Our attorneys offer clients comprehensive services litigating complex toxic tort, chemical exposure, and workplace exposure cases.
We litigate toxic tort cases in state and federal courts nationwide, including litigation involving flavoring chemicals, tobacco, asbestos and mold. We are experienced in toxic tort law and litigation strategy and possess a wide range of skills, including formal training in medicine, nursing, pharmacy and engineering.
Our sophisticated case management procedures efficiently and effectively coordinate the handling of numerous concurrent complex cases. In handling mass tort actions and other complex litigation, we developed sophisticated case management applications and provide technological assistance to clients in responding to discovery requests and collecting, organizing, storing and analyzing vast amounts of litigation and claims information in a secure web-based environment. These applications assist with organizing and delivering the day-to-day information required to manage large cases at a broader level. Because our systems are able to handle many different types of information, they provide a general framework for managing all aspects of complex litigation. In addition to set up and support of remote trial facilities, our technical consulting services include trial presentation preparation and assistance and training.
The team's toxic tort capabilities are supplemented by our comprehensive environmental law capabilities. The depth of our attorneys' experience in these areas enables us to advise and defend our clients with a thorough understanding of how best to minimize potential toxic substance liabilities throughout our clients' operations.
We represent clients in a wide variety of toxic tort matters, including:
Flavoring Chemicals/Diacetyl
Our attorneys serve as natiaonl counsel to a major flavorings manufacturer in multiple workplace and consumer butter flavoring lawsuits involving claims of exposure-related respiratory injuries and diseases, such as bronchiolitis obliterans. These cases involve hundreds of plaintiffs in state and federal courts in Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Ohio and Washington. Our trial attorneys have taken eight cases to trial since 2003.
Asbestos
Our attorneys handle personal injury premises liability and product liability asbestos cases for building owners and product manufacturers. Our cases involve such products as grinding wheels, pumps, valves, furnaces, joint compounds and locomotive brakes. We currently represent clients in over 10,000 pending asbestos cases. We also defend manufacturers of asbestos-containing talc products against claims exposure to the talc products caused respiratory injuries.
Mold
We have extensive experience in mold-related tort and property claims involving builders, contractors, property owners, hotels, condo associations, landlords, developers and product manufacturers. Our attorneys have relationships with numerous expert witnesses to assist in case preparation and trial and have experience deposing the leading plaintiff mold experts.
Tobacco
Our attorneys represent major tobacco product manufacturers in extensive, nationwide smoking and health litigation relating to claims of product-related disease and allegations regarding the sufficiency of warnings provided for tobacco products.
Toxic Shock
We represent a major manufacturer of tampons in defending against allegations involving toxic shock syndrome and the sufficiency of warnings provided on product packaging.
Pesticides
Our attorneys defended a manufacturer of pesticides against toxic exposure claims made by homeowners following the application of the manufacturer's products at their home.
Benzene
Our attorneys defended negligence and product liability claims against a manufacturing defendant alleging cancer causation resulting from decades of benzene-containing product exposures at a large steel corporation's facility. We also represented manufacturers of benzene-containing products against claims of injuries resulting from product related benzene exposure.
Lead Paint
We successfully represented a pigment manufacturer against public nuisance claims made by various cities and the state of Ohio seeking billions of dollars in compensation for statewide remediation costs due to lead paint. The State of Ohio voluntarily dismissed the last of such cases pending against our client.
Chemical Spills
Our attorneys litigated personal and property injury claims resulting from petroleum truck spills, underground storage tank leaks and chemical releases from railroad tank cars. Our attorneys also defended a construction company in a dispute involving the adequacy of the containment systems in place at the site of an estimated 100,000 gallon gasoline spill.
Polyacrylamide
We defended chemical companies against claims of neurological impairment and other illnesses made by workers as a result of alleged exposure to polyacrylamide used in flocculant at waste water treatment facilities.
