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Services

Asbestos Litigation

We have defended companies involved in asbestos litigation for more than 30 years as national, regional, local and trial counsel. We successfully and economically coordinate, supervise and defend asbestos cases around the country for premises owners, fiber suppliers, contractors, and manufacturers, distributors and retailers of consumer and intermediary goods and equipment, including building and construction materials, automotive and aviation parts, molding compounds, furnaces, reactors, and laboratory equipment. We use our extensive experience and expertise in all aspects of asbestos litigation to advise clients on strategy, defenses and various other issues from the inception to conclusion of cases

Managing and Defending Asbestos Cases For 30 Years
Our attorneys have defended companies involved in asbestos litigation for more than 30 years. We have earned a reputation for successfully and economically coordinating, supervising and defending asbestos cases around the country for several Fortune 500 companies. As national coordinating counsel and New York counsel in more than 30,000 cases, we advise clients on strategy, defenses, and various other issues from the inception to conclusion of cases. We have extensive experience and expertise in all aspects of asbestos litigation including supervising other law firms; drafting case management orders, standard pleadings, discovery responses, motions, and pre-trial submissions; developing fact, corporate, and expert witnesses; conducting depositions; negotiating favorable settlements; and participating in hearings and trials.

Case Management Expertise
We serve as court appointed defense liaison in the New York City Asbestos Litigation as well as in several upstate New York jurisdictions. Courts have looked to us to develop and draft case management orders for asbestos cases. These case management orders streamline the discovery process, resolve pre-trial management problems, eliminate duplication of work, reduce costs, and allow for an efficient and cost effective resolution of cases. We routinely work closely with courts on methods of stream-lining case management and handling calendar congestion. Judges supervising dockets of asbestos cases regularly solicit the input of our firm's attorneys in fashioning case management orders for these complex cases.  We were appointed by Judge Deborah A. Kaplan, New York City Administrative Judge for Civil Matters, as one of two defense lawyers to conduct a series of training sessions for New York judges on the fundamentals of trying asbestos cases.

Expert Witnesses, Scientific and Medical Expertise
We have longstanding, strong relationships with a variety of nationwide medical and scientific experts who are actively involved in asbestos litigation, including pathologists, pulmonologists, B-readers, epidemiologists, industrial hygienists, state of the art experts, economists, and maritime and ship industry experts. We work with defense expert witnesses and defend against plaintiffs' experts, and are experienced at taking and defending expert depositions. We continually develop new experts and strategies to improve our clients' defenses.

Our library contains an extensive collection of expert deposition transcripts, articles, and treatises that are often vital to the defense of these cases. This includes thousands of medical articles going back to the turn of the century and hundreds of medical studies and reports dating back to the 1940's. Our library also includes comprehensive expert witness files with curriculum vitae, deposition and trial testimony, articles, and reports by each expert. We also have access to scientific, medical and technical databases, and other periodicals, journals and texts.

Settlement Expertise
Our attorneys have negotiated favorable settlements for our clients in thousands of cases. We have special expertise in evaluating cases for settlement and determining case values. We handle individual settlements, group settlements and sophisticated inventory deals. Our settlement work includes providing analysis of verdict trends. Over the years, our attorneys have developed an extremely cordial and professional working relationship with every significant plaintiff law firm. As a result, we have been able to obtain voluntary dismissals in many cases based on improper product identification, successor liability issues, and other legal defenses. Our great working relationships with plaintiff law firms yield great benefits to our clients.

Successful Results
We have a long track-record delivering great successes for our clients. We were instrumental in obtaining deferred dockets staying thousands of unimpaired asbestos personal injury claims in New York. We obtained a significant ruling declaring that bankrupt companies should be included in the apportionment of liability in asbestos cases under New York law. This legal ruling was upheld by the Court of Appeals, New York's highest court, and this decision has significantly impacted asbestos cases by substantially reducing our clients' percentage of liability.