HarrisMartin's National Benzene Litigation Conference Speaker Profiles

Stan is one of the leading environmental litigation and toxic tort lawyers in the United States. His reputation is built on his experience handling product liability, premise liability, class actions, mass torts, and environmental lawsuits alleging toxic exposures resulting in personal injury, property damage, and reputational damage. Stan is licensed in Texas and Illinois and he has handled lawsuits in those states and in numerous other states, including Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, California, Ohio, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Missouri. Stan has worked across the gamut of energy-related industries, from alleged exposures during oil and gas exploration, to claims based on decades-old releases and spills. Stan has particular experience with lawsuits involving products (crude oil, condensate, gasoline, aviation fuel, toluene, xylene, and a variety of solvents) that allegedly contained harmful levels of benzene. Stan is the National Benzene Counsel for a global energy company.

Stan is one of the leading benzene lawyers in the country, including handling cases of first impression. One such example is Stan’s experience in Raul Zendejas v. Shell Oil Co., Maricopa County Superior Court, CV-2007-005399. At this trial, Stan and co-counsel successfully defended a gasoline manufacturer in a lawsuit claiming the 32-year-old plaintiff’s leukemia was caused by his exposure to benzene in gasoline.

Stan has extensive experience in applying the standards for the admissibility of expert testimony in state and federal courts, including motions to challenge experts under Daubert, Frye, and other standards.

He was trial counsel in Burst v. Shell Oil Company, 2015 decision excluding plaintiff’s exposure assessment and general causation experts and granting summary judgment for defendants in a gasoline-acute myelogenous leukemia lawsuit in the United States District Court of Louisiana, Eastern Division (New Orleans). Burst is currently on appeal before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Keith Patton concentrates his legal practice primarily on representing leukemia victims in cases involving occupational and environmental exposure to benzene. As lead counsel, Keith has prosecuted and resolved numerous benzene-leukemia lawsuits and claims filed on behalf of individuals and their families affected by severe forms of leukemia. He has developed comprehensive and specific knowledge of the scientific and medical issues unique to this area of practice. Keith currently represents clients nationwide and frequently associates with attorneys across the country in handling benzene-leukemia cases in state and federal courts.

Keith earned his bachelors degree at the University of Dayton and law degree at the University of Toledo College of Law.

Keith is a member of the State Bar of Texas, American Association for Justice, and the Texas Trial Lawyers Association. He is also an active participant of the American Association for Justice (formerly ATLA) benzene group, and benzene litigation seminars and conferences.