For the last fifteen years, Lane Heard has devoted his time to the defense of mass tort pharmaceutical claims, with principal responsibility for coordinating the national defense: deploying the Williams & Connolly LLP team of lawyers, providing guidance to local counsel, supervising the legal research and writing, appearing monthly before the multidistrict judge, trying the bellwether case, and arguing the appeals.

Mr. Heard's practice over the past thirty years has involved an array of litigation matters, including the defense of medical malpractice, legal malpractice, libel, and commercial disputes, as well as the defense of individuals accused of murder, rape, and bribery. As counsel for plaintiffs, he has represented individuals, a group of Vietnamese orphans who survived the crash of their evacuation flight, and one of the corporate partners in a half-billion dollar dispute arising from the collapse of a reservations-system software development project.

Mr. Heard is a member of the Yale Divinity School Advisory Board, The School year Abroad board, and the vestry of St. Columba's Episcopal Church and serves as a literary executor of the Frank M. Johnson, Jr. papers at the Library of Congress. He is former president of the Kingsley Trust Association and past Chair of the Sidwell Friends School Board of Trustees.