Critical Mass with Law.com's Amanda Bronstad: Earplug and Opioid Trials Begin Before Jurors. Who Gets $2.3B in Opioid Legal Fees?
March 16, 2022 at 12:00 PM
7 minute read
Critical Mass
Welcome to Law.com Class Actions: Critical Mass, a weekly briefing for class action and mass tort attorneys. Three high-profile jury trials began this week in cases about opioids and 3M's earplugs. The $26 billion opioid deal outlines a complicated process of distributing attorney fees. Two years after creating a first-ever committee to promote younger lawyers, a federal judge in the Zantac multidistrict litigation has added 12 more attorneys to the plaintiffs' team.
I'm Amanda Bronstad. Feel free to reach out to me with your input. My email is [email protected], or follow me on Twitter: @abronstadlaw.
Motley Rice's Fidelma Fitzpatrick, left, and Wendy West Feinstein, of Morgan Lewis & Bockius, right. Courtesy photos Trial Watch: Juries Hear About Opioids & Earplugs This Week
Trials started this week in two high-profile mass torts. Here's the lowdown:
Earplugs: The 12th and 13th trials over 3M's dual-ended combat earplugs began on Monday in separate federal courtrooms in Florida. Ten bellwether trials ended 2021 with split victories, but, on Jan. 27, two plaintiffs won a record $110 million, far more than the highest previous verdict of $22.5 million.
- In one trial: Aylstock Witkin partners Bobby "Brad" Bradford, Dan Thornburgh and Jennifer Hoekstra have teamed up with Joe Messa (Messa & Associates) and Caleb Seeley (Seeger Weiss) to represent the plaintiff in a Tallahassee trial before U.S. District Judge Lisa Wood of the Southern District of Georgia. 3M's trial team is from Kirkland & Ellis, led by Mike Brock, Brent Rogers and Renee Smith.
- In the other trial: U.S. District Judge Roy Dalton is overseeing a second trial in Pensacola that features a plaintiff's team led by Laminack, Pirtle & Martines partners Tom Pirtle, Buffy Martines and Rick Laminack, with Quinn Emanuel's Adam Wolfson and Matt Hosen, along with Katherine Cornell of Pulaski Kherkher and Amanda Hunt of Keller Lenkner. Dechert partners Kimberly Branscome, Jay Bhimani and Jonathan Tam are representing 3M.
Opioids: The state of Rhode Island has brought in a Motley Rice team spearheaded by Fidelma Fitzpatrick and Vin Greene in an opioid trial against Teva and its subsidiaries that is expected to last at least six weeks. Jury selection began this week, with opening statements expected on Monday in Rhode Island's Providence County Superior Court. Fitzpatrick, a partner in Providence, Rhode Island, takes on a defense team from Morgan Lewis led by Pittsburgh partner Wendy Feinstein and Tinos Diamantatos, a partner in Chicago.
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