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Asbestos and Silica Litigation

More than 6,000 American businesses today find themselves victimized by asbestos and silica litigation. For some, the cases number in the hundreds. For others, the numbers reach into the hundreds of thousands. Many are in between. But whatever the number, businesses routinely find themselves facing threats from juries in distant jurisdictions before judges who seem unconcerned about defense issues. Public companies are discovering that the Securities Exchange Commission has a deep interest in asbestos and silica litigation. Responsible management requires careful disclosure. But whether public or private, all businesses need skillful assistance in navigating the asbestos minefield. Some need local counsel. Some need regional trial counsel. Some need national counsel.

Asbestos Litigation Experience:

Butler Rubin lawyers have been litigating asbestos cases since the early 1980s, for large public corporations, small companies facing catastrophic liabilities, and many companies in between. We have:

• Served as Illinois trial counsel for U.S. Gypsum
• Represented W.R. Grace in northern Illinois
• Represented GAF Corporation throughout Illinois and nationally for punitive damage claims
• Served as national counsel for a public holding company that acquired subsidiaries that are now in 20,000 cases around the country
• Represented a very small public company in its challenge to the assertion of jurisdiction over it by Illinois courts
• Acted as National Medical Counsel for GAF Corporation in asbestos-in –buildings litigation
• Served as Liaison Counsel for defendants in asbestos property damage cases throughout Illinois
• Represented a major metal company in its premises liability cases in Cook County
• Negotiated mass settlements as well as scores of individual settlements
• Developed and utilized medical and industrial hygiene experts
• Coordinated product testing
• Developed and implemented management strategies for handling asbestos liabilities

Silica Litigation Experience

As with asbestos litigation, Butler Rubin lawyers are experienced handling silica litigation, which has reemerged in recent months as a toxic tort of choice among the asbestos plaintiff's bar. Butler Rubin is acting as special counsel to a company which inherited a silica liability by acquisition and is currently involved in a dispute with the seller. Butler Rubin is overseeing the coordination of the company's defense in the underlying cases. In addition, we have represented a sandblast company in a single case of silicosis that was tried to a defense verdict.