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Cosmetic Talc Litigation Media Coverage September 26, 2016
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Talc litigation continues for Montgomery law firm
Sep 25, 2016 | Montgomery Advertiser
By Andrew J. Yawn
For the third time this year, Montgomery-based Beasley Allen Law Firm will face Johnson & Johnson in St. Louis court Monday. -
Wake Up Call: Federal Judge in Terrorism Case Lashes Out at Facebook and Lawyers
Sep 23, 2016 | Bloomberg Law
By Rick Mitchell
... A Missouri federal judge Wednesday rejected a request by Johnson & Johnson to throw out a California woman’s suit alleging the company’s baby powder caused her to get ovarian cancer. (National Law Journal)
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Talc litigation continues for Montgomery law firm
Sep 25, 2016 | Montgomery Advertiser
By Andrew J. Yawn
The jury has ruled against Johnson & Johnson in the two previous cases
For the third time this year, Montgomery-based Beasley Allen Law Firm will face Johnson & Johnson in St. Louis court Monday.
The case is the third of a 64-person joint lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson claiming its talcum powder products increase the risk of ovarian cancer when used genitally by females.
The plaintiff in this case, Deborah Giannecchini, claims that 46 years of using Johnson & Johnson talcum powder is connected to her ovarian cancer diagnosis four years ago. Now having undergone chemotherapy and a hysterectomy, Giannecchini, along with co-lead counsel Ted Meadows of Beasley Allen, is attempting to prove that the household goods titan is purposefully ignoring the risks talc poses to women who use it perineally.
“The regulations that apply to cosmetic companies require a warning if the product may possibly be associated with a hazard. Whether you think there’s a causal connection or not, there is certainly enough evidence to show a possible risk of ovarian cancer, and they’re just not warning about it,” Meadows said.
Meadows said Giannecchini could not be made available for comment due to the upcoming trial.
Perhaps the most damning evidence against Johnson & Johnson is a series of internal memos paid company medical consultant Alfred Wehner sent to Johnson & Johnson’s preclinical toxicology manager at the time, Michael Chudkowski.
In one memo, Wehner advised the company to stop denying the results from "several investigators" finding talc particles in ovarian tissue.
"At that time there had been about nine studies (more by now) published in the open literature that did show a statistically significant association between hygienic talc use and ovarian cancer. Anybody who denies this risks that the talc industry will be perceived by the public like it perceives the cigarette industry: denying the obvious in the face of all evidence to the contrary," Wehner's 1997 memo reads.
Each of the first two plaintiffs won their cases earlier this year, in part because of the release of these internal memos. Ovarian cancer survivor Gloria Ristesund was awarded $55 million on May 2. Birmingham, Ala., native Jacqueline Fox was posthumously awarded $72 million. Fox died of cancer before the trial’s conclusion.
"During the course of the trial – first let me make this clear: These internal documents had never been seen by anybody at the FDA, any other group of scientists, doctors or media people. Anybody," Beasley Allen founder Jere Beasley said after the Fox trial. "This jury saw them, read them and (the documents) really indicted Johnson & Johnson of extremely callous, reckless, intentional conduct that had to hurt people."
In both cases, the juries found Johnson & Johnson liable for not warning users of possible risk.
Researchers have yet to conclusively link perineal talc use to ovarian cancer, however, several studies have shown the talc to increase the risk of developing ovarian cancer.
Johnson & Johnson only has two talc products: Johnson’s Baby Powder and Shower to Shower. The company also offers several cornstarch powders as an alternative, but after the Ristesund decision, the company stood by its talc products saying in a statement that “the jury’s decision goes against 30 years of studies by medical experts around the world.”
Also after that decision, about 17,000 women reached out to Beasley Allen about filing suit. Due to the statute of limitations, that list has been whittled down to about 11,000 cases that are currently being reviewed.
Beasley sent a letter to Johnson & Johnson on May 4 asking the company to settle.
“They can’t do this for 11,000 people,” Beasley said after sending the email. “They know us well enough to know we’re not bluffing. If they don’t want to do this, we’re dedicated to going that route and trying case after case after case.”
Johnson & Johnson has still not replied to Beasley’s email, and Johnson & Johnson spokesperson Carol Goodrich said the company plans to appeal the two previous decisions.
