Melissa Foster Bird
West Virginia
Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough
949 Third Avenue
Suite 200
Huntington, WV 25701
Tel: 304.526.3503
Email:
melissa.fosterbird@nelsonmullins.com
Web:
www.nelsonmullins.com
Melissa has served as lead trial counsel in more than 35 trials in state and federal courts in West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Virginia. Her experience includes representing clients in complex cases in the pharmaceutical, medical device, transportation, and chemical industries—including other manufacturers, retailers, and convenience stores—in some of the most difficult venues in the nation.
Experience
- Served as stand–up trial counsel for national medical device manufacturer in pelvic mesh trials, participating in discovery, de bene esse depositions, and trial strategy
- Deposed and defended fact witnesses, plaintiffs, treating physicians, and experts in depositions for pelvic mesh multidistrict litigation
- Deposed plaintiffs, fact witnesses, and treating physicians in hormone therapy (HRT) litigation
- Took evidentiary depositions of treating physicians for use in cholesterol drug trials
- Experience in workplace sexual harassment and retaliatory termination
- Experience in railroad defense litigation, products liability, premises liability, professional malpractice, and toxic tort cases
- Published in the areas of privacy and media law
- Taught seminars in the areas of effective motion practice, expert witness direct and cross examination, trial practice and tactics, and scientific research concerning cumulative trauma disorders
Representative Cases
- Defended claim of employer negligently assigning worker to tasks knowing they were beyond his physical restrictions
- Defended allegation of sexual harassment and retaliatory discharge, emotional distress, libel, slander, and defamation
- Defended claim of a disabling back injury during the course of heavy industrial work and claim that tools and methods provided by employer created a unsafe work environment
- In a Mingo County, West Virginia case, defended allegation of cumulative trauma injuries during work due to the unsafe manner in which he was asked to perform his job
- Recipient of the 2019 Women Worth Watching Leadership Award from the Profiles in Diversity Journal
- Benchmark Litigation
- “Future Star” (2018–2021)
- West Virginia “Labor & Employment Star” (2022)
- The Nelson Mullins Sara Turnipseed “Women on the Go” Award recognizing promotion of opportunity and success for women attorneys (2017)
- Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, Litigation: General Commercial – West Virginia (2011–2014, 2018–2023)
- The Legal 500: U.S. Edition, litigation practice (2011–2015); Dispute Resolution: Product liability, mass tort, and class action – defense: Toxic Tort (2021)
- The Best Lawyers in America®, Railroad Law (2012–2023)
- Lawyer of the Year in Charleston, W. Va. for Railroad Law (2013)
- Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers
- Faculty, litigation trial school, National Association of Railroad Trial Counsel
- DRI—The Voice of the Defense Bar
- National Association of Railroad Trial Counsel
- Defense Trial Counsel of West Virginia
- Fellow, Litigation Counsel of America
- Served as a volunteer for the Huntington Museum of Art Capital Campaign, the United Way of the River Cities, the State Scholars Initiative, and the West Virginia Civil Liberties Union
- Involved in Andrew’s Buddies/FightSMA, an organization that raises funds for research in the area of Spinal Muscular Atrophy
Nelson Mullins is a diversified law firm of more than 1,000 attorneys, policy advisors, and professionals across 33 offices serving clients in more than 100 practice areas.
- Our litigators are trial lawyers, serving Fortune 200 clients, litigating high-stakes matters, and participating on national and virtual trial teams.
- Our corporate and transactional teams provide high quality corporate, securities, finance, venture capital, commercial real estate, real estate capital markets, and technology services.
- Our government relations team serves clients at the federal, state and local levels and includes former high-ranking government officials.
- Our intellectual property group has been recognized nationally for IP litigation and provides a full-range of IP services for clients across industry sectors.
- Our Nelson Mullins Encompass team is a dedicated practice group that provides integrated e-discovery and information governance services to clients on a flexible and scalable basis, serving as Enterprise E-Discovery Counsel for Fortune 200 clients and empowering focused and defensible strategies with law firm accountability.
Together, we serve as trusted advisors to clients across a range of business sectors with client relationship fundamentals of quality, dependability, solution-oriented service and value.