Toxic Tort

• National Trial Team, Asbestos Litigation: Alston & Bird serves as managing counsel in asbestos litigation pending in several jurisdictions around the country, including Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Illinois, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. In this role we have primary responsibility for preparing and trying the cases in these jurisdictions and formulating new and innovative challenges to plaintiffs’ claims. We also serve on the client’s National Trial Team, and have been called to try cases in these and other jurisdictions, including California, Massachusetts, Maryland, Louisiana and Ohio. We have staffed trial teams exclusively with Alston & Bird attorneys, or with "virtual" law firms including local counsel and other trial firms used by this client.
• Coordinating Counsel, Uranium Litigation: We served as lead Daubert counsel on behalf of several clients in suits alleging that ionizing radiation/natural uranium ore dust caused 18 different types of cancers. Our firm handled the cross-examinations of plaintiffs' expert witnesses in the fields of radiation dose reconstruction, epidemiology, oncology and biology. We also coordinated the presentation of defense experts and prepared extensive Daubert motions challenging the methodology and reliability of the opinions of plaintiffs' five experts in these fields. After an extensive Daubert hearing, the trial court excluded key expert testimony and entered summary judgment for defendants in March of 2005. All cases settled on favorable terms following our Daubert victory.
• National Coordinating Counsel, Silica Litigation: We are national counsel for for an international mineral and mining company and its subsidiaries in silica litigation pending in multiple jurisdictions, including an MDL proceeding in Texas. The client has also retained us to handle litigation in Madison County, Illinois, with 300+ plaintiffs, involving exposure to manganese at a processing facility.
• Coordinating Counsel, Mold Litigation: We served as national coordinating counsel for one of the nation’s largest land owners in litigation related to alleged “toxic mold” exposure. We were lead trial counsel and science counsel in class action and individual plaintiff litigation across the country. We helped develop a creative mediation and settlement plan that led to the efficient and cost-saving resolution of the mass claims brought by thousands of property residents.
• Trial Counsel, Wood Treatment Facility/Dioxin Litigation: We represented this leading building products company in mass tort litigation involving more than 1,300 plaintiffs alleging personal injuries caused by air and surface water emissions from a former wood treatment site in Alabama. The principal chemicals of concern were dioxin, arsenic, creosote and chromium, which allegedly resulted in cancers, birth defects and other diseases. We obtained a significant early victory with the successful removal of all of the cases to federal court on fraudulent joinder grounds. In addition, 400 cases were dismissed as a result of our aggressive pre-trial motions practice. We eventually obtained a very favorable settlement of all remaining claims.
• National Counsel, Friction Products/Asbestos Litigation: Our toxic tort and product liability lawyers serve as national coordinating co-counsel and trial counsel for a Fortune 500 automobile parts distributor in asbestos litigation. Our team is responsible for management of regional and local counsel, interface with company lawyers and management, implementation of a national document collection process, creation of document and discovery databases, development of company witnesses and defense strategies, and cultivation of new medical and scientific experts, and trial of any cases.
• Shale Gas Extraction / Hydraulic Fracturing: At Alston & Bird, we have extensive experience with many aspects of shale gas extraction—and because we began advising clients on this complicated issue well before it recently became popular in the media and among plaintiffs’ attorneys, we bring a special degree of perspective and insight to our clients.