Partner
Dallas
Tel: 1.214.969.3785
Fax: 1.214.969.5100
Email: sbmcdole@jonesday.com

Profile | Experience

Related Services

• Trial Practice
  • Alternative Dispute Resolution & Mediation
  • Insurance Coverage
  • Class Action Litigation
• International Litigation & Arbitration
• Product Liability & Tort Litigation
  • Class Action and Multidistrict Product Liability Litigation
  • Consumer Goods Product Liability Litigation
  • Pharmaceutical, Medical Device, and Other Health Care Product Liability Litigation
  • Toxic Tort Exposure Litigation (Chemical, Environmental, and Occupational)
  • Trial Experience in Product Liability Cases
• Insurance
• Oil & Gas
  • Oil & Gas Dispute Resolution

Sydney McDole has handled a wide variety of substantial business litigation matters involving multiple parties and complex issues. She has experience in insurance coverage, product liability, oil & gas, financial institutions, trademark and copyright infringement, maritime law, and major business disputes involving claims of commercial fraud, trade secrets, and breach of contract. She has handled cases involving highly technical issues such as the sale of tax benefits, take or pay contracts, computer software problems, and chemical waste. She has headed AAA and ICC arbitration matters in numerous commercial disputes. Sydney is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and has been named in the 2008 The Best Lawyers in America guide for product liability litigation.

Sydney worked for several years on an MDL matter in Chicago arising from the oil spill of the Amoco Cadiz off the coast of France.

With two other Jones Day Partners, she tried a major case in 1995 for a subsidiary of Hanson PLC (formerly Koppers Company) against Lloyd's of London in federal court in Pittsburgh for failure to provide insurance indemnification for toxic waste and personal injury claims. The jury awarded the client more than $70 million, which was the largest verdict at that time in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Sydney later successfully handled another major insurance coverage case for Occidental Chemical Corporation against several dozen insurance companies concerning groundwater contamination and personal injury claims related to Love Canal.

In 2000, she and two other Partners won a large jury verdict in a trademark case for Simon Property Group against an Internet company in federal court in Indianapolis.

In 2001, Sydney headed the defense team in Ballinger v. Brush Wellman, a product liability case involving chronic beryllium disease brought in Jefferson County District Court in Colorado. After a three-week trial, the jury returned a complete defense verdict for the client. This victory was dubbed "Verdict of the Week" by The National Law Journal in its July 16, 2001 edition and was later recognized by the same publication as one of the "Top 2001 Defense Verdicts" in its February 4, 2002 edition. This trial was also featured by The American Lawyer when it named Jones Day as "Litigation Department of the Year" in its January 2002 edition.

In 2003, Sydney and another Partner tried a complex adversary proceeding in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dallas against a former chairman of the board and majority shareholder of a company in bankruptcy, which resulted in a multimillion dollar award for the client as well as a verdict in the client's favor on a substantial counterclaim that had been asserted by the former chairman.

In 2005, she headed an arbitration under International Chamber of Commerce rules for a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corporation involving oil rights in Yemen. The case was bifurcated essentially into liability and damages phases. After a two-week hearing, the panel unanimously ruled in Occidental's favor on all liability issues. The dispute was settled in 2007 for $140 million before the damages phase was tried.

Since late 2005, Sydney has successfully headed the defense of multiple suits in Texas against a major, publicly traded residential mortgage loan servicer involving claims of fraud, wrongful foreclosure, and violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. These efforts included persuading the Texas Supreme Court to consolidate the state court cases in Dallas under the relatively new Texas MDL procedures.

Sydney is a member of the State Bar of Texas and the Illinois State Bar Association. She is admitted to practice before various federal district courts and courts of appeals as well as the United States Supreme Court. Sydney is the author of "Too Much Information: Does The Internet Affect Parties' Rights To Fair Trials?" Texas Lawyer, Vol. 17, No. 28 (September 17, 2001).

She oversees the Firm's New Lawyers Group.

Illinois and Texas

Vassar College (B.A. summa cum laude); Middlebury College (M.A.); Northwestern University (Editor-in-Chief, Law Review; Order of the Coif; J.D. magna cum laude)

French