news from washington
June 30, 2014
washington LITIGATION
DEPARTMENTS OF THE YEAR
A special report
In this special report, The National Law Journal takes the measure of litigation shops in our nation’s capital. We asked top
litigation practices to tell us about their operations—headcounts and revenues, biggest wins and, yes, even their losses.
Our staff in Washington and elsewhere in the country scrutinized the data and selected the nine firms you’ll read about
in these pages. Latham & Watkins is the top honoree, but it was a close call, and we selected two runners-up: Hogan
Lovells and Sidley Austin. We also recognize firms with distinguished practices in intellectual property, general civil
litigation, white-collar defense, insurance, mass torts and labor and employment. —Beth Frerking, Editor in Chief
gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
mass torts
diego m. radzinschi
N
Daniel Nelson
early a decade after 300 people sued Unisys
Corp. and others over alleged groundwater
contamination associated with a site in Grand
Island, Neb., Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher negotiated a
settlement in 2013.
Most of the plaintiffs had been dismissed early in the
case. But on May 13, Gibson Dunn secured dismissals
against 13 plaintiffs through a stipulated judgment and
then shot down the personal-injury and medical claims
of 34 more. Gibson Dunn partner Daniel Nelson and of
counsel Melanie Katsur, both in Washington, reached
a confidential settlement that the parties filed with the
court on July 18.
Plaintiffs attorney Curt Marshall, an associate at
Weitz & Luxenberg, praised the professionalism of
Gibson Dunn’s attorneys. “I’ve dealt with some real
wacky lawyers on the defense side sometimes—they’re
unyielding and not reasonable—and these two were
very helpful and reasonable. We were able to exchange
creative ideas to get things done,” Marshall said.
the national law journal washington litigation DEPARTMENTS OF THE YEAR
June 30, 2014
washington LITIGATION DEPARTMENTS OF THE YEAR
A special report
Nelson, co-partner in charge of the Washington
office, also represents International Paper Co. in litigation over alleged water contamination and exposure to
airborne pollutants from mills in Alabama, Louisiana
and Texas. In one case, a class of 4,000 individuals
asserted personal property damages and injuries associated with river contamination over a paper mill in
Bogalusa, La. A federal judge approved the class action
settlement on July 10, 2013.
Nelson struck a 2013 settlement for International
Paper in a case alleging personal property damages
from airborne emissions at a mill in Yellow Bluff, Ala.
A previous case, which Gibson Dunn was not involved
in, had claimed the emissions caused respiratory illnesses in children.
Nelson also was brought in last year to represent
International Paper in lawsuits over a mill’s river contamination near Houston, including one action by the
Harris County Attorney’s office.
Another Washington partner, Thomas Dupree, meanwhile, struck a $3.125 million settlement for CSX
Transportation Inc. following a 2012 train derailment
in Louisville that spilled dangerous ­chemicals, prompting the evacuation of local residents. CSX, which owned
the tracks, and other defendants began mediation in late
2013 to resolve a class action filed on behalf of those
with injuries or property damage. They moved for pre-
liminary approval of the deal on April 2 of this year.
The New York office spearheaded one of the firm’s
biggest cases, Chevron’s trial last year over pollution
claims in Ecuador, but Dupree and another D.C. partner, Peter Seley, co-chairman of the environmental litigation and mass torts practice, were “instrumental” in
that case, Nelson said.
On March 4 of this year, U.S. District Judge Lewis
Kaplan found that a $9.5 billion award against
Chevron in Ecuador had been procured by fraud; the
former Patton Boggs, which represented the plaintiffs,
agreed to pay $15 million to Chevron.
Then there were BP PLC’s oil spill appeals.
Washington appellate partner Theodore Olson was
brought in last year to challenge rulings in BP’s
2012 settlement of economic damages tied to the
Deepwater Horizon spill. BP, which criticized the way
claims administrator calculated payouts, now plans
to petition the U.S. Supreme Court following dual
defeats before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth
Circuit Nelson acknowledged that “some of the issues
in BP were a real uphill march, and in the end we
didn’t prevail.”
—Amanda Bronstad
Reprinted with permission from the June 30, 2014 edition of THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL © 2014 ALM
Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited. For information,
contact 877-257-3382, reprints@alm.com or visit www.almreprints.com. #005-07-14-03
Keys to success
In mass tort cases, develop a strategy early in the case to efficiently manage, methodologically narrow and
position the case for decisive rulings as to large groups of plaintiffs.
It is important to assemble a top-notch expert team and zero in on the key weaknesses in the opposing party’s
expert case, particularly because successful Daubert motions can effectively end the case.
—Daniel Nelson