Find Lawyers in Baltimore, Maryland for Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions - Defendants
Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions - Defendants - Baltimore, Maryland
About this Practice Area
Joe Beavers' practice focuses on the representation of policyholders in insurance coverage litigation. He regularly advises clients regarding risk management issues, including the procurement and maintenance of insurance assets. He also conducts forensic insurance coverage investigations, reconstructing and analyzing historic insurance assets. Joe represents and advises policyholders regarding insurance coverage issues arising from environmental claims, lead-paint claims, mold claims, D&O...
Laura Cellucci has more than 20 years of experience representing clients in various state and federal courts as a trial and appellate advocate. Her practice encompasses mass and toxic tort matters, class actions, products liability, and insurance coverage disputes.Both regionally and nationally, Laura routinely handles complex litigation that poses substantial financial and reputational risk to her clients. Her disciplined approach and skill at managing multiple parties contribute to her effe...
Stephen Cullen is head of the firm's Family Law & Private Clients Group. Stephen is a fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and the International Academy of Family Lawyers. He represents parents and children in state, interstate, UCCJEA and international family and child law cases and is an expert on the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Stephen's practice includes divorce, financial remedies, custody, child support, alimony, adop...
Mr. Cullen has represented clients in complex pharmaceutical, product liability and toxic tort litigation for over 25 years. He has taken cases to trial in over 15 states while representing clients as both national and trial counsel. In 2015, Mr. Cullen was designated by ACQ5 and the ACQ Law Awards as the U.S. – Mass Tort Litigation Lawyer of the Year. Mr. Cullen has represented several clients in the pharmaceutical industry, including Bayer, Pfizer and Eisai. He has represented Bayer a...
Mike Halaiko has more than 18 years' experience defending clients in catastrophic personal injury, medical malpractice, and complex litigation cases before state and federal courts. His practice encompasses products liability defense, medical malpractice, mass tort litigation, and complex commercial and construction litigation matters. His clients include nationally recognized manufacturers of automobiles, tires, industrial equipment, sporting goods, household appliances, power tools, commerc...
Michael Haslup represents manufacturers, financial institutions and other corporate clients in a variety of litigation matters. He has experience in mass tort and products liability litigation involving multiple parties and multiple claims, including claims alleging exposure to silica, asbestos and other allegedly hazardous substances in multiple jurisdictions throughout the country. Mike also represents clients in regulatory matters before the Consumer Product Safety Commission, as well as p...
Joe is President and Chief Executive Officer of the firm and a senior member of our Product Liability and Mass Tort and Environment and Energy practices. He is an active leader in our cross-disciplinary team focused on the representation of clients in manufacturing and distribution industries. Joe’s practice focuses on the defense of manufacturers in a variety of complex product liability, toxic tort and environmental litigation regionally and nationally. He supervises the management of...
Ford Loker is a principal in the Baltimore office. He maintains a general litigation practice concentrating in mass tort and industry-wide litigation, as well as matters involving class actions, products liability, negligence and insurance. He has represented a wide variety of defendants in asbestos personal injury and property damage litigation in Maryland and nationally since 1981. He has tried dozens of civil jury trials to verdict in cases lasting from a week to nearly seven months. He ha...
For more than two decades, Don Meringer has represented clients on a wide range of products liability and commercial litigation matters, at both the trial and appellate levels. His practice spans asbestos litigation, claims involving equipment and machinery, fire and property damage subrogation matters, pharmaceutical litigation, commercial lease disputes, professional malpractice actions and a variety of commercial and contract disputes. Don has significant experience defending asbestos-rela...
Alicia is a principal in the firm’s Baltimore office and the Co-Leader of the Products Liability, Mass Torts, and Environmental Energy Practice Group. Alicia is a litigator with several years of successful experience representing manufacturers, retailers, and other corporate clients on local and national levels—in federal and state trial and appellate courts—in a variety of litigation matters that span industries. As a member of the firm’s national trial team represent...
