Since its inception, the Firm has been heavily involved in the defense of
toxic tort claims. Accordingly, we have experience in handling nationwide toxic
tort 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, and, during the course of that representation,
we developed and implemented 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, lessor of federal buildings, and hospital. 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 enables 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 Rhône-Poulenc in cases
involving neighbors alleging improper emissions from chemical plants and
workers complaining of exposures to toxic substances in the workplace. We
structured a class action settlement that speedily resolved the most significant
neighborhood exposure case and settled the remaining cases individually.
- 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 have represented CertainTeed in personal
injury litigation involving fiberglass, vinyl chloride, and Hepatitis C and in
property damage litigation in connection with PCBs. We currently represent CertainTeed
in federal multidistrict litigation involving allegedly defective roofing shingles.
- 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.
- We currently represent Lafarge Corporation
in a class action on behalf of the homeowners in Alpena, Michigan, where Lafarge
operates the largest cement manufacturing plant in North America. The homeowners
complain of diverse personal injuries as well as property damage. We also defended
Lafarge in the multidistrict litigation proceeding arising from lawsuits filed
by railroads complaining of alleged defects in prestressed concrete railroad
ties.
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 wit 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.
More generally, our lawyers have worked on litigation involving environmental
pollution problems and chemical spills and explosions, all of which require an
ability to understand, analyze, and interpret medical, chemical, and biological
test results.
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