Our years in the courtroom have afforded us the skills to successfully lead class action and mass tort litigation. We are highly effective trial strategists. We have prepared hundreds of consultants, testifying experts and witnesses; analyzed and managed massive amounts of documentation; and coordinated thousands of plaintiffs, defendants, co-counsel and other trial counsel. Shea Stokes has committed the technological resources and staff necessary to manage these intensive efforts.
The result is an established track record of litigating multi-million dollar class actions and mass tort litigation in both state and federal courts, including serving as defense counsel in a mass toxic tort case filed by 5000 individual claimants. Our attorneys have also litigated cases involving exposure to asbestos, mold, tri-chloro-ethane, and other contaminants, as well as sick-building syndrome cases.
As a result, Shea Stokes has been selected to serve as coordinating counsel at both the state and national levels.
REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS
Hexavalent Chromium
Our team represented a Fortune 500 chemical manufacturer and its seven primary insurance carriers. The company asked Shea Stokes to assume the company's ongoing defense in what was one of the largest high-profile toxic tort cases ever brought in the U.S. Over 4,000 plaintiffs were involved in five cases brought against our client and a co-defendant (the largest utility company in the country) regarding the chemical hexavalent chromium. After two years we gained what our client considered an extremely favorable resolution.
Subsequent to the completion of this case, Shea Stokes was named as national coordinating counsel for all chromium litigation for one of the largest chemical manufacturers in the United States.
Asbestos
Shea Stokes attorneys coordinated the defense of approximately 20 defendants, including Fibreboard and the Long Beach Naval Shipyard. Members of the firm serving as co-trial counsel coordinated, reviewed, edited and approved motions; coordinated the retention, preparation and use of more than a dozen consulting and testifying experts; identified and managed key trial documents out of the hundreds of thousands produced; and prepared for and performed direct examination of expert and lay witnesses.
Environmental Property Litigation
Our firm is successfully representing five defendants on behalf of a national insurance company in a major lawsuit involving the drinking water supply for the City of Santa Monica.
Shea Stokes represented a major public utility in litigation involving contamination of the San Gabriel Valley drinking water and participated in the landmark California Supreme Court decision, Hartwell v. Southern California Water Co.
We have represented the meat packing industry in cleanup litigation involving contaminated groundwater resulting from long-term exposure to livestock and leaking underground storage tanks.
Shea Stokes has successfully represented potentially responsible parties in complex multiparty CERCLA, RCRA, as well as state statute and common-law based environmental property cases. These cases include lawsuits by landowners to cap or export hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of hazardous waste, cases involving tank farms with millions of gallons of annual throughput of hazardous materials and petroleum hydrocarbons, cases involving underground storage tanks, and cases involving a variety of chemicals such as those found at dry cleaners and printed circuit board manufacturing facilities.
Members have also represented major participants in state and federal superfund sites, as well as individual property owners dealing with contaminated or potentially contaminated real property.
Preparation of Experts
Shea Stokes' attorneys have prepared executives of Chevron Corp, Chevron USA Inc., Chevron Chemical Co., Unocal, Dupont, Fibreboard, Owens Corning and other Fortune 500 companies for deposition or trial.
Our team has also retained and briefed a broad range of experts including radiologists, pathologists, pulmonologists, oncologists, and causation specialists such as epidemiologists, toxicologists, and industrial hygienists.
Other Matters
Shea Stokes manages all litigation relating to the 1994 Northridge Earthquake - the largest natural catastrophe in California history.
REPRESENTATIVE CASES
PUBLISHED OPINIONS
TEAM MEMBERS
Maria C. Roberts
John R. Hunt
Lawrence W. Shea II
Peter B. Maretz
Arch Y. Stokes
Karl M. Terrell
Paul E. Wagner
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