Message from the Chairs

Happy 2008! The Mass Torts Committee is off to a tremendous start. Our Committee along with the ABA Products Liability and Environmental Litigation Committees just completed our Annual CLE Summit in Snowmass (Aspen), Colorado, held January 10-12. We had in excess of 150 registrants and the skiing was stellar. The Mass Tort Committee held a substantive breakout session at the Summit entitled "Mass Torts – Looking Back But Heading Forward," which addressed many of the important decisions in the mass torts arena in 2007 and their impact on mass torts law going forward.

Subcommittee chairs continue the practice of having telephonic conference calls every 60 days to discuss and generate new ideas for substantive programs, publications and articles. We encourage any member of the Mass Tort Committee to contact subcommittee chairs with any ideas for substantive programs, articles and/or publications. Those committees are Newsletter and Publication, Programming, International Mass Torts, Hot Topics, Website, Class Actions, Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Toxic Torts, Young Lawyers and Membership. We are making every effort to involve interested committee members in the subcommittee structure.

One of our primary goals for 2008 is to upgrade our website to provide for the dissemination of updated and timely topical information to committee members. We are also looking at the possibility of conducting a webinar and are actively reviewing additional ways to communicate substantive topics of interest to our membership.

As reported in our last newsletter, the Committee took the lead in the preparation of a multi-committee publication on class actions entitled, "Class Actions Today: Jurisdiction To Resolution." This was published in December 2007, and presents unique prospectives from both the plaintiff and defense bar on timely class action topics.

Please mark your calendar for the 2008 Section of Litigation Annual Conference, which will be held April 16-18 at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. The Mass Torts Committee and Products Liability Committee will co-sponsor a substantive program entitled, "Trial Package: Mass Torts Simplified and Made More Dangerous." You will hear from the plaintiffs' bar and in-house counsel about how the plaintiffs' bar is putting together "trial packages" to strategically try mass torts cases.

Please keep in mind that we are always looking for good articles for our newsletter. If you are interested in writing an article or have suggestions for articles, please feel free to send them to any of our three newsletter co-chairs, James Beck, Trey Sibley, and Tara Demetriades.

As always, we welcome suggestions and involvement of our Committee members. Please feel free to contact John Manard or Byron Mason. We are looking forward to a productive 2008.

Byron K. Mason
John P. Manard, Jr.
Co-Chairs, Mass Torts Litigation Committee