Steven Kazan is an attorney and lead partner of Kazan, McClain, Satterley & Greenwood, located in Oakland, California. The firm's primary focus is asbestos and mesothelioma litigation, a cancer whose only known cause is exposure to asbestos. Kazan was the plaintiff attorney in some of the first ever damage awards in an asbestos product lawsuit. Litigation related to asbestos injuries and property damages has been claimed to be the longest-running mass tort in U.S. history.
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History and Asbestos Litigation
In 1973, Kazan served as the plaintiff's attorney for the first ever damage award in an asbestos product lawsuit. The damage award was $79,000. Then, in 1974, Kazan formed his own law firm and filed suit on behalf of Reba Rudkin, who developed Asbestosis after working for 29 years at Johns-Manville's plant in Pittsburg, California. Following this case, Kazan went on to represent over one hundred Asbestos-affected workers from Johns-Manville plants.
In 1982, Kazan won a $150,000 verdict for Bob Speake, one of the workers from the Johns-Manville plant in Pittsburg. Mr. Speake's case is regarded as a "threshold verdict" because it created the opportunity for punitive damage verdicts against Johns-Manville. Kazan eventually had 393 cases pending against the company. Six months after the Speake verdict, Johns-Manville filed for bankruptcy, one of the first companies to do so as a result of asbestos litigation.
In 1991, the firm won the largest non-punitive award in an asbestos case in California on behalf of a dying plumber and his wife.
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Bankruptcy Funds for Victims
Since the bankruptcy filing of Johns-Manville in 1982, many U.S. asbestos manufacturers have escaped litigation by filing bankruptcy. Once in bankruptcy, these companies typically are required to fund special "bankruptcy trusts" that pay pennies on the dollar to injured parties. However, these trusts do permit larger numbers of claimants to receive some kind of compensation, even if greatly reduced from potential recoveries in the tort system.
In 1998, Kazan served as co-counsel to the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust in its lawsuit to seek contribution from tobacco companies. This Trust succeeded the liabilities and some of the assets of the bankrupt Johns-Manville Corporation. The Trust's sole purpose was to pay asbestos victims compensation for what Manville owed them as compensation for their injuries. Due to the inadequacy of the Trust's assets, however, the Trust could only pay ten cents on the dollar of its admitted liabilities. At one point in time, the Trust had more than $6 billion in unpaid obligations.
In the same year, Kazan testified to the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States House of Representatives during the Committee's "Hearings on the Civil Liability Provisions of the Proposed Tobacco Settlement." In his testimony to the Committee, Kazan proposed an alternative mechanism for Tobacco to meet its obligations to the victims of what Kazan referred to as the "tobacco-asbestos crisis." Kazan's proposal included four components, the first of which was awarding compensation only to those individuals who were identified as asbestos-tobacco victims. Second, Kazan proposed offering targeted immunity to tobacco companies from their tort exposure but only in exchange for payments that met their obligations to the tobacco-asbestos victims. Third, Kazan urged Congress to find ways to mitigate the waste, delay and inadequacy of awards and bankruptcies. Kazan also urged Congress to enact his proposed solutions because they were completely consistent with the legislative approach that was submitted by the Judicial Conference's Ad Hoc Committee on Asbestos Litigation. Kazan warned Congress that his proposal was necessary in order to avoid "a coming tobacco-caused litigation crisis that will be greatly magnified in the asbestos context."
Starting in 2000, Kazan was actively involved in working with plaintiffs and defendants such as W.R. Grace, U.S. Gypsum and Federal Mogul in developing a comprehensive solution to compensate the plaintiffs and prevent the companies from bankruptcy.
In 2005, Congress considered but did not pass legislation entitled the "Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act of 2005." The Act would have established a $140 billion trust fund in lieu of litigation, but as it would have proactively taken funds held in reserve by bankruptcy trusts, manufacturers and insurance companies, it was not widely supported by both victims and corporations. Kazan opposed the legislation, saying "it's inadequately funded...and does nothing to protect the rights of victims. It puts them in a elaborate administrative system and effectively deprives them of their right to counsel."
Philanthropy
Established in 1994, the Kazan, McClain, Abrams, Fernandez, Lyons, Greenwood, Oberman, Satterley & Bosl Foundation, Inc., has awarded over $20 million in grants to a variety of civic and community organizations. The foundation has supported internships and fellowships at organizations such as The Impact Fund, Bay Area Legal Aid and the Public Justice Foundation. Scholarships and stipends have been established by the foundation at the Boalt Hall Center For Youth Development Through Law and the Oakland Technical High School Washington DC Program, among others. In addition, the Mesothelioma Research Fund, UCSF Oncology Department and The Oncology Program at Creighton University have all received funding for medical research for cures for asbestos-related diseases.
Awards and Recognition
- American Association for Justice-Distinguished Service Award presented to Steven Kazan in 2010
- ADAO-educational sponsor
- Alameda County Office of Education Public Education Service Award
- Northern California Super Lawyers
- Best Lawyers in America
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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