• New York (1967)
• California (1970)
• U.S. Courts of Appeals, Third, Fifth and Ninth Circuits
• California and U.S. District Courts, Northern and Eastern Districts of California
• U.S. Supreme Court

• Harvard University (LL.B., 1966)
• Brandeis University (A.B., 1963)

Founding, senior and managing principal; admitted to New York (since 1967-) and California (since 1970-) Bars; U.S. Courts of Appeals, Third, Fifth and Ninth Circuits; California and U.S. District Courts, Northern and Eastern Districts of California; U.S. Supreme Court; Harvard University (LL.B., 1966); Brandeis University (A.B., 1963.)

I filed my first case on behalf of an asbestos victim in 1974, and since then have represented thousands of injured workers and their family members in court cases.

I have also represented their interests through my service on creditors' committees for asbestos disease victims in the reorganizations of asbestos companies that sought to avoid their responsibility under the bankruptcy laws, including Amatex, Carey Canada, Celotex and H.K. Porter, and was class counsel in the Fibreboard Global Settlement. I served on the Asbestos Victims Creditor's Committee in the Chapter XI bankruptcy reorganization of Babcock and Wilcox, and also serve as counsel to asbestos victim members of the Creditors' Committees in the Chapter XI reorganization of Armstrong World Industries (AWI), W.R. Grace, NARCO, Federal Mogul, Kaiser Aluminum, Global Technologies (GIT), ACandS, ARTRA, Owens Corning, Plibrico, T&N, U.S. Gypsum, Combustion Engineering, the Muralo Company, Congoleum, Flintkote Company, Special Electric, and ABB Lummus Global, and T H Agriculture & Nutrition.  I am a member of the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee for Asbestos Multi-District Litigation (MDL) for cases filed in Federal Courts throughout the United States, and a member of the Trustees' Advisory Committee to the Celotex Asbestos Compensation Trust.

Recently, there has been much attention directed at the mounting asbestos litigation, corporate bankruptcies resulting from their asbestos liabilities, and possible legislative remedies to these problems. I often talk to reporters so they can better understand these issues as they write their articles, which provide more detailed information on this complex topic. In November 2002, I was appointed by the American Bar Association's then President-Elect Dennis Archer to serve as one of two plaintiffs' representatives to the ABA Commission on Asbestos Legislation. We presented our report to the ABA House of Delegates in February 2003, which adopted it in its resolution favoring a "Standard for Non-Malignant Asbestos-Relates Disease Claims."

In 2008 I became a member of ALI-ABA's Litigation Advisory Panel.

I was Special Counsel to the Manville and H.K. Porter Trusts and to the Raymark Trustee in their efforts to collect payment for asbestos victims from the tobacco industry. I lobbied and testified in Congress on behalf of asbestos victims, to explain the injustice they would have suffered in the tobacco industry settlement with the Attorneys General of forty-six states that was proposed in June 1997.

I am also active in continuing legal education. Between 1985 and 1991, I chaired the annual plaintiffs' asbestos seminars in Monterey, California. For over thirty years I have been a lecturer, speaker, moderator, program chairman and participant at various California Trial Lawyers Association, Consumer Attorneys of California, and other Continuing Legal Education seminars and workshops on asbestos, tobacco, toxic torts and mass torts. I have also lectured at medical, insurance, and defense seminars.

During the three years 1998-2000, I was co-chair of Mealey's National Asbestos Litigation Conference. In November 1998 I spoke at the Mealey's National Tobacco Litigation Conference about tobacco's liability to asbestos disease victims. In May 1999 I was on the faculty of Andrews' 14th Annual Asbestos Conference in New Orleans, where I spoke about suits by asbestos trusts seeking recovery from Big Tobacco; and later that month I was a speaker at the 15th Tobacco Products Liability Conference, held at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston.

In February 2000 I lectured on "Liability Theories and Defenses" at Mealey's Asbestos Litigation 101 seminar, and in May I lectured about asbestos and tobacco litigation at the Andrews' Asbestos Seminar. In February 2001 I was an invited guest speaker at the Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Global Leveraged Finance Conference, where I spoke about the future prospects for asbestos companies and trends in asbestos litigation. In March 2001 I spoke at Professor Francis McGovern's "Mass Tort Litigation" seminar at the University of California's Boalt Hall School of Law; and in April I was a guest speaker at Professor Robert Rabin's "Toxic Harms Seminar" at Stanford Law School. I was co-chair of Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy Conference 2001, held in Philadelphia, PA in June; in November 2001 I spoke at the Georgetown "Mass Tort Litigation Institute" and I was chair of Mealey's first annual ALI-ABA seminar on asbestos, held in New Orleans in December 2001.

