About Virginia
Partner Virginia E. Anello was born and raised in Covington, Louisiana, and she is the manager of the firm’s New Orleans office. Ms. Anello attended Louisiana State University on an honors scholarship and graduated magna cum laude, earning a Bachelor of Science in Economics with a minor in Italian. She went on to attend the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at LSU, where she received her Juris Doctor and Bachelor of Civil Law Degrees.
Ms. Anello is admitted to practice law in Louisiana, New York, and Massachusetts. She is also admitted to practice law in the Eastern and Western Districts of Louisiana, the Eastern, Southern, and Northern Districts of New York, the District of Massachusetts, the Western and Eastern Districts of Arkansas, the Eastern District of Wisconsin, and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C.
Since earning her law degree, Ms. Anello has devoted her career to representing injury victims and consumers, primarily in mass tort and class actions. Her practice areas in the law have always focused on, and continue to focus on, products liability and complex litigation, with an emphasis on mass tort and consumer/business fraud litigation. Consistent with the firm’s philosophy, she is dedicated to ensuring that an underdog can be heard and that individuals and companies, big or small, are held accountable for their actions.
Ms. Anello joined Douglas & London in 2007 and has focused her work on representing individuals and government entities nationwide who have been injured as a result of defective products and corporate fraud.
Currently, Ms. Anello is actively involved in representing children and adolescents who have been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and fatty liver disease as a result of their chronic consumption of ultra-processed foods (“UPF”). It is alleged that UPF manufacturers engineered these products to be addictive and over-consumed, and aggressively marketed them to children and adolescents, while at the same time misrepresenting and concealing the severe metabolic health risks associated with them. Ms. Anello is filing cases in federal and state courts across the country.
Ms. Anello is also actively pursuing claims on behalf of individuals who have suffered from meningioma (a brain tumor) as a result of their ingestion of Depo-Provera. In March 2025, Ms. Anello was appointed by U.S. District Court Judge M. Casey Rodgers as a member of the Plaintiff Steering Committee in the action styled as In Re: Depo-Provera (Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate) Products Liability Litigation (MDL 3140), pending in the Northern District of Florida. This consolidated action involves hundreds of individual women claiming meningioma as a result of ingesting Depo-Provera. In her role as a Plaintiff Steering Committee member, Ms. Anello actively participates in pretrial discovery against the manufacturers of Depo-Provera. Recently, the parties agreed to a global settlement program which is in its early stages.
In January 2021, Ms. Anello was appointed by U.S. District Court Judge Brian Martinotti as co-lead counsel in the action styled as In Re: Elmiron (Pentosan Polysulfate Sodium) Products Liability Litigation (MDL 2973), pending in the District of New Jersey. This consolidated action involves hundreds of individual plaintiffs claiming severe eye injuries as a result of ingesting Elmiron to treat interstitial cystitis.
In her role as co-lead counsel, Ms. Anello has been involved in all aspects of pretrial discovery and management, the retention of experts, and motion practice, as well as the oversight of a Plaintiff Steering Committee of 24 other lawyers. We are pleased to report that this litigation has, for the most part, resolved through individual confidential settlements.
Ms. Anello is also representing individuals injured as a result of GLP-1RA drugs prescribed for either diabetes or weight loss (Ozempic, Wegovy, Rybelsus, Mounjaro, Zepbound). These drugs have been associated with serious gastrointestinal illnesses, including gastroparesis (stomach paralysis) and ileus (bowel obstruction), as well as a rare eye disorder called non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION). Ms. Anello is actively pursuing claims of individuals diagnosed with these injuries in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Ms. Anello is also actively involved in the firm’s vaccine litigation department, which she currently manages. Since 2007, she has represented children and adults who have been injured by vaccinations and has handled numerous cases in the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Many of these cases have settled or been successfully adjudicated on the merits within the Vaccine Program.
In addition, Ms. Anello works alongside firm partner, Michael A. London, in representing women who have been diagnosed with cancer as a result of their in utero exposure to the drug Diethylstilbestrol (‘DES’).
Ms. Anello also investigates and pursues defective medical device cases on an individual basis.
In addition to her work representing individuals, Ms. Anello also represents government entities and self-insured payors that were defrauded by pharmaceutical manufacturers, such as Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, and Sanofi, and pharmacy benefit managers, such as CVS, Express Scripts, and Optum. These major companies worked together to artificially inflate the price of insulin for almost a decade, which resulted in these government entities and self-funded payors (and consumers) paying higher prices than they should have for this life-saving medication.
Ms. Anello was appointed in December 2023 by U.S. District Court Judge Brian Martinotti as a member of the Plaintiff Executive Committee for the Self-Funded Payer Track in the action styled as In Re: Insulin Pricing Litigation (MDL 3080), pending in the District of New Jersey.
Before commencing her work as identified above, Ms. Anello was actively involved in multidistrict litigation involving the diabetic drug Invokana pending in the District Court of New Jersey, where she served on the science, law and briefing, and discovery committees.
In July 2017, Ms. Anello was just one of two lawyers asked to present at Science Day before Judge Martinotti, defense counsel, and other plaintiffs’ counsel from across the country about the then-current state of medical and scientific knowledge regarding Invokana, including how it works and how it causes the injuries alleged (diabetic ketoacidosis, acute kidney injury and amputations). This litigation ultimately resolved through individual confidential settlements.
Other nationwide pharmaceutical and medical device litigations in which Ms. Anello has been involved and worked on through settlement include those relating to the weight loss drug Belviq, the defective 3M combat arms earplugs, hip replacement systems (DePuy ASR, DePuy Pinnacle, Biomet M2A, Wright Conserve, and Stryker Rejuvenate), the adult Shingles vaccine Zostavax, the acid concentrate Granuflo, the prescription pain drug Vioxx, the Medtronic Sprint Fidelis Lead Wire,and contaminated Heparin.
Additionally, in her role in the Firm’s class action litigation department, Ms. Anello assists in all aspects of the firm’s class action work, including the firm’s class action against Bayer in which it was alleged that Bayer falsely represented to consumers that its over-the-counter combination aspirin drugs, Bayer Women’s Low Dose Aspirin + Calcium and Bayer with Heart Advantage delivered certain health benefits, which they, in fact, did not. Thanks to her hard work and dedication, as well as the firm’s, the Bayer combination aspirin class action settled for $15 million. Ms. Anello and Douglas & London are always investigating new class actions.
Ms. Anello is an active member of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association (NYSTLA), the Louisiana Association of Justice (LAJ), and the American Association of Justice (AAJ). Between 2014 and 2020, Super Lawyers selected Ms. Anello as a Rising Star in New York, and, in 2018, she was selected by Peer Recognition as one of the Best Lawyers in New York City as published in the Wall Street Journal. In 2021, Ms. Anello was selected as one of the Top Women Attorneys in New York.
Ms. Anello attributes her success to her parents, who raised her with a strong work ethic, did whatever they could to promote her thirst for knowledge, and instilled in her a sense of integrity to stand up for and protect those who cannot protect themselves.
