NEW YORK — Pfizer Inc. has announced that Bradley E. Lerman will join the company as senior vice president, litigation. Lerman, who will be responsible for leading the company’s litigation efforts, will report to Senior Vice President and General Counsel Amy W. Schulman.

Since 1998, Lerman has served as a litigation partner at Winston & Strawn LLP in Chicago, where he concentrated his practice in white-collar defense, product liability and securities litigation matters. During his tenure, he served as lead counsel for McDonald's Corporation in the recent wave of obesity litigation, as well as representing Phillip Morris USA Inc. in smoking and health care litigation.

Before joining Winston & Strawn, Lerman was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Illinois for eight years. Lerman graduated summa cum laude from Yale University in 1978 and received his law degree cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1981.

Founded in 1849, Pfizer is the world's largest research-based pharmaceutical with more than 80,000 colleagues in more than 90 countries.