Hassia Diolombi
Partner – Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP
Description of field of expertise
Hassia Diolombi is a partner in Shook, Hardy & Bacon’s Product Liability Practice Group. Hassia’s practice involves defending Fortune 500 clients in complex litigation across a variety of industries and fields, concentrating on cases involving mass torts and class action product liability claims and employment litigation matters, from EEOC claim investigations through trial preparation of diverse employment matters. Her experience includes handling and managing cases from the filing of initial pleadings, through discovery, trial and post-trial practice.
Hassia is also a selected trial counsel for several firm clients and is able to identify and develop successful pre-trial and trial case strategy, including strategically positioning cases for dismissal or early resolution or settlement.
Notably, Hassia currently serves as one of several lead trial counsel for Philip Morris USA in tobacco litigation currently pending throughout the state of Florida. For nearly two decades, she has assisted with the firm’s defense of Philip Morris USA in smoking and health cases pending in numerous jurisdictions.
Before joining Shook, Hassia represented Fortune 500 companies and government entities in a diverse range of matters, including litigation involving national, multidistrict class action lawsuits involving RICO, antitrust and consumer fraud issues; labor and employment law disputes; and a broad spectrum of general contractual corporate and partnership disputes involving derivative lawsuits, franchise agreement disputes, and financial and reorganizational business matters.
What advice would you offer to new attorneys interested in your field?
New lawyers who dream of becoming trial lawyers should stay hungry to learn and expand their knowledge-base. One never knows where a career will take one, but staying up to date on current events, fueling your passions, and engaging with the world at large, even simple conversations with strangers while waiting for a cup of coffee, can give you the type of real-word perspective and insight that informs cases and one’s ability to connect and engage with jurors.
Final thoughts…
Our profession is, unfortunately, overly adversarial at every level at times. This has meant that the best advice I ever got in my practice that translates well to everything I do is simply to have fun with what I’m doing. Making sure to have fun fuels my creativity in approaching case strategy without being uptight and blindsided by being too rigid and not seeing new ways to resolve cases. It also allows me to relax and focus on what’s truly important to advancing my client’s needs and achieving positive results for those clients.