Judge Approves Expanded Opioid MDL Leadership Team

A federal judge has approved a plaintiffs leadership team in the opioid litigation that’s expected to get bigger—much bigger. U.S. District Judge Dan Polster in Ohio on Thursday approved a team of 22 lawyers to spearhead more than 180 lawsuits brought over the opioid epidemic, which has led to a public health crisis across the nation. The team reads like a “Who’s Who” in mass torts and includes many of the same lawyers who obtained the $246 billion settlement with Big Tobacco. The proposed slate was submitted in a court filing on Wednesday, complete with an organizational chart that shows various committees and working groups in which several more attorneys would be named. Overseeing those groups would be a plaintiffs steering committee, whose membership has yet to be decided. "I anticipate there will be dozens of more law firms involved than are identified in the current time," said Joe Rice, co-lead counsel on the team. "As to who they’ll be, and what their role will be, will be largely dictated on how the court will organize the case.” Peter Weinberger, managing partner of Cleveland’s Spangenberg Shibley & Liber, who is one of three liaison counsel on the team, wrote in an email that he planned to submit additional names to the leadership slate following a Jan. 9 hearing, at which Polster has indicated he could decide the structure of the MDL and whether to appoint a special master. The slate approved on Thursday includes the most senior positions, including three co-lead counsel and 16 members of an executive committee. The membership was slightly revised from the original leadership team proposed last month after Polster ordered that two lawyers representing nongovernmental entities—specifically, hospitals and third-party payors—should be included. He also limited the number of attorneys from the same law firm who could be on the executive committee. That dropped Jayne Conroy of Simmons Hanly Conroy, Burton LeBlanc of Baron & Budd and Linda Singer of Motley Rice from the executive committee. Paul Hanly of Simmons Hanly and Rice, of Motley Rice, are co-lead counsel, along with Paul Farrell of West Virginia’s Greene, Ketchum, Farrell, Bailey & Tweel and Roland Tellis of Baron & Budd are on the executive committee. Morgan & Morgan also was added to the executive committee after objecting to a selection process that took place at the Hilton Cleveland Downtown Hotel last month. “West Virginia and Appalachia, more especially, is the epicenter to the opioid epidemic,” said James Young, the Morgan & Morgan partner in Jacksonville, Florida, who was named to the revised slate. Young was special counsel to the attorney general in Florida, prosecuting pharmaceutical fraud cases. His firm has filed nine opioid cases on behalf of cities in West Virginia. He said the ordinary leadership structures in most MDLs—usually limited to lead counsel, an executive committee and plaintiffs steering committee—wouldn’t work in the opioid litigation because it’s “simply too big.” “I think of it as a collection of MDLs within a single consolidated proceeding,” he said. “There are multiple defendants, which is a bit of a rarity, and multiple theories, in terms of governmental entities, different damages elements, causes of action. It’s a very complex, huge piece of historic litigation.” Those myriad parties and claims have complicated the creation of a leadership team. Claims against distributors, for instance, have focused on the failures of those companies to flag unusually large orders of opioids, while manufacturers have faced allegations of falsely marketing the prescription painkillers as not addictive. The approved leadership slate would include separate co-chairs focused on the disparate claims against seven manufacturers and five groups of distributors. In addition, the majority of the cases have been brought by governmental entities, like states, counties and cities, but hospitals, labor unions and Native American tribes also have brought suits—all of which would be represented on the leadership team. After two groups of lawyers raised concerns last month that the original leadership slate did not include nongovernmental plaintiffs, Polster ordered that lawyers be appointed to represent hospitals and third-party payors. The revised slate on Wednesday includes James Dugan of The Dugan Law Firm in New Orleans, for third-party payors, and Don Barrett of Barrett Law Group in Lexington, Mississippi, for hospital plaintiffs. The lawyer who objected on behalf of hospitals, J. Nixon Daniel of Beggs & Lane in Pensacola, Florida, filed a motion on Wednesday arguing that he should have been appointed to that slot—either in addition to or in place of Barrett. Neither Daniel nor Barrett responded to requests for comment.