Mr. Horwitz, 28, is a senior associate in the Washington office of Burson-Marsteller, the New York-based public relations firm, where he is on the crisis and issues management team, counseling corporate clients on matters like litigation, product recalls and investigations.
Its services include analysis of products, people, property, processes and finances related to litigation, product recall, regulatory compliance, research, development and design.
Grassroots litigation over product pricing, on the other hand, is a troublesome novelty.
Our society is drowning in litigation from product liability, medical malpractice, personal injury and disability claims, to name some.
Now the firm is using similar legal tactics, led by Summy, to secure lucrative fees from MTBE litigation: stretching product liability theories; lobbying Washington; elbowing aside rival trial lawyers; fighting, if need be, with a client; and relying on shaky scientific evidence.
"These videos are Chevron's property, and are confidential documents and/or protected litigation work product," one of Chevron's lawyers wrote in a February 15 , 2013letter to Donziger's attorneys.
And major litigation against products like asbestos, breast implants and defective birth-control devices like the Dalkon Shield also traces back decades.
The removal of Rezulin, a diabetes drug, and the restrictions on Propulsid, a medication for severe heartburn, were coincidental in timing, but served as a double-barreled call to action for lawyers who specialize in large-scale litigation involving products to which illness or injury have been attributed.
Judge Jack Weinstein of the Federal District Court in Brooklyn has overseen much of the recent wave of product litigation, including major cases involving firearms and tobacco.
"When we see plaintiff lawyers versus defense lawyers, that's only Act 1," he said of widespread personal injury litigation over a product or material.
The new G.M., which would continue to be led by Fritz Henderson, would leave behind several undesirable sets of claims in bankruptcy court, including asbestos litigation and some product liability claims.
