Diana Cole Surprenant

Diana Cole Surprenant focuses on product liability and toxic tort litigation, representing clients in state and federal courts, including in multidistrict litigation. Her clients work across the oil and gas, construction, manufacturing, agricultural, hospitality, health care and pharmaceutical sectors. She leads Adams & Reese’s Products Liability Team.

Diana’s litigation practice also includes defending health care providers in medical malpractice suits. She has an active post-trial motion and appellate practice, drafting briefs arising from toxic tort and medical malpractice litigation and seeking emergency supervisory writs in Louisiana appellate courts. At trial, she draws on that appellate experience to preserve objections.

In a separate area of her practice, Diana advises employers in state and federal litigation, arbitration and administrative proceedings, including matters before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Louisiana Commission on Human Rights. Her experience also includes proceedings before other administrative agencies.

Earlier in her career, Diana clerked for Judge Jay C. Zainey of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. She is a member of the International Association of Defense Counsel and serves on the board of the New Orleans Chapter of the Federal Bar Association. She also serves on the New Orleans Labor & Employment Law CLE Committee, which offers continuing legal education seminars in labor and employment law.

Within Adams & Reese, Diana co-chairs ARROW, the firm’s Advancement, Recruitment, and Retention of Women program, which provides mentorship and professional development resources for female attorneys. Her community involvement includes the Young Friends of St. Andrew’s Village, an organization supporting people with special needs, and the Homeless Experience Legal Protection program, through which she provides legal consultation and notary services.

• Represented an American multinational pharmaceutical company against a claim in connection with allegedly defective breast implants.
• Represented an American multinational healthcare company regarding allegedly defective dialysis solution.
• Currently advising two retailer-owned companies that service independent retail grocers in a matter involving allegedly defective phenylephrine medications.
• Currently representing a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company in a matter in connection with Nexium alleging gastric cancer.

• The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, J.D. | 2010
• Colby College, B.A. | 2007

• "Leadership in Law" - New Orleans CityBusiness, 2023

• "The Antithetical Definition of Personal Seizure: Filling the Supreme Court Gap in Analyzing Section 1983 Excessive-Force Claims Arising After Arrest and Before Pretrial Detention", 59 CATH. U. L. REV. 493 (2010).
• "The Emerging Battlefield: Should the Use of a Nonmonotonic, Non-Threshold Dose-Response Curve for Alleged Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals Survive a Daubert/Frye Challenge?", Co-author, 80 Def. Couns. J. 45 (2013).
• "Current Regulatory and Liability Issues for Drug Compounding, DRI: For the Defense", Co-author(Sept. 2013).