Candace is a partner in the firm’s Environmental and Mass Tort Litigation department. Her practice involves representation of corporate defendants in high exposure, complex cases in state and federal courts throughout the country as well as advising on insurance recovery matters for corporate clients.
Candace has tried several cases to verdict in numerous jurisdictions including Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Puerto Rico. Candace’s diverse trial experience includes significant personal injury, product liability and intentional tort cases, toxic exposure matters, and breach of contract actions.
Candace has significant experience in the medical, energy, and automotive industries. She defends medical device manufacturers and distributors in litigation across the country involving surgical and non-surgical products. Candace handles environmental nuisance allegations as well as environmental groundwater contamination cases. She has been retained to defend companies against negligence claims as well as consumer product and fraud allegations. She serves as advisor for nationwide litigation which includes discussions about risk mitigation and/or avoidance, preparing corporate witnesses for depositions and trials, ensuring consistency in motion practice and developing trial strategies. In addition, Candace has represented automotive manufacturers against claims involving electronic stability control, seats, seat belts, and restraints for small occupants and children.
In addition, Candace has managed litigation for national and multi-district matters. She coordinated discovery in a recreational vehicle MDL and has served as national coordinating discovery counsel for a transportation networking company; and national coordinating counsel/trial monitoring counsel for a transportation company. Currently, Candace serves as national coordinating counsel for a transportation company and national product liability counsel for a medical device company.
Experience
- Serve as national product liability counsel for Fortune 500 medical device company.
- Represent Fortune 500 companies in product liability, nuisance MTBE litigation and insurance recovery actions.
- Serve as trial counsel in matters involving significant injuries to children and/or wrongful death.
- Represent and serve as trial counsel for company involving claims of intentional tort and fraud.
- Served as national discovery and coordinating counsel and monitoring trial counsel for a Fortune 50 transportation company.
- Represent a Fortune 1000 company in breach of contract action.
- Served as monitoring counsel on behalf of a technology company regarding the handling of sensitive personal injury actions by panel counsel.
- Prepare and defend corporate representatives and employees in product liability, consumer product and significant exposure litigation.
- Represented Fortune 500 companies in breach of warranty and consumer protection actions.
- Coordinated document collection and review of electronic and hard copy materials and negotiate preservation order for Fortune 500 company in multidistrict litigation.
- Served as national coordinating counsel for transportation network company.
- University of Virginia School of LawJD1996
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University of RichmondBA
cum laude
1993
Chair, McGuireWoods African American Lawyers Network, 2014-2023
Chair, VSB Diversity Conference Board of Governors, 2023-2024
Chair, International Association of Defense Attorneys Environmental and Energy Committee, 2017-2019
Faculty, International Association of Defense Attorneys 48th Annual Trial Academy, 2022
Member, Commercial Law Section, National Bar Association
Adjunct Professor, University of Richmond School of Law, Spring 2016-2019
- Speaker, Expert Testimony and the New Rule 702: Strategy and Implications, March 14, 2024
- Panelist, "Offensive Strategies in MDL," ABA Litigation Section, Women in Products Liability Regional CLE Program, October 2022
- Faculty and Team Coach, ABA Litigation Section, Stanford University, July-August 2022
- Presenter, "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: ESG Litigation Risks," ESG: What Companies Need to Know, January 26, 2022
- Speaker, "Rebound & Reinvention: How to Build Success on Past Disappointments, Hurts, and Failures," Renewable Energy in Virginia, Corporate Counsel Women of Color, September 30, 2020
- Panelist, "Employment Best Practices – Improving Diversity in the Legal Profession Through Hiring and Retention," VSB Annual Forum on Diversity in the Legal Profession, November 2018
- Panelist, "5 Effective Ways to Manage the Crisis that Derives from a Product Gone Wrong," CCWC, October 2018
- Panelist, "Peak Behind the Partnership Veil," National Bar Association Commercial Law Section Corporate Counsel Conference, February 2016
- Panelist, "Expert Witnesses: Considerations in Federal & State Court," Richmond Bar Association Bench Bar Conference, October 2015
- Speaker, "Piercing the Corporate Veil: The Pursuit and Defense of Shareholders’ Individual Assets," Virginia CLE, March 2015
- Speaker, "Plenary Session: Put Me In, Coach: Why Diversity Translates Into a Winning Team," 2015 Corporate Counsel CLE Seminar, February 2015
- Panelist, "Sister 2 Sister: Becoming Our Best Selves," Mid-Atlantic Black Law Student Association’s 2015 Regional Convention, 2015 Corporate Counsel CLE Seminar, February 2015
- Virginia
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
- U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia
Selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America, Product Liability Litigation – Defendants, Woodward/White, Inc., 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
Selected for inclusion in “Legal 500 United States,” Product Liability, Mass Tort and Class Actions – Automotive/Transport – Defense, 2021, 2022; Product Liability, Mass Tort and Class Actions –Consumer Products – Defense, 2022, 2023; Product Liability, Mass Tort and Class Actions – Defense: Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices, 2022-2024; Product Liability, Mass Tort and Class Actions: Toxic Tort – Defense, 2022, 2023; Environment: Litigation, 2022; Insurance: Advice to Policyholders, 2023, 2024; Transport: rail and road – litigation and regulation, 2025
Named to “Go To Lawyers: Negligence Law,” Virginia Lawyers Weekly, 2024
Named to “Influential Women of Law,” Virginia Lawyers Weekly, 2023
Named to “Legal Elite,” Environmental Law, 2015, 2017, 2019-2023; Civil Litigation, 2024, Virginia Business
Virginia Law Foundation, Fellows Class of 2020
- Author, "Class Actions: A Look at Past, Present, and Future Trends," Inside the Minds Series - Recent Trends in Class Action Lawsuits: Leading Lawyers on Overcoming Challenges in the Certification Process and Analyzing the Impact of Supreme Court Decisions, 2015
- Co-author, "Recruitment and Retention as a Form of Marketing," Inside the Minds Series – Recruiting Top Legal Talent, 2010