Here is the online agenda for a great new asbestos litigation conference on May 3 and 4.
Why great ? Because the conference format explicitly recognizes the importance of science to where the litigation has been, and where it will go. Thus, virtually all of the speakers are doctors and scientists, including several who are world class in anyone’s book. The conference, sponsored by Perrin Conferences, is titled: A Conference on Asbestos and Mesothelioma.
Science alone of course does not result in lawsuits. Accordingly, lawyers are involved to a degree. The conference chairs are two lawyers with reputations for knowing and enjoying the science side of litigation. They are plaintiff”s counsel Shep Hoffman, founder of The Law Offices of Shepard A. Hoffman, Dallas, and defense counsel, Robert Rich, a partner of Gordon Rees, San Francisco.
The scientist are listed below – this is by far the best overall assembled group of doctors and scientists focused on asbestos. Part of the power of this group is that it includes speakers with diverging views. And, for anyone interested in the global spread of asbestos disease, and thus some spread of the litigation, do not miss the chance to hear from Dr. Julian Peto, who is at the forefront of those looking all the way around the world.
It will be interesting to see the level of attendance, the manner in which this conference is conducted, and whether this approach is repeated for asbestos and replicated for other areas of mass tort litigation. In the past, most asbestos conferences that included much science were conferences sponsored by one side or the other. Thus, for many, many years, Al Parnell and the Defense Research Institue have held an annual Asbestos Medicine conference that usually included severals doctros and scientists. The conference usually also was attended by a few plaintiff’s lawyers. And, likewise, the plaintiff’s bar holds periodic meetings, but typically they do not allow defense lawyers to attend.
_____________________________________________________________________________Jerrold L. Abraham, MD, Professor of Pathology, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY
D. Wayne Berman, Ph.D., researcher in asbestos exposure and risk and President of Aeolus, Inc., San Francisco, CA
David Bernstein, Ph.D., Consultant in Toxicology, Geneva, Switzerland
Arnold R. Brody, Ph.D., Department of Molecular Biomedical Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
Andrew Churg, MD, Professor of Pathology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
David Egilman, MD, MPH, Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Community Health, Brown University, Providence, RI
Murray Finkelstein, Ph.D., MD, Associate Professor, Program in Occupational Health and Environmental Medicine, McMaster University and Department of Family Medicine, University of Toronto, Hamilton, Ontario and Toronto, Ontario
Allen Gibbs, MD, Consultant of Histopathologist for the National Health Service, University Hospital Llandough, Penarth, South Wales UK
Graham W. Gibbs, MSc Ph.D., MRSC, ROH, President, Safety Health Environment International Consultants Corp. & Adjunct Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Alberta, Alberta, Canada
Samuel Hammar, MD, Director of Diagnostic Specialty Laboratories, Bremerton, WA
Douglas W. Henderson, MB, BS, FRCPA. FRCPath, FHKCPath, Professor of Anatomical Pathology, Flinders University Adelaide, South Australia
Gunnar Hillerdal, MD, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Lung Medicine, Karolinska Institute and University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden
Howard M. Kipen, MD, MPH, Professor and Interim Chair, Department of Environmental & Occupational Medicine Chief, Clinical Research & Occupational Medicine Division, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Piscataway, New Jersey
Eugene J. Mark, MD, Professor of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
Corbett McDonald, MD, FRCP, Emeritus Professor (Epidemiology), McGill University; Emeritus Professor (Occupational Medicine), University of London, London, England
Julian Peto, DSc FMedSci, Cancer Research UK Chair of Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine London, England
Victor L. Roggli, MD, Professor of Pathology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC