Leslie Benitez Bio

Leslie Benitez is a partner in Gordon & Rees’ Drug & Medical Device and Tort & Product Liability practice groups, representing clients in statewide and national litigation. She has spent over 30 years representing pharmaceutical companies in a wide variety of products liability litigation and mass torts around the nation. She has acted as national coordinating counsel on legal issues in nationwide mass tort litigations as well as working seamlessly with national coordinating counsel in prescription drug mass torts, including one litigation involving diet drugs for over 10 years. She also has handled individual products liability cases for a diverse range of products that includes prescription and over-the-counter drugs, talc used in cosmetic products, cosmetics, child safety seats, farm equipment, automobiles and their components, and has defended health care liability claims against health care facilities. She has extensive motion and appellate experience in product liability and tort cases involving chemical and toxic exposures, and has coordinated legal defenses of her clients at trial and on appeal. She has argued in the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Courts of Appeal, and Texas appeals courts. She is well known as a legal strategist in complex motion practice and error preservation in litigation and at trials. Prior to entering private practice, Ms. Benitez served as General Counsel to the Governor of Texas. She also served as Assistant Attorney General for the State of Texas, where she was Chief of the Law Enforcement Division. She also served as a Briefing and Research Attorney for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.