Panel suggests a structure for unwieldy Toyota litigation

More than 50 attorneys and law firms submitted applications to help lead the massive multidistrict litigation (MDL) against Toyota Motor Corp., which has recalled at least 8 million vehicles due sudden unintended acceleration.

A flood of applicants scrambled to file court documents on Friday, which was the original deadline to submit names of attorneys who want to serve on a leadership committee. The MDL involves claims filed on behalf of consumers for economic damages associated with their recalled vehicles, personal injury and wrongful death allegations. A hearing on the litigation is scheduled for May 13.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge James Selna of the Central District of California, who is overseeing the MDL, extended the deadline to late Monday, citing electronic filing difficulties.

Also on Friday, the three plaintiffs’ attorneys assigned as temporary lead counsel and Toyota’s lead counsel, Cari Dawson of Atlanta’s Alston & Bird, filed a joint preliminary report outlining the committees that should be created to manage the litigation. They suggested a nine-member liaison counsel committee for the personal injury and wrongful death actions, including two co-lead liaison counsel; a nine-member lead counsel committee for the economic loss cases, including three co-lead counsel; and a core discovery committee, chaired by the co-lead and co-liaison counsel of the other two committees.

The three plaintiffs’ attorneys serving as temporary lead counsel — Steve Berman, managing partner of Seattle’s Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro; Marc Seltzer, a partner in the Los Angeles office of Houston’s Susman Godfrey; and Elizabeth Cabraser of San Francisco’s Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein — nominated attorneys to fill those spots.

Specifically, they recommended that Berman, Seltzer and Wylie Aitken, founding partner of Aitken * Aitken * Cohn in Santa Ana, Calif., serve as co-lead of the economic loss committee. Committee members should include Richard Arsenault, senior partner at Neblett, Beard & Arsenault in Alexandria, La.; Stanley Chesley, president of Cincinnati’s Waite, Schneider, Bayless & Chesley; John Climaco, founder of Cleveland’s Climaco, Lefkowitz, Peca, Wilcox & Garofoli; Stephen G. Larson, a partner at Girardi Keese in Los Angeles; Frank M. Pitre of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy in Burlingame, Calif.; and Christopher Seeger, founding member of Seeger Weiss in New York.

On the personal injury committee, the trio recommended that Cabraser and Mark Robinson, senior partner at Robinson, Calcagnie & Robinson in Newport Beach, Calif., chair the committee. That panel would also include Lewis “Mike” S. Eidson, a partner at Colson Hicks Eidson in Coral Gables, Fla.; Mark Lanier of The Lanier Law Firm in Houston; Richard McCune, a partner at McCuneWright in Redlands, Calif.; W. Daniel “Dee” Miles, a shareholder at Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles in Montgomery, Ala.; Brian Panish, a partner at Panish, Shea & Boyle in Los Angeles; Hunter Shkolnik, a partner at Rheingold, Valet, Rheingold, Shkolnik & McCartney in New York; and Donald Slavik, a partner at Milwaukee’s Habush Habush & Rottier.

Most of those lawyers had submitted separate applications to serve on one of the committees as of Friday.

In their applications, many lawyers cited their experience handling other MDL proceedings and products liability cases against automobile companies. Others suggested that their involvement in coordinating legal strategies among plaintiffs’ lawyers across the country, the maturity of their cases, their list of experts, their proficiency in Japanese or their settlement expertise justified their proposal to sit in the front seat in the Toyota litigation.

Few submitted specifics regarding estimated attorney fees, suggesting instead that lawyers retain time records for review by the court. Some proposed that the court set standardized rates for fees. Others suggested an award based on a contingency fee of up to 25% of a “common fund.” Those who gave specifics on cost submitted rates of $725 to $850 per hour.

The rest of the lawyers and firms that applied for a leadership position as of Friday are:

• Bruce Steckler and Scott Summy of Baron & Budd in Dallas.
• Ribbeck Law Chartered of Chicago.
• Ben Barnow of Barnow & Associates in Chicago; Michael L. Kelly of Kirtland & Packard of El Segundo, Calif.; and Joe Whatley of Whatley, Drake & Kallas in Birmingham, Ala.
• Martha K. Wivell of Sheller PC in Philadelphia.
• Brian J. McCormick Jr. of Sheller PC.
• Jayne Conroy of Hanley Conroy Bierstein Sheridan Fisher & Hayes in New York.
• Jerome L. Ringler of Ringler Kearney Alvarez in Los Angeles.
• Robert C. Hilliard of Hilliard Muñoz Guerra in Corpus Christi, Texas.
• Tim Howard of Northeastern University in Boston.
• Kenneth A. Wexler of Wexler Wallace in Chicago.
• Eric D. Holland of Holland, Groves, Schneller & Stolze in St. Louis.
• Irwin B. Levin of Cohen & Malad in Indianapolis.
• Brooks Cutter of Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff in Sacramento, Calif.
• Neil S. Sader and Bradley D. McCormack of The Sader Law Firm in Kansas City, Mo.
• James E. Carter of James E. Carter and Associates of Savannah, Ga.
• James Cecchi of Carella, Byrne, Cecchi, Olstein, Brody & Agnello of Roseland, N.J.
• Mark Hutton of Hutton & Hutton Law Firm of Wichita, Kan.
• Stephen R. Basser of Barrack Rodos & Bacine of Newark, N.J.
• Patrick W. Pendley and Christopher Coffin of Pendley, Baudin & Coffin in Plaquemine, La.
• Benjamin Bailey & Eric B. Snyder of Bailey & Glasser in Charleston, W.Va.
• Branstetter, Stranch & Jennings in Nashville, Tenn.
• Brian R. Strange of Strange & Carpenter of Los Angeles.
• Timothy G. Blood of Blood Hurst & O’Reardon in San Diego, Calif.
• Sherrie R. Savett of Berger & Montague of Philadelphia.
• Weiss & Lurie in New York.
• Burton H. Finkelstein of Finkelstein Thompson in Washington.
• Roger L. Mandel of Beckham & Mandel in Dallas.
• J. Mark Moore of Spiro Moss of Los Angeles.
• Gretchen M. Nelson of the Los Angeles office of Kreindler & Kreindler.
• William M. Sweetnam of Sweetnam LLC in Chicago.
• David M. Arbogast of Arbogast & Berns in Tarzana, Calif.
• W. James Singleton of The Singleton Law Firm in Shreveport, La.
• Daniel Becnel Jr. of the Becnel Law Firm in Reserve, La.
• Anita Jaskot of the Law Offices of Robert M. Brill in New York.
• Timothy Morrison of Pope, McGlamry, Kilpatrick, Morrison & Norwood in Atlanta.

Amanda Bronstad can be contacted at [email protected].

For more on the mounting litigation against Toyota Motor Corp., see our special report and interactive timeline, “Suing Toyota.”