Johnson & Johnson Is Trying To Nullify Two Top Talcum Powder Cancer Lawyers
Two prominent lawyers who head the Johnson's Baby Powder Cancer MDL steering committee are being accused of unethical behavior
Sunday, December 24, 2023 - Johnson & Johnson is aggressively trying to remove the lead attorneys representing thousands of talcum powder cancer plaintiffs from representing the group in multi-district litigation (MDL). According to a recent article in Reuters, Andrew Birchfield and Beasley Allen, a prominent plaintiffs' attorney and law firm, are resisting Johnson & Johnson's attempt to oust them from the talc products mass tort litigation. The company alleges an unethical alliance between Birchfield and a former J&J lawyer. In a recent filing in Trenton, New Jersey, federal court, Birchfield and Beasley Allen countered that J&J wrongly attributes the failure of two bankruptcy attempts in resolving the talc litigation to them. As J&J aims for a third bankruptcy, it seeks their removal as impediments, according to the filing submitted on Tuesday. The legal team urges the federal judge to reject J&J's bid. The company alleges that the two attorneys worked with former Johnson & Johnson talc lawyers to obtain confidential company information regarding the Texas Two-Step bankruptcy scheme. " J&J said former Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath partner James Conlan, who worked on the talc litigation for J&J for nearly two years before leaving legal practice in 2022, had formed an "alliance" with Birchfield aimed at defeating J&J's bankruptcy strategy, relying on confidential information Conlan learned during his work for the company."
The company is trying to get the two attorneys removed from the influential MDL steering committee where they lead hundreds of lawyers representing most talcum powder cancer plaintiffs. Both attorneys are crying foul and say that the disqualification attempt is just more "locker room brawling" by Johnson & Johnson. The company previously filed lawsuits against four Daubert-approved plaintiff expert witnesses who were certainly going to testify against the company. That list included Dr. Jacqueline Moline, thought to be an expert in talc cancer research. Johnson & Johnson is also said to be attempting to place their LTL Management subsidiary into bankruptcy for a third time, moving their request from New Jersey where J & J is domiciled, to Texas, home of the controversial bankruptcy scheme. The company failed twice in New Jersey on the grounds that the parent company was not in financial distress. Plaintiff lawyers are fighting back by forming a "super firm" comprised of a group of about 60 of the nation's top trial attorneys with experience in all aspects of Johnson's Baby Powder cancer cases. The strategy will force Johnson & Johnson to defend itself in hundreds of courts around the nation at once spreading them too thin to be effective and forcing their hand to settle cases. According to levinlaw.com, "We're building a massive law firm. A machine that will put 60 seasoned, trained trial lawyers, schooled on J&J's disastrous history, in courtrooms on the same day anywhere in America."
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