Since its inception, the Firm has been heavily involved in the defense of
toxic torts and products liability claims. In addition to defending individual
products liability suits, we have experience in handling nationwide toxic tort
and products liability problems for several major chemical, health care products,
and building products manufacturers, including class action claims and suits
consolidated for coordinated pre-trial preparation by the Judicial Panel on
Multidistrict Litigation.
When we began our practice in 1985, we served as national counsel in asbestos
litigation for National Gypsum Company. Our senior litigators' experience in
antitrust and securities litigation was instrumental in developing and implementing
a nationwide defense strategy both for individual cases and for national and
statewide class actions:
- Our
attorneys developed and coordinated the defense of these claims, marshaling the
facts contained in millions of documents concerning the company's involvement
with asbestos decades earlier and implementing procedures for responding accurately
and efficiently to discovery. We also developed a brief bank and shared basic
research with local counsel across the country to eliminate duplicative research
efforts.
- As
national coordinating counsel, we developed an in-depth familiarity with class
action litigation in both state and federal courts nationwide. We directed the
company's defense in four nationwide class actions filed on behalf of elementary
and secondary schools, colleges and universities, lessors of federal buildings,
and hospitals. We also directed the defense of several statewide class actions
in the asbestos property damage litigation on behalf of homeowners, public buildings
and schools.
- We
appeared before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation in connection
with motions for coordinated pretrial treatment of both the personal injury and
property damage litigations.
- We
developed a corporate position for our client designed to appeal to a jury, and
selected and developed a company witness to tell the story through depositions
and in trial testimony to juries across the country.
- By
mastering complex and rapidly evolving medical and scientific knowledge,
we developed a cutting-edge technical defense that proved instrumental in
the successful defense of the property damage claims. Working with distinguished
physicians and scientists, we were able to prove an effective "no hazard" defense
in an era when many believed that an asbestos property damage case could
not be won on those grounds.
- We
obtained defense verdicts in the first two asbestos property damage cases ever
tried to conclusion before juries against any of the defendants. Firm attorneys
tried a total of seven of these cases, winning five; of the two lost, one was
reversed on appeal and the other settled on appeal as part of a large multiplaintiff
settlement.
Our experience in representing National Gypsum has enabled us to handle toxic
tort and products liability issues for other major companies and institutions
in cases as diverse as actions by neighbors complaining of improper emissions
from chemical and cement plants, by workers alleging exposure to toxic substances
in the workplace and by consumers making claims about the potentially toxic effects
of our clients' products. For example:
- We
defended W.R. Grace's asbestos property damage litigation, giving particular
assistance on the defense of medical and technical issues. In addition to representing
Grace at trial, we precluded a major insurance company from proceeding with an
individual federal court lawsuit against our client seeking over $110 million
for asbestos abatement costs in 18 buildings because it had failed to opt out
of a class action that had settled. Also on behalf of this client, we defended
putative class actions in connection with claims for medical monitoring, environmental
remediation, and product abatement arising from the company's mining and manufacturing
of vermiculite attic insulation containing trace amounts of tremolite asbestos.
- We represented CertainTeed in personal injury litigation
involving fiberglass and vinyl chloride and in property damage litigation
in connection with PCBs. In one major case we defended CertainTeed
in property damage litigation alleging the presence of an unsafe level
of PCB’s in a government building. Because
of the plaintiffs’ enormous settlement demand, we tried the case in
a jury trial that lasted 9 months before the case settled at an amount that
was satisfactory to our client. We are currently representing CertainTeed
in federal multidistrict litigation involving allegedly defective roofing
singles.
- We
have represented Rhône-Poulenc Rorer in multiple jurisdictions in connection
with a blood clotting concentrate for hemophiliacs linked to transmission
of AIDS. We tried one such case and participated actively in administering
a nationwide class action settlement in that litigation.
- We
have represented pharmaceutical companies in the defense of toxic shock syndrome
and baby bottle syndrome cases.
Our products liability practice also has included representing manufacturers
of such diverse products as motor vehicle tires, forklifts, firearms, toasters,
handpresses, air bags, wearing apparel, herbicides, underground storage containers
and gas cylinders.
In the context of successfully managing and trying products liability and toxic
tort claims, we have developed the facility for analyzing and applying a broad
spectrum of medical and technical literature, as well as an extensive working
knowledge of a variety of laboratory instrumentation and methodologies and the
data or results they produce. We have developed a close familiarity with the
hallmarks of reputable laboratory practice, including careful and adequate quality
control and quality assurance programs and participation in interlaboratory certification
and standardization exercises. We also appreciate the significance of concepts,
such as methodological standardization, reproducibility, sensitivity, and specificity,
to the validity of laboratory data.
A decade of defending dozens of claims by hemophiliacs that a blood derivative
used to treat their disease infected them with the AIDS virus, and more recently
claims that the same blood derivative transmitted the Hepatitis C virus, has
familiarized us with the nature of P-3 laboratories, viral spiking experiments,
several generations of test screening for the Hepatitis B antigen, current testing
for the Hepatitis C antigen, ELISA and Western Blot testing for antibodies to
the AIDS virus, Hepatitis B core antibody testing, and ALT, as well as other,
liver function testing. Our handling of approximately two dozen toxic shock syndrome
cases, as well as defense of malpractice claims, including claims of negligent
failure to diagnose cancer and negligent failure to diagnose an ectopic pregnancy,
has provided us with unique experience in analyzing substantial medical records
and the variety of laboratory testing results that they contain.
Two decades of work defending both asbestos-related and fiberglass-related personal
injury claims have also provided a substantial working knowledge of the use and
interpretation of pulmonary x-rays and the results of testing of pulmonary function
and arterial blood gases, as well as the results of anatomic pathology, including
asbestos lung burden analysis, particularly as they relate to diagnosis of cancer.
In a related area, we have had extensive experience consulting with analytical
laboratories specializing in materials characterization or constituent analysis
by various sophisticated techniques. Our defense in many complex product liability
cases has been based upon analysis of building construction products for their
constituents, analysis of air and dust samples for asbestos and PCB content,
and analysis of fabric for molds or mildews. As a result, we have developed not
only an ability to interpret the significance of laboratory results but also
a general understanding of the nature and capacity of the laboratory instrumentation
and methodologies involved. We are familiar with various types of microscopy,
both light and electron, x-ray defraction, and gas chromatography.
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