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2016/09/26/talc-litigation-continues-montgomery-law-firm/90067584/
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Wake Up Call: Federal Judge in Terrorism Case Lashes Out at Facebook and Lawyers
Sep 23, 2016 | Bloomberg Law
By Rick Mitchell
• A Brooklyn federal judge overseeing two lawsuits accusing Facebook of helping terrorist networks slammed the social network for its efforts against terrorism and its law firm Kirkland & Ellis for sending a first-year associate to a hearing. (Bloomberg)
• Yahoo! Inc. said the personal information of at least 500 million users was stolen in an attack on its accounts in 2014, in an announcement ahead of Verizon Communications Inc.’s planned acquisition of the web portal’s assets. [See more news below about this in Technology section.] (Bloomberg/Big Law Business)
• Litigation work slowed across 151 law firms in the first half of 2016, marking 15-straight quarters of decline, although some firms are seeing gains, according to new data. (Law.com)
• The American Bar Association will keep its power to accredit new law schools, the U.S. Department of Education announced Thursday, ignoring a recommendation made in June by one of its own committees that the authority should be suspended. (Law.com)
• From GC to CEO: Most technology company CEOs consult their general counsel or other legal adviser before making important moves, but its rare for these attorneys to rise tolead companies themselves. Advice for lawyers who want to make that step up. (IPWatchdog)
Legal Market
• A company that funded shareholder litigation isn’t entitled to $20 million in attorneys’ fees because it had no role in the litigation and thus lacked standing, the Delaware Chancery Court ruled. (Big Law Business/Bloomberg BNA)
• Big law firms and lawyers need to address the profession’s “work hard, play hard” culture that promotes the stereotype of the hard drinking, high-billing associate or partner, an addiction counselor tells BLB in a Q&A. (Big Law Business)
• Pros and cons of expanding abroad: at a recent conference, lawyers from Dentons extolled their firm’s explosive growth model, but other lawyers who went abroad for business had a more cautious view. (Am Law Daily)
• MasterCard has filed an appeal of a U.K. court’s ruling that it must pay a supermarket group $89 million in damages related to a fee dispute. (The Lawyer)
• Some big law firms are creating office plans that give lowly first-year associates and rainmakers the same office space. The goal: foster collaboration and reduce costs, while appealing to millennials choosing which major law firm to join. (Big Law Business)
• The standout lawyers on this year’s Bloomberg Businessweek ranking of the 50 most influential people in the world of finance owe their claim to fame to recent regulatory scrutiny that the financial services industry has faced. (Big Law Business)
• Perspective: Better understanding their clients’ “journeys” enables law firms to offer them more complete and sophisticated services, thereby distinguishing themselves from other firms, writes a legal consultant formerly at Debevoise & Plimpton. (Big Law Business)
• Hedge fund manager Leon Cooperman denied insider trading charges filed against him by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Video. (Bloomberg/Big Law Business)
• Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act should be scrapped. (Bloomberg/Big Law Business)
SCOTUS and Other Court Rulings
• The U.S. Supreme Court declined a reporter’s recent request for information about the health of its eight justices, whose average age is 69. (Law.com)
• Is the U.S. Supreme Court pro-business? Case Western Reserve University School of Law professor Jonathan Adler talks about his new book. (Bloomberg Radio/Big Law Business)
• A Missouri federal judge Wednesday rejected a request by Johnson & Johnson to throw out a California woman’s suit alleging the company’s baby powder caused her to get ovarian cancer. (National Law Journal)
Laterals and Moves
• U.K. firm Allen & Overy has taken two more partners away from Simmons & Simmons in London for its international IP practice. (The Lawyer)
• The Boston-based intellectual property boutique Wolf Greenfield is opening a New York City office next month. (Big Law Business)
• Two U.S. law firms announced recent hires in the Russian legal market, which is showing some signs of waking up. (Am Law Daily)
• As he gets ready for what is shaping up as a contentious divorce from Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt has hired some legal firepower. (Hollywood Reporter)
Technology
• Legal behemoth Dentons said this week it will soon launch what would be the world’s biggest legal referral network, while a trade association representing the most established existing networks announced a new free network aimed at countering Dentons’ arrival in the space. (Am Law Daily)
• If you’ve ever signed up for an account with Yahoo, you should be worried. And then switch to Gmail or use encryption. (Recode)
• Aside from the sheer scale of the breach, consumers should be concerned that it took Yahoo some two years to either discover or disclose the breach, says a security expert. (Bloomberg)
• By implying that a hack is state-backed, and thus couldn’t be stopped, corporations are by extension blaming their users, and that’s not acceptable. (BloombergGadfly)
• Editorial: The European Commission’s proposed “Google News tax” on aggregators makes no sense and would backfire. (BloombergView)
• U.S. prosecutors have issued a subpoena for Anthony Weiner‘s cell phone and other records, in probes of allegations that the former New York Democratic congressman exchanged sexually explicit text messages with an underage girl, according to law enforcement officials. (CNN Politics)
• Cloud storage company Box has introduced new security and governance tools that enable companies to include content governance and compliance functionsin applications and workflows, including a legal hold policy API that among other things can be used for e-Discovery. (ProgrammableWeb)
• Learn how to use the technology you already have, make “flat-fee” your default setting for all legal services, focus on a niche, and other advice for small firms trying to survive in today’s challenging legal market. (LawFuel)
Legal Education
• Former Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes should have been punished for the sexual harassment allegations against him, rather than receiving a multimillion dollar golden parachute, according to Anita Hill, the law professor who 25 years ago alleged that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of sexually harassed her. Hill made her comments in a speech Thursday at the Women, Influence & Power In Law conference in Washington. (National Law Journal)
Miscellaneous
• In a Roller Coaster Week for an ACLU immigration attorney, a federal appeals court threw out his class-action over whether poor children in immigration proceedings have a right to government-appointed counsel and two days later he received a a $625,000 “genius grant” from the MacArthur Fellows Program award. (WSJ Law Blog)
• In China’s harshest sentence yet in its crackdown on human-rights lawyers, a Beijing court handed a 12-year prison sentence to an attorney who represented a dissident artist and other politically sensitive figures. (Wall Street Journal)
• The FBI is investigating an incident involving Brad Pitt and his family aboard a private flight last week, the agency said. (Associated Press)
Compiled by Rick Mitchell and edited by Gabe Friedman.
https://bol.bna.com/wake-up-call-federal-judge-in-terrorism-case-lashes-out-at-facebook-and-lawyers/
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