. Gore, Mr. Sheller was widely covered in both national and local media as a result of this legal action. The ballots used in Broward and Palm Beach Counties, according to Mr. Sheller’s contention, violated the Constitution, which in turn interfered with the citizens’ ability to vote.