Adams & Reese LLP

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Asbestos

Asbestos litigation continues to clog the trial courts' docket in all states. Despite attempts to reform this litigation on both federal and state levels, new suits are filed virtually every day.

Adams and Reese has long been recognized as a leader in the fields of asbestos and silica litigation, and has represented various types of defendants, in numerous states, including product manufacturers, distributors, retailers, premises owners, and employers. The firm has served as national, regional and local coordinating counsel for a variety of clients. Many of the firm's lawyers have also served as defense liaison counsel in numerous trial courts. Adams and Reese has considerable trial experience in asbestos personal injury litigation and holds the distinction of having tried the largest consolidated asbestos personal injury trial in the State of Louisiana to a successful defense verdict. Adams and Reese also has considerable experience in the medical defense of this type of litigation.

Traditionally, the targeted defendants in asbestos litigation were asbestos product manufacturers and suppliers. While many of these companies are now defunct, plaintiffs' counsel continue to find new targets to prolong the litigation. These new targets include equipment manufacturers, component manufacturers, manufacturers of drilling mud additives, contractors, employers, and premises owners. Adams and Reese's Asbestos Litigation Team defends clients faced with all of the above threats.

Our Attorneys

The firm has a well-established, national reputation and many of our partners have held leadership positions in organizations such as the DRI, ABA, AIADC and IADC. Adams and Reese attorneys are frequently included on seminar faculty and panels addressing asbestos, silica and other toxic tort issues. Adams and Reese attorneys have also testified before legislative bodies in support of asbestos legislative reform.

Toxic Tort

When the Adams and Reese Environmental and Toxic Tort Team takes on your case, we are there in the moments following a catastrophic incident and we will see you through to its resolution. The information we obtain in those first critical hours gives you the best chance of understanding the cause and responsible parties as well as your rights under the law. Over the past 15 years, we have developed a repository of cases and evidence that helps us to move quickly on similar incidents and matters. The result is cost-effective and logical representation in an often high-stakes environment.

The firm’s related work in environmental, forestry, real estate, insurance and energy law supports our ability to quickly discern the contractual, regulatory or liability factors that could prove critical in litigation. We assist in drafting and reviewing agreements and advising on compliance to help you avoid costly litigation in the future — or manage claims effectively with proper protections. Keeping clients and in-house counsel involved throughout the process, we bring all of our firm knowledge and experience to bear in the environmental arena.

Our Attorneys

Adams and Reese attorneys have represented clients in all manner of environmental permitting, transport and disposal matters as well as toxic tort litigation. This has ranged from unique experience with boiler systems and petrochemicals to the handling of more than 10,000 asbestos cases. We also have acted as national counsel for leading petrochemical, pharmaceutical and agricultural chemical companies for many years.

Our attorneys have engineering, science, military and medical backgrounds. We collaborate across offices and practices to collect the proper documentation, testimony and evidence. Involvement in leading litigation defense organizations such as DRI helps us to keep pace with the latest strategies and theories from the plaintiff’s side.

The firm represents clients in all environmental issues. This includes representation in regulatory compliance, permitting and administrative hearings and enforcement proceedings before local, state and federal environmental and agencies. It advises clients on compliance issues on potential environment liabilities. Our attorneys also have substantial experience in litigation of environmental and toxic tort issues.

Representative Matters:
* Hazardous and Solid Waste Materials Permitting and Enforcement Regulation and all related RCRA issues
* Liability for contaminated soils and groundwater including PRP representation
* Underground Storage Tanks (USTs) requirements and liabilities
* Air and Water Pollution
* Brownfields Redevelopment
* Duty to Report Releases and Discovery of Contamination
* State Petroleum and Dry Cleaning Programs
* Brownfields Incentives in the Redevelopment of Property
* Compliance with Asbestos Regulations
* Compliance with Lead Regulations
* Risk Allocation by Contract or Insurance
* NPDES Permits and Industrial Pretreatment Requirements and Compliance
* All Appropriate Inquiry and Due Diligence Investigations in Acquisition or Sale of Property
* Negotiation of Consent Orders
* Surface Water Discharges From Construction Sites
* Construction Contracting Issues Involving Hazardous Substances
* Water Use and Management
* Coastal Construction
* Toxic Torts
* Wetlands Jurisdiction Protection and Mitigation
* Lender liability

Core Practice and Clients

Providing representation and ongoing counsel to industries such as forestry and transportation, maritime and offshore, oil and gas and energy, construction, agriculture and real estate, Adams and Reese offers vast experience with relevant state, U.S. and international environmental statutes.

Our primary services include:

* Latent Defense: representing defendants in cases where plaintiffs may have been exposed to potentially harmful chemicals or substances years before they actually show disease or injury. This includes expert testimony as to actual medical causation.

* Mature and Emerging Toxic Torts: providing deep experience in the proper defense against claims of bodily injury or harm from substances that are known and well studied and those whose effects on the human body are either not conclusive or not broadly recognized. Claims for bodily injury, mental/emotional injury and medical monitoring resulting from alleged exposure to asbestos and other toxins continue to be filed in unprecedented numbers. Both "mature" (e.g., asbestos) and "emerging" (e.g., latex gloves) toxic torts fall within the experience of the Adams and Reese Asbestos and Toxic Tort Team. Significantly, our firm has been involved in the development of defenses to latent disease injuries, such as those caused by silica or asbestos. These defenses require experience in law that is inapplicable in other cases. This is because the courts may look to and apply the law in effect at the time of the harmful exposure, which may have been 20 to 50 years earlier. Our attorneys provide the experience, manpower and technology necessary to defend toxic tort claims ranging from individual plaintiffs to multi-party mass tort litigation. Our attorneys have served as local, regional and national counsel to a large variety of manufacturers, distributors and users of products targeted in toxic tort litigation. We have experience in defending clients involved in asbestos, grain dust, silica, welding rods, benzene, implants, latex gloves, pesticides and other chemicals. This experience extends to the proper handling and strategies to be employed to defend and develop legal and factual issues, as well as medical causation. We have assembled a repository of medical, scientific and technical information and we have access to a network of highly respected consultants and experts. Our team approach allows the firm's clients to benefit from a wealth of information and resources.

* Mass Tort Litigation: representing clients in complex and multi-party litigation in which the case may involve hundreds of plaintiffs in multiple jurisdictions. We are experienced in summary judgment motions to aid in the efficient resolution of these cases as well as national trial counsel.

* Due Diligence/Transactions: assisting with obtaining and interpreting Phase I, II and III environmental site assessments, tax, title and rights analysis; negotiating and drafting agreements for development, acquisition, sale and financing as well as representing real property agreements.

* Statutory Counsel: including the interpretation of various statutes on air quality, water quality, solid and hazardous waste management, remedial and corrective actions, toxins, land use planning and zoning, flood insurance exemptions, wetlands policy, mineral law, coastal zone management, underground injection, oilfield waste and hazardous materials transportation.

Whether you need legal counsel to interpret an existing law or emerging piece of environmental legislation, or you are facing a costly and complex mass tort claim, Adams and Reese has the resources and experience to navigate the regulatory and judicial terrain. Contact us to discuss your matter.

Adams & Reese LLP
Concord Center #1100
2100 3rd Ave N
Birmingham AL 35203
Tel: 205 250-5000
Fax: 205 250-5034

Adams and Reese is a multi-disciplinary law firm with offices in Baton Rouge, Birmingham, Houston, Jackson, Memphis, Mobile, Nashville, New Orleans, Sarasota, St. Petersburg, Tampa and Washington, DC.