Alan B. Friedberg (Senior Counsel-White Plains, NY) and Nicole Holland (Of Counsel-White Plains, NY) represented a plastic surgeon who had performed an abdominoplasty and abdominal wall reconstruction component separation procedure on the plaintiff in 2013. The plaintiff had lost 100 pounds as the result of gastric bypass surgery resulting in a large abdominal pannus. The plaintiff claimed that the component separation portion of the procedure was contraindicated, and resulted in weakening of her abdominal wall, and excessive scarring that caused both physical deformity and mental anguish. Through cross-examination by Nicole, the plaintiff was forced to admit that the claimed mental anguish resulted in no treatment over the past decade as she was concerned psychological treatment may have jeopardized her employment as a corrections officer. Nonetheless, she testified to significant social and psychological issues due to her mental anguish. Through cross-examination of the plaintiff’s expert, Alan was able to show that while the expert claimed the abdominal wall was weakened and made more susceptible to herniation, and the resulting scarring was excessive, the expert had written a book in 1998 in which he described similar scarring as to be expected from the procedure. The plaintiff’s counsel argued that our client failed to document the basis for the component separation portion of the operation, but Alan and Nicole were able to show that the risk of 40 percent recurrence as brought out by our expert and the use of clinical judgment by our client, were an appropriate basis on which the procedure was performed. The jury rendered a unanimous verdict in an hour.