Practice Overview
M. Michelle Carreras is a Senior Attorney in the Issues and Appeals section of The Lanier Law Firm, where she serves as the firm’s lead legal researcher and briefing strategist on its most significant national litigation. Her work spans complex appeals, MDL trial briefing, and legal research across mass tort, products liability, pharmaceutical, and business litigation matters. For nearly seven years, she has played a central role in one of the largest civil litigations in American history — the national opioid MDL — and has contributed to trial teams that have secured combined verdicts exceeding $6 billion.
Personal Background
Prior to joining the Lanier Law Firm, she spent six years as an associate at a prominent Texas defense firm, where her efforts were focused primarily on bankruptcy-related litigation and environmental litigation matters.
Ms. Carreras lives in Houston, with her husband, and enjoys traveling, cooking, reading, and art.
Representative Cases
Since joining the Issues and Appeals section in 2009, Ms. Carreras has served as lead briefer and legal strategist on the firm’s highest-profile matters, including mass tort, products liability, pharmaceutical, and business litigation.
Representative Cases — Pinnacle Hip Implant MDL
Key member of the firm’s bellwether trial team that obtained jury verdicts in favor of the plaintiffs in MDL 2244, In re: DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., Pinnacle Hip Implant Products Liability Litigation, resulting from injuries caused by the “Pinnacle” metal-on-metal hip implants sold by Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary, DePuy Orthopaedics.
In addition to the trials, Ms. Carreras led the appellate teams that handled the appeals from the Aoki and Metzler Pinnacle trials, successfully obtaining favorable rulings from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on critical legal issues including personal jurisdiction and parent corporation liability. The 11-year Pinnacle litigation ultimately resulted in a global settlement by Johnson & Johnson.
Representative Cases — Talc / Ingham
Member of the trial team that obtained jury verdicts totaling $4.7 billion in favor of twenty-two plaintiffs in Ingham, et al. v. Johnson & Johnson, et al., Cause No. 1522-CC10417-01, resulting from personal injuries caused by Johnson & Johnson’s asbestos-contaminated talc products. The cases were consolidated for trial in the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis, Missouri.
Representative Cases — Opioid MDL
Lead briefer for the Law & Briefing team in MDL 2804, In re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio — one of the largest civil litigations in American history, which has produced approximately $70 to $80 billion in cumulative global settlements. Ms. Carreras has worked on the opioid MDL for nearly seven years, representing the interests of local governmental entities — cities and counties devastated by the opioid epidemic — in claims against manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies, and, most recently, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs).
She served as lead briefer on the firm’s bellwether trial against CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart, in which the jury found those pharmacies liable for causing a public nuisance in Lake and Trumbull Counties, Ohio, through their improper dispensing of prescription opioids. Following that verdict, all three pharmacy defendants entered into global settlements. Ms. Carreras currently leads the firm’s briefing work on the next phase of the litigation: claims against pharmacy benefit managers, with fact discovery concluding in 2026 and remand to New York federal courts for trial anticipated thereafter.
Representative Cases — Google Antitrust
Member of the firm’s litigation team in antitrust claims against Google, working alongside firm founder Mark Lanier.
Community and Professional Activities
- Member of the Texas Bar Foundation
- Texas Trial Lawyers Association
- Published author in The Legal 500: Country Comparative Guide on Product Liability (multiple editions).
- Former member of the State Bar of Texas District 4-F Grievance Committee, where she presided over disciplinary proceedings against attorneys in Harris County.
- Mentors younger associates in the firm’s Issues and Appeals section, providing trial-level training during active MDL proceedings.