Roper

Beth practices in the firm’s Pharmaceutical, Medical Device and Healthcare Group and focuses her practice on appellate and written advocacy and drug and device litigation.

• Drug & Device Litigation
• Health Law
• Appellate & Written Advocacy
• Groundwater & Chemical Exposure Litigation
• Mass Torts

Pharmaceutical, Medical Device and Healthcare

Beth focuses her practice on mass torts, drugs and medical devices, and appellate matters. Her written advocacy successes include winning motions for summary judgment in federal courts in California, Maryland, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania, obtaining a significant attorney’s fee award in a medical device case in Florida, and successfully defending summary judgment victories on appeal in the Second and Fourth Circuits. She has also provided appellate support for trial teams in drug and device cases.

Aside from pharmaceutical litigation, she recently served as trial counsel in a medical malpractice bench trial and successfully defended a clean energy technology company in a conditional use permit appeal.

Beth obtained her J. D. from Vanderbilt University Law School, her B.A., summa cum laude, from Mississippi College, and her M.A. from Reformed Theological Seminary. She is admitted to practice in Florida and Mississippi. Prior to joining Butler Snow, she served as career law clerk to the Honorable William J. Zloch of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

• Appellate Litigation: Beth has successfully defended medical device companies in appeals in the Second and Fourth Circuits, including:
  • Perciballi v. Ethicon, Inc., 2022 WL 3147781 (2d Cir. Aug. 8, 2022) (affirming summary judgment on statute of limitations grounds)
  • Donalds v. Ethicon, Inc., 2023 WL 2446703 (4th Cir. Mar. 10, 2023) (affirming summary judgment on design defect claim) See “Ethicon and J&J Snag 4th Circ. Win in Pelvic Mesh Appeal,” Law360, March 10, 2023.
• Other Representative Matters: Beth has served as a key member of MDL and remand briefing teams in several MDLs, including the pelvic mesh MDL and an MDL concerning the sale of allegedly defective earplugs to the military, as well as drafting motions in other medical device cases.
  • Lampron v. Johnson & Johnson & Ethicon, Inc., 2020 WL 3452150 (D.N.H. June 24, 2020) (granting summary judgment and dismissing all remaining claims)
  • Ream v. Ethicon, Inc., 2020 WL 6889238 (M.D. Pa. Nov. 24, 2020) (granting motion for summary judgment)
  • Brennan v. Johnson & Johnson, 2022 WL 17219513 (C.D. Cal. Nov. 18, 2022) (granting motion for partial summary judgment and dismissing failure to warn claim and request for punitive damages)
  • Klinker v. Johnson & Johnson, 2023 WL 358923 (E.D. Cal. Jan. 23, 2023) (granting motion for summary judgment)
  • Cates v. Zeltiq Aesthetics, Inc., 2024 WL 3738823 (M.D. Fla. July 17, 2024) (awarding attorneys’ fees of over $600,000 based on an offer of judgment)
  • Lee Calderio-Lewis v. Ethicon, Inc., BER-L-15109-14 (MCL), In re Pelvic Mesh/Gynecare Litigation (Superior Court of New Jersey June 3, 2024) (granting summary on statute of limitations grounds)
• Trials
  • Provided on-site trial support in McBroom v. Ethicon, Inc., Case No. 2:20-cv-02127, U.S.D.C. (D. Ariz.): defense verdict in pelvic mesh product liability trial, 2022. See “J&J Wins Third Ethicon Pelvic Mesh Trial This Year,” Law.com, July 6, 2022.
  • Provided on-site appellate trial support in Benestad v. Ethicon, Inc., Case No. 0:20-cv-60496, U.S.D.C. (S.D. Fla.): defense verdict in pelvic mesh product liability trial, 2023. See “J&J and Ethicon Score Pelvic Mesh Trial Win in Fla.,” Law360, March 16, 2023.
  • Trial counsel in medical malpractice bench trial, Moore v. University of Mississippi Medical Center, 25CI1:20-cv-00090-DHG (May 12-14, 2025)

• BL Rankings, The Best Lawyers in America®
  • Ones to Watch, Health Care Law, 2021-2025

• Florida, 2012
• Mississippi, 2019
• U.S. District Courts
  • Mississippi: Northern, Southern
  • Florida: Northern, Middle, Southern
• U.S. Court of Appeals
  • 1st Circuit
  • 2nd Circuit
  • 4th Circuit
  • 6th Circuit
  • 11th Circuit

• Vanderbilt University Law School, J.D., 2012
  • Student Notes Editor, Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law
  • Grace Wilson Sims Medal in Transnational Law
• Reformed Theological Seminary, M.A., 2009
• Mississippi College, B.A., English and History, summa cum laude, 2007
  • Perry Academic Award in English
  • President Pro Tempore, Student Government Association Senate
  • Matthew E. Bradford Outstanding Senator of the Year

• Clerkship, Honorable William J. Zloch, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, 2012-2019

• Florida Bar Association
• Mississippi Bar Association
• Federal Bar Association
• Charles Clark American Inn of Court

• Co-Author, Encyclopedia of Mississippi Law, Chapter 25, Damages.
• Presenter, “Attorneys’ Fees: The American Rule, Exceptions, and Effective Recovery,” MyLawCLE, February 2025.
• Co-Author, "50 State Survey: Offers of Judgment Statutes and Rules," Pro Te: Solutio, Vol. 17, No. 2, July 2024.
• Author, "Tell the Best Story if You Want to Win: Ideas About Structure and Characters," Pro Te: Solutio, Vol. 16, No. 1, March 2023.
• Co-Author, “510(k) Evidence: A View of the Universe Outside of Pelvic Mesh,” Pro Te: Solutio, Vol. 13 No. 1, April 2020.
• Author, “Secular Crosses and the Neutrality of Secularism: Reflections on the Demands of Neutrality and its Consequences for Religious Symbols,” 45 Vand. J. Transnat’l L. 841, 2012.