Robin Silver's litigation practice includes personal injury, products liability and insurance defense, including contract and coverage issues, environmental claims, mass torts and complex and multi-district litigation. She defends lawsuits throughout the State of Maryland and the District of Columbia in Trial and Appellate Courts. Robin represents clients on local and national levels, with experience in Federal and State Courts. Robin is responsible for the Washington, D.C. asbestos toxic tor...
Dwight W. Stone II has more than 25 years of litigation experience representing clients in various state and federal courts and administrative agencies as a trial and appellate advocate. Dwight’s practice includes products liability and class action defense, toxic tort and environmental claims, insurance coverage disputes, and other complex business disputes. A significant part of his practice is the representation of clients before the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in ...
Deborah St. Lawrence Thompson represents a broad array of clients in complex cases in jurisdictions around the country, primarily in the areas of commercial litigation, mass tort litigation, products liability, toxic torts, labor and employment law. Ms. Thompson also coordinates commercial and products liability litigation outside the United States. She has earned a reputation among her peers as a tough litigator who carefully prepares each case with a common sense, efficient, practical focus...
Matthew T. Wagman is the Co-Chair of the Firm’s Manufacturing and Distribution Industry Team (MAD-IT). Matt is a litigator who focuses his efforts on solving his client’s business problems. Although his litigation/trial practice is concentrated on the defense of personal injury, property damage, and contract claims for numerous large, mid-size, and small companies, Matt knows the importance of acting as a business counselor first and a litigator second. Matt is National Coordinati...
Glenn A. Gordon maintains a diverse practice representing individuals and businesses in a variety of civil litigation and regulatory matters. In civil litigation matters, Glenn has a focus on defending clients in various types of personal injury and property damage suits in state and federal courts, including products liability, premises liability, motor torts, toxic exposures, and environmental contamination claims. In these practice areas, Glenn represents clients ranging from individuals a...
Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions - Defendants Definition
Class actions and mass tort litigation typically arise from a single episode or related events that allegedly injure a “mass” of individuals and/or their property. The number of claimants may range from a few dozen to many thousands. The volume of plaintiffs and complexity of claims and issues dictate special judicial management and require experienced defense counsel. In mass tort litigation, global issues that affect all claimants may be consolidated, especially in federal courts. Cases may be aggregated in federal multi-district litigation (“MDLs”) for coordination of pretrial proceedings, in which questions of fact common to all plaintiffs, key legal issues, and discovery may be handled on a global basis. Following the determination of fact issues, plaintiffs’ unique claims often are tried independently. The Court may order trials of the claims of certain plaintiffs in mass tort litigation as test, or “bellwether,” cases. Bellwether cases may provide the courts with guidance on the related claims’ suitability for group development and litigation. State court consolidation and management vary widely. With class actions, the class of plaintiffs may be voluminous, with all asserting damages arising from a common occurrence or related events; however, in contrast to mass tort litigation, the “class” often is represented by a single individual or a small group of individuals who embody the claims and damages of the larger group. Class actions in federal courts are governed by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23. Members of the “class” may be bound by findings related to that class. Class certification often is denied due to state law restrictions (or prohibitions) on class actions or the predomination of plaintiffs’ individualized circumstances over any common issues.
Defense counsel's role in consolidated litigation includes all tasks inherent in the traditional litigation setting, with an added managerial component of litigation coordination and organization of global discovery, including:
- Identification and differentiation of the nature of individualized and global claims
- Document management and review, including electronic data and e-mails
- Expert witness development and preparation
- MDL and bellwether trials
- Defeating class certification
- Improper joinder
- Development of comprehensive trial strategies
- Development of consistent factual and legal positions in coordination with counsel representing named defendants on local and national levels
- Working with lawyers from different firms as a “virtual” law firm
- Trials of claims of certified classes or individual mass tort plaintiffs
- Global settlement negotiations
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
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