The Messy Business of Mass Torts

In this episode, we look at the challenges of progressive criminal justice reform from the standpoint of the prosecutor, by looking at how the District Attorney's office functions. The ideals of criminal justice reform are sound, but there are deficiencies in their execution. If people don't feel like their safety has improved and they don't feel good about their environment, what does that mean for the progressive D.A. movement's impact on the community? To make some sense of this, take a glimpse at how a District Attorney's office works. And, to do that, we talk with former Philadelphia District Attorney and former federally incarcerated citizen R. Seth Williams.

If we think about arbitration at all, we think of it in terms of a dispute resolution mechanism written into large, complex contracts. We don't think of ordering a pizza online, streaming a movie, or using our cellphone. We probably don't expect it to involve our workplace. Yet, here we are, with everyone likely subject to at least one binding arbitration agreement of which they're not even aware. Are there horror stories? You bet there are. We talk with two experts in the field to understand how we got to this place, and what it means now that we're here. What do our lives really look like now that we've unknowingly signed away one of our fundamental legal rights in exchange for some free food?

Guests:

Professor Tom Stipanowich, William Webster Chair in Dispute Resolution at the Pepperdine University School of Law

E. Drew Britcher - Senior Partner, Britcher Leone & Sergio LLP, New Jersey

Our story is one with a lot of facets: the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School; conspiracy theories bandied about for entertainment; the preternaturally unhinged and how they react to an equally unhinged media; the power of defamation lawsuits; the sheer absurdity of ignoring a court order to produce information and, finally; abusing the bankruptcy process. In other words, we're exploring the story of noted internet crackpot Alex Jones and the bankruptcy cases he filed for three of his companies in an attempt to get out from under the looming damages award he will ultimately owe to those who have successfully sued him and his companies for defamation.

Boy Scouts, Purdue Pharma, and now Johnson & Johnson - all are cases that are in bankruptcy because of thousands upon thousands of negligence cases; all are typical class actions; all are in bankruptcy against the wishes of the injured parties, and all are going to have to learn to adapt because they're all staying in bankruptcy. How did mass torts end up in the bankruptcy court instead of the class action courtroom? How can a company create a subsidiary and decide that the subsidiary will be responsible for all of the claims against the parent? And what's going on with Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family's efforts to buy peace from thousands of litigants? We talk with Ed Neiger of ASK, LLP, an attorney specializing in bankruptcy and torts litigation. He represents clients in several mass tort bankruptcy cases and will discuss this awkward collision of two legal systems designed to handle claims - but in very different ways.

On Presidents' Day 2022, we talk with the nation's foremost historical actor of George Washington about what it is to inhabit the character of America's first General of the Armies, first President, and the person who held the states together long enough to give a burgeoning nation a shot of its own. We dispel misconceptions, the things that a career in business and a career being George Washington have in common, and we talk about the strange path that leads to the doorstep at Mount Vernon, where Dean Malissa portrayed George Washington for twenty years. There's a lot more to it than false teeth and fallen cherry trees.

There's big money in employment - companies invest significantly in finding, onboarding and training the best employees they can get - it's good business to make sure those employees feel welcome. Diversity and inclusion; equality and equity; welcoming and affirming. We use these words in relation to workplaces, but what do they mean and how do firms earn these adjectives? The landscape of Diversity & Inclusion is an evolving practice, changing as social mores change. We're joined by two attorneys expert in D&I, as part of general firm and practice management, as well as in mentoring diverse professionals and their firms. We'll explore the difficult business of creating welcoming and affirming workplaces for employee populations that reflect the makeup of our society.

The United States Senate has become the focus of a power struggle between, on the one hand, a minority resistant to challenge, and a bare majority seeking to respond to a watershed moment in history - the systematic effort in the states to curtail voting rights. Two bills, the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, have been passed by the House and are logjammed in the Senate due to Senate rules. But rules can be changed. We talk with Former U.S. Senator Al Franken (D-MN), host of the Al Franken Podcast, on what's happening in the Senate, what can be done about the filibuster, and what lies at risk. Because totalitarian minority rule isn't good for business.

They say that if you want to make a small fortune in auto racing, you have to start with a large fortune. Between politics, mechanical issues, human factors, and the unknown, it's tough for a person with the need for speed to make it in the fastest-paced sport there is. But what does it really take? Our guest broke into racing in the middle of a successful career as a bankruptcy lawyer - and what parallels might lurk in that combination? We'll talk with Peter Partee, Sr. of Partee Racing LLC as we strip down the mysteries of the amateur and professional racing circuits, find out how competitors monetize adrenalin, and discover how racing operates as a business. it's far more than just left turns.

With the stroke of a pen, a U.S. District Court Judge overturned the confirmed bankruptcy plan of Purdue Pharma, placing everything up in the air. What's at stake: $4.3 billion from Purdue's owners, the Sackler family, in exchange for the release of all claims against them from anyone, anywhere, for all time. Without those payments, no creditors other than the United States Government are likely to get anything at all - no opioid remediation and prevention programs; no payments to victims of the opioid epidemic; no states for having borne the costs of addiction; nothing. Plus, now bankruptcy courts don't have the authority they thought they had, so maybe we've broken the bankruptcy system. And what does this all have to do with Anna Nicole Smith??? We'll discuss this and more with one of the nation's foremost experts on bankruptcy.

Companion Dogs, Assistance Dogs, Seeing-Eye Dogs, Emotional Support Dogs - they seem the same to the uninitiated, but they're very different. We talk with two of the most respected leaders in the Service Dogs field about the business of making incredibly skilled canine companions - what goes into the breeding, the training, and the mating with a person in need. We'll explore the risks to the system, from un- and under-trained service dogs to outright fakes, and how our legal framework has evolved as the need for service dogs has skyrocketed.