For Immediate Release: July 11, 2000
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1999 Trial Lawyer of the Year

2000 Trial Lawyer of the Year Finalists Announced

Trial Lawyers for Public Justice (TLPJ) has named the attorneys who worked on eight outstanding cases as finalists for its 2000 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award. The nationally prestigious award is bestowed annually upon the trial lawyer or lawyers who have made the greatest contribution to the public interest by trying or settling a precedent-setting case. The winner will be announced August 1 at The TLPJ Foundation's Annual Party in Chicago.

"These attorneys exemplify how trial lawyers use their skills and determination to create a more just society," said TLPJ Foundation President Nicole Schultheis, of Baltimore's Schultheis & Walton. "They serve as an inspiration for us all."

The finalists were nominated for their committed work in cases addressing a broad range of social issues, including civil rights, consumer rights and human rights. This year's finalists are listed alphabetically below. Click here for longer case descriptions.

Joseph W. Cotchett, Frank M. Pitre, and Steven N. Williams of Cotchett, Pitre & Simon in Burlingame, California, Barry G. West of Gaims, Weil, West & Epstein in Los Angeles, California, and Norma Garcia of Consumers Union in San Francisco, California, successfully defended Consumers Union (CU) in two multi-million dollar defamation suits -- Isuzu Motors Ltd. v. Consumers Union of United States, Inc., and Suzuki Motors Corp. v. Consumers Union of United States, Inc. - brought to muzzle criticism of the Isuzu Trooper and the Suzuki Samurai published in Consumer Reports. Cotchett and his legal team vindicated CU's free speech rights, winning a two-month jury trial against Isuzu and a dismissal on summary judgment against Suzuki after four years of hard-fought litigation.

Elizabeth M. Fink of Brooklyn, New York, Michael E. Deutsch of the People's Law Office in Chicago, Illinois, Dennis Cunningham of San Francisco, California, Joseph J. Heath of Syracuse, New York, Daniel Meyers of New York, New York, and Ellen M. Yacknin of the Greater Upstate Law Project in Rochester, New York, won a 20-year legal battle for victims of the 1971 Attica prison uprising in New York. Fink and her legal team achieved an $8 million settlement in Al-Jundi v. Mancusi, et al., on behalf of a class of over 1,200 inmates who were shot, beaten, and brutalized by prison guards following the inmates' uprising to protest unsanitary and unsafe prison conditions. This is the largest settlement of a prisoners' rights case in U.S. history.

Bruce A. Fredrickson, Susan L. Brackshaw, Linda M. Correia, Jonathan C. Puth, and Jeffrey E. Fallon, all of Webster, Fredrickson & Brackshaw in Washington, D.C., won a $508 million settlement against the federal government in Hartman v. Albright on behalf of 1,100 women who were denied jobs and promotions at the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) and its broadcasting arm, Voice of America, because of their gender. The settlement exceeds the size of the next three largest employment discrimination settlements combined and was the culmination of a Herculean legal effort that spanned 23 years. Fredrickson and his team also prevailed in 46 individual damages hearings, winning $22.7 million in backpay over and above the $508 million settlement for the class.

Don C. Keenan of Atlanta, Georgia, forced Georgia to enact sweeping reforms to its child protection system by suing the state's child welfare agency on behalf of six year-old Terrell Peterson, who was abused and ultimately murdered by members of his foster family. The lawsuit, Peterson v. Georgia State Dep't of Human Resources, et al., resulted in the firing of many state officials and new legislation making the system more publicly accountable. Under "Terrell's Law," emergency room doctors may now take custody of abused children, the governor and state agency heads now have the authority to fire local child protective agency heads, and child abuse records are no longer shielded from public scrutiny.

Brian J. Panish and Christine Spagnoli of Greene, Broillet, Taylor, Wheeler & Panish in Santa Monica, California, won a $4.9 billion jury verdict in Anderson v. General Motors Corp. for Patricia Anderson, her children and a friend, who were burned when the gas tank of her 1979 Chevrolet Malibu exploded in a rear-end collision. Panish and Spagnoli uncovered evidence that GM had decided to save $8.59 per car, rather than correct a known design defect, and had secretly lobbied President Nixon to weaken federal fuel tank safety standards. Though the judge reduced the punitive damages to $1.09 billion, he agreed that substantial punitive damages were warranted by GM's reprehensible conduct.

Joseph A. Power, Jr., of Power, Rogers & Smith in Chicago, Illinois, won a $100 million settlement in Willis v. Transamerica Leasing, Inc., et al., for the parents of six children killed after their minivan ran over a taillight assembly that had fallen off a truck. The suit also led to 31 indictments and 25 convictions in a federal probe of truck license-selling. Power uncovered that hundreds of truck drivers unable to pass their driving and safety tests had bribed state officials for licenses and that the bribe money was funneled into then-Secretary of State George Ryan's gubernatorial campaign fund.

Edward M. Ricci and Theodore J. Leopold of Ricci, Hubbard, Leopold, Frankel & Farmer in West Palm Beach, Florida, won a $78.5 million punitive damages award in Chipps v. Humana Health Insurance Company of Florida, Inc., on behalf of a child with cerebral palsy whose HMO wrongfully terminated her insurance benefits. Ricci and Leopold exposed widespread fraud within Humana, proving that the company unlawfully denied special coverage to more than 100 children in Florida based on an accounting firm's conclusion that coverage of catastrophically and chronically ill children was not profitable and should be dropped.

Melvyn I. Weiss of Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach LLP in New York, New York, Robert A. Swift of Kohn, Swift & Graf, P.C. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Morris A. Ratner of Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, LLP in San Francisco, California, Michael Hausfeld of Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, P.L.L.C. in Washington, D.C., and Professor Burt Neuborne of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School in New York, New York, obtained an unprecedented settlement in In re Holocaust Era German Industry, Banking and Insurance Litigation. They convinced German industry and government officials to establish a $5.1 billion fund to compensate a worldwide class of approximately 1.5 million Holocaust survivors who were slave or forced laborers during the Nazi regime. The litigation team had filed about three dozen class actions in numerous U.S. courts to obtain compensation for the exploited laborers.