Welcome to Critical Mass, Law.com's weekly briefing on class actions and mass torts. I'm Amanda Bronstad in Los Angeles. Ken Starr is joining Mark Lanier's firm, so I asked him: What's different about the plaintiff's side? Find out which law firm plans to file the first suit over this weekend's deadly shooting in Jacksonville, Florida. And Public Justice, a nonprofit legal advocacy group, lost two appeals court decisions in the past week.

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A Starr in the Plaintiffs Bar

It's official: Ken Starr is back. In private practice, that is.

The former U.S. solicitor general announced this week that he would join The Lanier Law Firm in Houston as counsel. My colleague Meghan Tribe has this story on the announcement, plus an intriguing in-depth piece (see here) on the longtime friendship between Starr, 72, and Mark Lanier, 58.

The move is not too surprising, though, when you consider Starr and Lanier's history. Meghan reported that Starr and Lanier have known each other since an ABA moot court competition in 1984. Plus, there were signs that Starr, who's been in academia since 2004, might return to private practice. Last year, he jumped in to assist Lanier in defending two hip implant verdicts of $502 million and $1.04 billionbefore the 5th Circuit. In fact, Starr was quick to come to his friend's defense when lawyers for Johnson & Johnson accused Lanier of failing to disclose payments to expert witnesses (see my story here, Starr's response in The National Law Journal here and the decision here by the 5th Circuit, which tossed the $502 million award in part due to Lanier's “misrepresentations” at trial).

But Starr's previous practice was at Gibson Dunn and Kirkland & Ellis, both major defense firms.

So I asked Starr: What can the plaintiffs' bar learn from the defense bar when it comes to running a business? And vice versa?

During my career in private practice I've not been responsible for or deeply involved with business-oriented decisions, so it's a bit difficult for me to deliver insights or opine on lessons learned. I can say that it's been my general observation from my time in private practice, as well as on the bench, that the best plaintiff attorneys seem to be more willing to be creative in their arguments and flexible during the course of trial than their counterparts. Certainly we've seen that over the years with Mark and his team, and it's just one aspect of this new opportunity that I know I'm going to enjoy.

It's a sure bet that court watchers are going to enjoy that, too.

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Fla. Firm First to File Over Jacksonville Shooting

Morgan & Morgan plans to file the first lawsuit over the Aug. 26 shooting at a video game competition in Jacksonville, Florida. Law.com's Zach Schlein has that story here.

The shooting left 3 dead, including the gunman, and 11 injured.

It also occurred across the street from where Morgan & Morgan announced on Tuesday its plans to sue. Attorney Matt Morgan said the event's organizers should have been more prepared given the area's history of violence. Just two months ago, he said, a bullet went through Morgan & Morgan's office window.

“The duct tape on the shattered window remains,” he told reporters.

Non-Profit Firm Pelted in Product Case Appeals

Public Justice had a rough week. The Washington D.C.-based non-profit legal advocacy group lost a 9th Circuit decision last week that allowed most of the records to remain sealed in a class action against Chrysler over an alleged defect in millions of vehicles. Public Justice's whole goal was to intervene to unseal court records so that it could warn the public about a defective and dangerous power module.

Then, on Monday, the 1st Circuit tossed out a class action that Public Justice brought on behalf of consumers of eye drops they claim are too large for their eyes. The case is one of several Public Justice has filed, alleging consumers have paid up to $1,000 extra each year for wasted eye drops

See my stories on the Chrysler case, and the eye drops case.

But Chrysler turned the sealing attempt into a debate over proprietary trade secrets, taking the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and back to the 9th Circuit a second time. And the eye drops cases have turned on whether the plaintiffs were injured enough to have standing to sue. The 1st Circuit said they did – but federal regulations preempted their claims.

Here's more you need to know:

Paxil Punt: The widow of a Reed Smith partner who committed suicide after taking Paxil lost her $3 million verdict on appeal. According to Law.com's story (see here), the 7th Circuit overturned the award after finding that FDA regulations at the time prohibited manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline from adding a warning label to the antidepressant. A Chicago jury rendered the verdict last year for Wendy Dolin, whose husband, Stewart Dolin, committed suicide in 2010. Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholerrepresented GSK on the appeal.

Bern Bust: Marc Bern lost his bid to disqualify a court-appointed referee in the contentious breakup of his former personal injury firm, Napoli Bern. Law.com's story is here. Bern, now at Marc J. Bern & Partners, had argued that the referee, Mark Zauderer (Ganfer Shore Leeds & Zauderer), had a conflict because he briefly represented Quinn Emanuel, which is counsel to Paul Napoli, now at Napoli Shkolnik.

Centenarian Citing: In 1980, Herb Rubin secured a famous U.S. Supreme Courtdecision in a case called World-wide Volkswagen v. Woodson – that's the one about jurisdiction that everyone learns in law school. He's now 100 years old, and not slowing down. That's according to this Law.com profile of Rubin, who works at New York's Herzfeld & Rubin. Of his most famous case, Rubin said: “The argument we had to make was an uphill argument. Our theory was the courts weren't there for forum-shopping.”