W.R.Grace & Co.
Attorneys for W.R. Grace profiled below
Since 1872 when it began as a shipping company, W. R. Grace & Co. has expanded like popped vermiculite. But the heat that the company is facing these days is not directly a part of an industrial process.
Headquartered in Columbia, Md., Grace, as the umbrella company is named, has two divisions with offices in 40 countries, according to the company Web site. The division of Grace Davison produces chemicals and related technology for the petroleum and plastics industries. However, it is Grace Construction Products that dealt with the vermiculite mined in Libby, Mont.
The products division was added to the company in 1954. Nine years later, in 1963, it purchased the Libby-based Universal Zonolite Company. Grace profited from selling vermiculite from the Zonolite mine from 1963 to 1990.
Grace used vermiculite to manufacture a variety of common building products, including water- and fire-proofing materials, roofing membranes and air and vapor barriers. It is perhaps most infamous, however, for making Zonolite Attic Insulation and Monokote spray on fireproofing, two products that have through civil litigation become associated with asbestos contamination.
Since vermiculite from Libby also contains tremolite, an asbestiform mineral, workers who were exposed to the vermiculite are at risk of developing asbestos-related diseases. According to Asbestos.com, Grace has faced more than 250,000 civil lawsuits related to asbestos exposure. The first asbestosis-related civil case against Grace filed by a Libby resident went to court in 1997 as outlined in the book “An Air That Kills,” by Andrew Schneider and David McCumber.
Grace filed for bankruptcy in 2001, effectively stalling legal recourse if a victim developed lung disease. On Sept. 19, 2008, the company filed its reorganization plan with the bankruptcy court. The plan requires the establishment of two asbestos-related trusts that will deal with all asbestos-related claims. The plan is scheduled for final acceptance in September 2009.
On its company Web site, Grace claims that it is “dedicated to the highest standards of health and safety practices.” Grace watchers have questioned that claim, noting that Grace’s actions have tended not to support that statement with respect to Libby.
The company denies all the charges of the current criminal indictment on their Web site, saying it did not know it was endangering workers over the decades.
– Laura L. Lundquist
Attorneys representing W.R. Grace
David M. Bernick
Kirkland and Ellis
Chicago, Ill.
Forbes Magazine described David M. Bernick, 54, as a “five-foot-seven dynamo” who has represented WR Grace in bankruptcy court. The New York Times called him a “quiet corporate rescue artist.” Whichever Bernick shows up in Missoula, Grace’s lead defense counsel is sure to have center stage.
Bernick has defended breast implant makers and tobacco companies as well as major auto companies embroiled in asbestos litigation. According to his online profile, Bernick has “an extensive background as national trial counsel in complex litigation in the areas of RICO, pharmaceutical products, asbestos restructuring, fraudulent conveyance, tobacco cost recovery, medical devices, and radiation exposure in that and federal courts. He has also served as trial counsel in product liability, leveraged-buyout, trade secret misappropriation, breach of contract, securities and monopoly cases.”
In U.S. v. W.R. Grace et al, Bernick represents Grace, the company that – along with seven of its top executives – was indicted on federal charges in February 2005. Grace pleaded not guilty to all ten counts.
After graduating a Phi Betta Kappa from the University of Chicago in 1974, Bernick received his Master of Arts from Yale University in 1975 and later his law degree in 1978, again from the University of Chicago.
He frequently speaks on topics such as mass tort litigation, highly complex trials and international and social issues surrounding litigation. He has been featured in several articles appearing in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fortune Magazine among other publications.
Bernick works for the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP – a 100-year-old global law firm with about 1,500 lawyers working around the world.
- Chris D’Angelo
Walter R. Lancaster
Kirkland & Ellis, LLP
Los Angeles, Calif.
If you asked attorney Walter R. Lancaster how to win a case he might refer you to his article “Preparing to Destroy an Expert Every Time” and tell you that to “become the master of your case. You must be intimately familiar with every fact, every document, every witness in the case.”
Lancaster has honed that practical strategy over 20 years as a defense attorney. He will bring it to bear as one of nine attorneys defending W.R. Grace against allegations of massive corporate wrong doing pursued by the United States.
Lancaster is known for his victory in Jakobsons v. General Motors Corp., where he persuaded a jury that GM was not accountable for a post-crash fire that killed a mother and her two daughters ages 12 and 13.
Lancaster attended the University of Illinois and graduated in 1984 summa cum laude. After leaving Chicago he received his JD from Harvard Law School in 1987. Currently he is a partner at the law firm Kirkland & Ellis in Los Angeles, Calif.
Lancaster specializes in antitrust and competition; class action, mass tort and toxic tort litigation; litigation and product liability litigation. He has been featured on Fortune’s list of Leading Lawyers and is the author of several legal treatises the most recent being “Expert Witnesses in Civil Trials: Effective Preparation and Presentation.”
-Elizabeth Diehl
Stephen R. Brown
Garlington, Lohn & Robinson
Missoula, Mont.
Kathleen L. DeSoto
Garlington, Lohn & Robinson
Missoula, Mont.
Barbara Harding
Kirkland & Ellis
Washington, DC
Scott A. McMillin
Kirkland & Ellis
Chicago, Ill.
Charles E. McNeil
Garlington, Lohn & Robinson
Missoula, Mont.
Brian T. Stansbury
Kirkland & Ellis
Washington, DC
Laurence A. Urgenson
Kirkland & Ellis
Washington, DC