Sylvie Gallage-Alwis

Signature Litigation - Product Liability Defence

Profile

Sylvie Gallage-Alwis is both an Avocat à la Cour in France and a Solicitor in England & Wales.

After 10 years practicing in a major international law firm, Sylvie became one of the founding partners of the Paris office of Signature Litigation and heads its product liability practice. She specialises in all cutting-edge complex disputes linked to products, namely product liability, product safety, toxic tort, mass litigation/class action, regulatory compliance, and environment.

Sylvie has 15 years’ experience in all ranges of product-related litigation. She represents a variety of globally recognised manufacturers from industries such as automotive, electronic products, cosmetics, new technologies, steel, energy, food, toys, etc.

She is further known in the French market as a leading toxic tort / mass litigation lawyer. As such, she has been involved in most pro-company case law rendered in recent years, notably in asbestos-related and various chemical-exposure related cases, with some cases mentioned in the French Civil and Social Security Codes because of the significant reversal in case law they represent.

Sylvie is involved in some of the most innovative litigation of the French market: dieselgate, planned obsolescence, climate change litigation, anxiety to develop a disease in the future, online marketplaces’ status, reparability/durability of products, sustainability claims, etc. Her team is assisting a number of clients in the scope of the launch of products for which there are no specific regulations yet, helping them navigate and use to their advantage the existing regulatory landscape.

Sylvie is an active member of the International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC) and Association of Defense Trial Attorneys (ADTA). These memberships allow her to be at the forefront of the legal risks faced by companies in the United States, helping her assisting her clients to foresee and anticipate such risks when they are introduced by plaintiffs’ Counsel in the European Union and France (e.g. class actions, PFAS, water & air pollution, fertilizer-related claims).