Mary E. Bartkus served as Executive Director and Senior Counsel, International Litigation for Merck & Co., Inc. She has represented Merck in matters before government agencies, courts and other tribunals throughout the world in product liability, antitrust, and other complex matters including international arbitration, class, representative, group and cross-border litigation. She also served as Merck’s lead counsel on pharmaceutical in-licensing transactions and on joint venture and licensing relationships; and as lead in-house counsel on an international multi-jurisdictional joint venture transaction and on the defense and implementation of a pharmaceutical inventory management system in the European Union. Mary is a Master of the Bench of the John C. Lifland American Inn of Court, an Inn focused on intellectual property and federal practice, served as a Director of the Inn from 2019-2023, and is a member of the Inn’s Executive Board. She also is a member of the panel of arbitrators of the International Centre for Dispute Resolution, the international division of the American Arbitration Association, and a member of the AAA’s Life Sciences Panel. Before joining Merck in 1995, Mary was in private practice, concentrating on intellectual property, unfair competition, business tort, and other complex litigation in the federal courts. Please see Mary’s CV here.
Highlighted Publications and Presentations
Bartkus, Mary E., Lecture, International Business Transactions: Dispute Avoidance and Resolution, Emory University School of Law, for International Business Transactions, April 16, 2024
Unlocking the Power of Dispute Resolution in Life Sciences, Panelist, AAA-ICDR Life Sciences Conference, New York, December 7, 2023
Collective Litigation in Europe: Law and Practice (Mary E. Bartkus, Magdalena Tulibacka, István Varga & Stefaan Voet eds., Juris forthcoming 2024)
Bartkus, Mary E., Lecture, International Business Transactions: Dispute Avoidance and Resolution, Emory University School of Law, for International Business Transactions, April 18, 2023
Bartkus, Mary E., Do Collective Redress Mechanisms Deliver Justice? in Delivering Justice: A Holistic and Multidisciplinary Approach, Liber Amicorum in Honour of Christopher Hodges (Hart Publishing 2022)
The EU Collective Redress Directive, MedTech Conference, Boston, Panelist, October 25, 2022.
Bartkus, Mary E., Lecture, International Business Transactions: Dispute Avoidance and Resolution, Emory University School of Law, for International Business Transactions, April 13, 2022
Women in Leadership, Wilmer Eye Institute, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Program Panelist, February 17, 2022
Arbitrating Domestic and International Life Science Disputes, AAA-ICDR Webinar for CCBJ, Program Speaker, December 6, 2021
Bartkus, Mary E., Lecture, Multijurisdictional Litigation in the European Union, Emory University School of Law, August 23, 2021
Quo Vadis Civil Justice? Filling the Gaps in Civil Justice in the U.S. and Europe, Rethinking and Redesigning Civil Justice Systems – What Works and Why?
Emory University School of Law and The University of Oxford’s Centre for Socio-legal Studies Swiss Re Programme for Civil Justice Systems, Program Panelist, May 28, 2021
Bartkus, Mary E., Lecture, Multijurisdictional Litigation in the European Union, Emory University School of Law, for EU Law II: Global Impact of EU Law, April 8, 2021
Bartkus, Mary E., Practitioner’s Perspective, Tilburg University Faculty of Law, for Global Law Program Final Essay Seminar, Winter 2021
Bartkus, Mary E., Dispute Resolution Provisions in Life Sciences Agreements, 75:2 Disp. Resol. J. 1 (Nov. 2020), Available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3695...
Life Science Arbitration Clauses, Drafting Trends and Options, AAA-ICDR Program Speaker, September 23, 2020
Bartkus, Mary E., Lecture, Multijurisdictional Litigation in the European Union, Emory University School of Law, EU Law Seminar, August 26, 2020
Bartkus, Mary E., US Pandemic Litigation, Presentation to the European Justice Forum at its Annual Members Meeting, June 10, 2020
Bartkus, Mary. E., Evolving Roles and Responsibilities of Multinational Businesses, Workshop Presentation, March 3, 2020, The International Order Under Scrutiny: Lecture and Workshop, Foundation for Law, Justice and Society, Wolfson College, University of Oxford, March 2-3, 2020
Bartkus, Mary E., Do International Bellwethers Exist?
Presentation for IADC 2020 Midyear Meeting Program, February 26, 2020
Bartkus, Mary E., Lecture on Multijurisdictional Product Litigation in the European Union, Emory University School of Law, for EU Law II: the Global Impact of EU Law, February 13, 2020
Bartkus, Mary E., Defending International Multijurisdictional Class Litigation, Presentation to the IADC International Committee, January 29, 2020
Bartkus, Mary E., Nine Lectures on the History of the Global Vioxx Litigation, Eötvös Loránd University Faculty of Law, Budapest, Fall Semester 2019
New York Arbitration Week, AAA-ICDR International Arbitration Program Speaker, The In-House Counsel’s Roundtable – International Arbitration, November 21, 2019
Bartkus, Mary E., Lectures on the History of the Global Vioxx Litigation, Eötvös Loránd University Faculty of Law, Budapest, Fall Semester 2019
New York Arbitration Week, AAA-ICDR International Arbitration Program Speaker, The In-House Counsel’s Roundtable – International Arbitration, November 2019
Bartkus, Mary E., Policy Brief, The Social Cost of Pharmaceutical Mass Tort Litigation (July 5, 2019), The Foundation for Law, Justice and Society, at Wolfson College, University of Oxford
Bartkus, Mary E., The Cost to Society of Pharmaceutical Mass Tort Litigation, lecture for the Foundation for Law, Justice and Society at Wolfson College, University of Oxford, on June 11, 2019. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3402...
Arbitrating Domestic and International Life Sciences Disputes, Moderator, Fireside Chat: The In-House Perspective on Arbitrating Life Sciences Disputes, May 1, 2019, Philadelphia PA.
The New Hungarian Arbitration Act from the Perspective of a US International Dispute Resolution Practitioner, paper presented at Hungary’s New Arbitration Law in an International Context, ELTE Law, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, January 2019
Six Class Action Lawsuits for 16 Microliters, Bartkus, Mary E. and Jampel, Henry D., Ophthalmology Glaucoma, Issue 2, pp. 85-87 (September – October 2018), available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ogla.2018.05.006
Bartkus, Mary E., Six Class Actions for 16 Microliters: Eye Drop Litigation Reopens in New Jersey, Is Dismissed in Massachusetts, and Is on Appeal to the First Circuit. Hedging and Forum Shopping. A Media Rush to Judgment. (February 13, 2018). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3123337
Injunctions, in “New Jersey Federal Civil Procedure,” and annual supplements, New Jersey Law Journal Books, 1999 – 2014
Globalization of Class Actions with Products at the Forefront, International Association of Defense Counsel Mid-Year Meeting, Program Speaker, February 2012
Competition Policy in the Pharmaceutical Sector, Article 82 EC: Can It Be Applied To Control Sales by Pharmaceutical Manufacturers to Wholesalers?, with Lawyers Working Group, published by European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, November 2004
Highlighted Activities, Recognitions, and Appointments
The John C. Lifland American Inn of Court, Master of the Bench; Co-Director (2019-2023)
The Johns Hopkins University Wilmer Eye Institute Board of Governors
European Justice Forum
AAA-ICDR Life Sciences Advisory Committee
International Bar Association
International Arbitration Club of New York
Court Admissions
United States Supreme Court
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
Rutgers University School of Law, J.D., 1980, Adjutant Law Clerk to United States District Judge H. Curtis Meanor, United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, Spring and Summer 1979
Kean College of New Jersey, B.A., 1977, Magna cum laude