At the start of 2002 I was in Washington, DC for the Mealey's Asbestos Litigation Conference, participating in a panel discussion on the future of asbestos litigation. In early April, I was co-chair of the American Conference Institute's "Asbestos Litigation: The Next Generation," a 2-day seminar held in San Francisco. On April 11, I presented the keynote address on the topic "Asbestos Litigation, Now and the Future." In June, I was a member of a panel presenting the latest developments with creditors' committees at the Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy Conference held in Chicago; in July, I co-chaired the Mealey's "Wall Street Forum: Asbestos" in New York city. In September, I co-chaired the American Law Institute - American Bar Association's Advanced Course of Study, "Asbestos Litigation in the 21st Century."

In March 2003, I was a panelist for the National Association of Manufacturers' 2003 Public Affairs Conference in a session entitled "Asbestos: Everybody's Problem," in Tempe, AZ, and also co-chaired the American Conference Institute's two-day 4th National Forum on Asbestos Litigation, in San Francisco. In April, I spoke at the Pepperdine University School of Law two-day symposium, "Asbestos Litigation Today: Trends and Solutions," in Malibu, CA, and also co-chaired Mealey Publications' "The Wall Street Forum: Asbestos" in New York City. In September I was in Chicago to speak on legislative issues relating to non-malignant / unimpaired asbestos cases at the Mealey's National & International Asbestos Litigation Conference. In November, I was co-chair of the American Law Institute - American Bar Association's 3rd Annual "Asbestos Litigation in the 21st Century" seminar in New Orleans. I finished the year engaged as a panelist at the Mealey's Asbestos Premise Liability Conference in San Francisco.

In May 2004, I spoke at the University of San Francisco School of Law's CLE Symposium, "Asbestos Litigation 2004: California and Its Impact on National Litigation -- Trends and Solutions." In November, I once again co-chaired the American Law Institute - American Bar Association's annual "Asbestos Litigation in the 21st Century" seminar in New Orleans.

In June 2005, I was again a panelist at the Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy Conference in Chicago. In October, I co-chaired ALI-ABA's "Asbestos Litigation in the 21st Century" seminar again in Chicago. In December, I spoke at Mealey's "Asbestos Bankruptcy Conference" in New York City.In both 2006 and 2007, I spoke at Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy Conference held in June, and co-chaired ALI-ABA's "Asbestos Litigation in the 21st Century" November seminar in New Orleans. I co-chaired ALI-ABA’s "Asbestos Litigation" seminar in San Antonio, Texas in December 2008. In March 2009, I served as a faculty member at the Mealey’s Litigation Conference "Emerging Trends in Asbestos Litigation" in Beverly Hills. In April 2009, I gave two presentations at the Asian Asbestos Conference in Hong Kong.

Although most of my time is devoted to asbestos law, I also have extensive experience in medical malpractice and other toxic tort lawsuits. I was appointed to the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee in the national Latex Multi-District Litigation, and also serve on the Federal and State Court Liaison Committee and the Discovery Committee. I was Plaintiffs' Liaison Co-Counsel for all California State Court Healthcare Latex Cases.

Since 1975, I have been a member of the Asbestos Litigation Group. From 1980 to 1995, I was a member of the Board of Governors of Consumers Attorneys of California (formerly California Trial Lawyers Association), and I was Parliamentarian in 1989 and a Vice-President in 1990. Between 1975 and 1983, I was a member of the Board of Governors of the Alameda-Contra Costa Trial Lawyers Association, and in 1980 I was President. I am also a member of the Federal, New York State, California State, and Alameda County Bar Associations, Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, AFL-CIO Lawyers' Coordinating Committee, New York State Trial Lawyers Association, the American Association of Justice, and the Great Britain's Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL). I am Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Allen E. Broussard Law School Scholarship Fund.

Prior to starting the firm in Oakland in 1974, I was an Assistant to the General Counsel of the Interstate Commerce Commission in Washington, D.C. (1967-1969); an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of California (1969-1971); and an associate at Werchick & Werchick, a plaintiffs' medical malpractice specialty law office in San Francisco (1971-1974.)