The Firm has a broad reaching, well-respected, and expanding toxic tort defense practice that encompasses both principal areas of toxic tort exposure: Industrial Exposure, where the plaintiffs allege that they have been injured as a result of work-place exposure to toxic materials; and Environmental Exposure, where the plaintiffs allege that they have been injured as a result of exposure to toxic materials in the environment around them.  The Firm has developed several methods of assuring that our clients and their insurance carriers not only receive the highest quality of representation, they receive it efficiently and cost effectively.  We regularly represent multiple defendants in toxic tort matters, for both industrial and environmental exposure cases.  The Firm’s representation of multiple defendants has provided us with increased leverage in negotiations with plaintiffs’ attorneys, and allowed us to obtain more favorable settlement terms than would otherwise be available to a sole defendant. 

-          Industrial Exposure

The Firm specializes in defending companies whose products or operations have been alleged to cause harm to industrial workers and other individuals exposed to alleged toxins while on the job.  We are particularly experienced at leading industry wide efforts in both toxic tort and environmental suits, serving as Defense Group Liaison Counsel in numerous massive toxic tort cases, involving dozens of defendants and/or multiple plaintiffs.  For example, the Firm serves as Defense Liaison and is coordinating the defense effort in an industrial exposure case involving more than 200 plaintiffs and more than 80 defendants.  We are also presently active in the management and strategy of several other such cases as well.

The Firm has successfully defended companies (often multiple companies at one time) accused in toxic tort matters brought by plaintiffs alleging numerous different diseases and conditions, including various forms of cancer such as Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML), Acute Promyelocytic  Leukemia (APL), and Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (NHL); various forms of lung disease including lung cancer, Interstitial Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF), Asbestosis, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and Asthma;  congenital conditions including Microcephaly and Lissencephaly; and numerous other maladies such as heart disease, immunological disorders, neurological disorders, and infertility.

-          Environmental Exposure

Environmental toxic exposure is a growing area of the law, often involving a neighborhood or community exposed to chemicals released into the environment nearby.  Individuals manifesting various medical conditions assert personal injury claims, demands for medical monitoring, contentions of property damage, and allegations of entitlement to pain and suffering and/or emotional distress damages.  Typically, these claims are high exposure/high publicity matters, and therefore, attract some of the most aggressive and successful attorneys in the plaintiffs’ bar.  The Firm regularly defends both public entities and private corporations of various sizes against numerous such plaintiffs.  The Firm emphasizes thorough, up-front factual investigation intended to assess realistic liability and damage exposures, to explore the potential for early dismissals.  We have developed close working relationships with some of the best environmental consultants in California.  This approach has allowed the Firm to develop and support a broader, more innovative spectrum of defenses for clients.

The Firm regularly defends both public and private entities accused of causing harm to individuals as a result of environmental or industrial exposure to:

-- Tetrachloroethylene (PCE or “Perc”)

-- Trichloroethylene (TCE)

-- Perchlorate

-- Benzene

-- Toxic Mold

-- Nitrosodymethylamine (NDMA)

-- Methyl Tertiary-Butyl Ether (MTBE)

-- Hexavalent Chromium (Chromium 6)

-- Asbestos, including naturally occurring asbestos

As just one recent example, the Firm successfully represented a Northern California City sued by 32 plaintiffs personally organized by Erin Brokovich.  The suit claimed that the City caused or contributed to PCE and TCE contamination in groundwater from which the plaintiffs’ families drew their drinking water.  Plaintiffs alleged numerous personal injury claims, including microcephaly and lissencephaly.  Plaintiffs had been making collective settlement demands in the $30 to $50 million range, but following the court’s grant of our partial motion for summary judgment, and the remaining deficiencies in plaintiffs’ case that we addressed in our motions in limine, plaintiffs’ counsel so substantially reduced their demand on the eve of trial that the City was able to settle the entire case for $1.5 million. 

The Firm has also developed innovative methods of handling and billing for the massive quantities of paperwork Toxic Tort cases tend to generate.  Unlike many other firms, we do not assign multiple teams of lawyers to the cases or bill for multiple defenses.  Instead, we split the billing among the defendants and their carriers.  Further, we have established relationships with superb professionals who assist us in a variety of litigation support tasks, from providing expert consultation and/or testimony, to reviewing and analyzing medical and/or employment documents, to document retrieval and management.  Again, these innovations allow us to provide aggressive, creative, and high quality representation for our clients and their insurers with maximum cost effectiveness.