Henry Eschenbach
Henry Eschenbach worked for W.R. Grace as an industrial hygienist starting in 1971. In just a few years, he was promoted to the position of director of health, safety and toxicology, where he served from 1977 to 1996.
Just before his promotion, he surveyed the chest x-rays of 17 retirement-age employees at Grace’s vermiculite mine in Libby, Mont. Fourteen showed what he called, in a memo to Vice President Jack Wolter, “significant scar tissue or fibrosis” – common characteristics of asbestosis. Broadening his study, he found that nearly two thirds of miners who’d worked 10 years or more tested positive for asbestos-related disease. This survey of company-kept medical records is known as the “Eschenbach Study.” Neither the medical records nor the findings of the study were released to Grace employees.
As health and safety director, Eschenbach commissioned confidential studies conducted by outside doctors and laboratories. Those studies examined employee death records; the effects of Libby’s asbestos on hamsters; and the exposure risks when handling the company’s product.
In a memo to Grace executives regarding the death certificate studies, he said, “Our major problem is death from respiratory cancer. This is no surprise.” But in a later memo to the Environmental Protection Agency, which made no mention of the studies, he said there was “no reason to believe there is any risk associated with the current uses of Libby vermiculite-containing products.”
He is charged with one count of conspiring to knowingly release asbestos fibers and keeping the risk they present a secret from employees, customers and government agencies to boost profits and curtail the company’s liability.
– Alex Tenenbaum
David S. Krakoff
Mayer Brown LLP
Washington D.C.
Originally from Columbus, Ohio, David S. Krakoff, 59, specializes in commercial litigation and white-collar criminal defense for the Washington, D.C. office of Mayer Brown LLP—a global law firm with 1,800 lawyers working throughout the Americas, Asia and Europe.
In U.S. v. W.R. Grace et al, Krakoff represents Henry A. Eschenbach, a former health and safety expert at W.R. Grace’s Industrial Chemicals Group and one of seven Grace executives indicted on federal conspiracy charges in February 2005. He faces no other charges in the case.
After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1971, Krakoff went on to receive his law degree in 1975 from the Antioch School of Law. He served for 10 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia before becoming a partner at Mayer Brown in 2004.
Krakoff was one of 160 lawyers at Mayer Brown to be recognized by The Best Lawyers in America in 2008 and is also recognized as a leading white-collar defense practitioner by publications such as Chambers USA, Superlawyers, Washington Magazine, and others.
According to his online profile, Krakoff’s experience includes “federal and state trials, with primary trial responsibility in more than 50 cases. He represents corporations and corporate executives in all aspects of criminal and related civil and administrative matters.”
– Chris D’Angelo
James T. Parkinson
Mayer Brown Rowe Maw LLP
Washington DC
Lauren Reid Randell
Mayer Brown Rowe Maw LLP
Washington, DC
Ronald F. Waterman
Gough Shanahan Johnson & Waterman
Helena, Mont.
Gary A. Winters
Mayer Brown Rowe Maw LLP
Washington, DC