42 Years - A Professional Law Corporation - Helping Asbestos Victims Since 1974

Ian Rivamonte

Meet Kazan Law’s 2014 Summer Asbestos Law Clerks

2014 asbestos law clerks

Clockwise from top left–Christina Bazak, Anthony Caruthers II, Yuki Cruse, Luis Landeros, Denise Smith, Tenette Smith

Here at Kazan Law our historic focus on asbestos law sets us apart from many other law firms. But as a law firm, we also share certain basic characteristics with other law firms across the country. One is that we proudly sponsor a robust summer law clerk program.

The Kazan, McClain, Satterley & Greenwood Summer Law Clerk Program offers law students the opportunity to gain experience in a plaintiff’s asbestos law practice.  Our summer clerks are fully integrated into the work and life of the firm, with the goal of giving them a realistic view of the rewards and demands of a plaintiff’s practice. Summer law clerks are afforded the opportunity to work with many of our attorneys in a collegial atmosphere, as we prepare and try mesothelioma cases.  Upon graduation from law school, former summer law clerks are given consideration in our hiring process; many current Kazan law attorneys began their careers with the firm as summer law clerks. The list includes:

As summer law clerks here, law students get the invaluable chance to learn by doing. Instead of listening to law professors, taking notes and reading text books, these young people get to do real world law firm tasks such as:

  • Helping draft parts of motions
  • Attending court hearings
  • Assisting in trial preparation
  • Writing legal memorandum
  • Fact checking legal documents

In keeping with the needs of our community and the population we serve, our summer clerks reflect the diverse spectrum of America today. We consider it a duty and a privilege to help educate these bright young future lawyers about truly balancing the scales of justice in the plight of those unlawfully exposed to asbestos by greedy powerful businesses.

Meet our 2014 summer asbestos law clerks:

Christina Bazak is a third year law student at Loyola Marymount University Law School in Los Angeles. She has previous experience working for a judge and a U.S. Senator.

Anthony Caruthers II is a third year law student at the University Of San Francisco School Of Law who takes time from his studies to mentor, coach and tutor at risk youth.

Yuki Cruse is a third year law student at the University Of San Francisco School Of Law who has experience in drafting memoranda for a judge. She is proficient in Japanese.

Luis Landeros is a third year law student at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. He earned his undergraduate degree at Stanford University and is active in outreach efforts to help Latino students.

Denise Smith returns to Kazan Law for a second summer. She is a third year law student at the University of California, Hastings College of Law and volunteers in youth outreach and environmental efforts.

Tenette Smith is a third year law student at the University of San Francisco School of Law. A 2013 Broussard Scholar, she has worked for the Public Defender’s Office in Little Rock, Arkansas and the Superior Court of California, County of San Diego as a court operations clerk. She volunteers for local legal aid groups.

Appeals Court Upholds $5 Million Verdict for Malignant Mesothelioma Patient

malignant mesothelioma

James Hellam

Our mesothelioma law firm is pleased to announce that a California court of appeals has upheld a $5,437,882 verdict for malignant mesothelioma patient James Hellam against industrial-products supplier Crane Co. (Hellam v. Crane Co., Nos. A138013 and A139141, 2014 WL 1492725 Cal. Ct. App., 1st Dist. Apr. 16, 2014).

Kazan Law partners Frank Fernandez and Dianna Lyons, now retired, won the original verdict last March for Hellam, a 66 year-old motivational speaker and former police officer. Kazan Law attorneys Ted Pelletier and Ian Rivamonte led the successful appeal. The appellate court held that evidence supported the finding that Crane’s gaskets and cement were defectively designed because they emitted and exposed Hellam to significant levels of toxic asbestos fibers during ordinary use. The court agreed that the jury rightly attributed Crane’s products being the cause of Hellam’s malignant mesothelioma.

The appeals court affirmed the trial court’s award of over $85,000 in litigation costs to Hellam and the following compensation for damages:

  • Economic damages = $937, 882.56
  • Non-economic damages = $4,500,000.00
  • Total = $5,437.882.56

A Hall of Fame softball player, Hellam had taken great pride in coaching his two sons on the ball field and was greatly looking forward to teaching his young grandsons how to play his beloved sport. Hellam had also anticipated continuing his career as a global motivational speaker for at least another decade and continuing to travel the world with his wife.

Now instead of doing the things he loved with the people he loved and enriching the world around him, James Hellam is struggling to withstand the ravages of malignant mesothelioma.

Although he had spent 13 years as a San Jose police officer before becoming a motivational speaker and leadership trainer, the seeds of Hellam’s malignant mesothelioma were sown longer ago in his past. For five consecutive summers as a kid, he worked for his grandfather’s boiler business in Monterey.

Neither Hellam nor his grandfather were warned that the products purchased from Crane’s “Crane Supply” wholesale outlet in Salinas, California for the process of refurbishing boilers contained asbestos and were a health hazard. Yet our firm presented evidence showing that Crane corporate officers knew or should have known as early as the 1930s that asbestos causes diseases that kill.

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