HarrisMartin's Webinar Series: Paraquat Herbicide Litigation - Recent Developments Speaker Profiles

In 2010, Aimee became a founding partner of Andrus Wagstaff. Since that time, she has dedicated the entirety of her professional life fighting against pharmaceutical and medical device companies who harm her clients by continually putting profits before safety. The vast majority of Aimee’s litigation is done through national mass tort consolidations, usually multidistrict litigations (MDLs) or Judicial Council Coordinated Proceedings (JCCPs). In that regard, Aimee has been appointed by federal and state court Judges across the country to co-lead four national litigations by the age of 40, such litigations representing tens of thousands of injured claimants.

Patrick is an accomplished personal injury and products liability attorney. What sets Patrick apart is that before practicing law, he spent several years as a professor of law. While teaching at Washington & Lee University, Arizona State University, and the University of Oklahoma, Patrick also published extensively on mass torts. Since entering practice, Patrick has obtained a number of significant victories for his clients, including a $15.4 million wrongful death judgment and a precedent-setting decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Aside from helping his clients obtain justice, Patrick enjoys spending time with his wife, children, and the family cat, Sammy Davis Jr., Jr.

For 30 years, Michael J. Miller has been in the private practice of representing those injured and aggrieved in cases of personal injury. He received his undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Maryland in 1975. Immediately following, he pursued his legal degree from the University of Baltimore, receiving his Doctor of Jurisprudence in 1978. He was first admitted to practice law in Virginia (1979), then Washington D.C. (1985), Maryland (1986), and Pennsylvania.

Majed Nachawati is a co-founding partner of Fears | Nachawati Law Firm. Majed began his legal career as a two year judicial law clerk with The Thirteenth Court of Appeals. His firm represents individuals and public entities throughout the nation in bad medical device and pharmaceutical cases, whistleblower cases, legal malpractice and barratry cases, antitrust matters and product defect cases. His firm is heavily involved in pharmaceutical and medical device litigation—holding current leadership positions on the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee in the Bard and Cook IVC Filter Litigation.

Yvonne M. Flaherty focuses her practice on the representation of injured parties in complex litigation against pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, as well as class actions involving a variety of consumer and product defect claims. She has been appointed to serve as Lead Counsel in consolidated claims against national medical device manufacturers and serves on several Plaintiff Steering Committees on behalf of thousands of claimants in Multi District Litigation throughout the United States. Ms. Flaherty has also served on trial teams in two national class actions, both of which were tried to verdict. In Peterson v. BASF Corp., Ms. Flaherty was a member of the trial team who secured a substantial jury verdict for a nation-wide class of farmers seeking redress for violation of consumer protection statutes. She is a frequent speaker at national conferences concerning medical device and pharmaceutical litigation, including topics concerning mass tort litigation, preemption, electronic discovery, and the Learned Intermediary Doctrine.

Michelle A. Parfitt is a Senior Partner with the law firm of Ashcraft & Gerel, LLP. Over the past thirty-eight years of her professional career, Ms. Parfitt has sought to distinguish herself as a champion of individual rights as well as a leader before the bar in the area of mass torts specializing in pharmaceutical and product liability cases. She currently heads the Mass Tort practice section of Ashcraft & Gerel, LLP and has had the privilege of representing thousands of individuals in various state and federal courts across the country who have filed suit against pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers.

Since joining the firm in 2015, Patrick has primarily worked on cases involving defective products, including vehicles, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and cosmetics. In this time, Patrick has proven himself to be a dependable, trustworthy, and compassionate advocate for his clients. By focusing on defective products, Patrick has been able to gain specialized experience that allows him to more effectively fight for his clients’ rights. Currently, Patrick concentrates his practice on representing women who have used talcum powder products and been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, handling cases filed in both federal and state courts across the country.

Chad Finley focuses on representing clients who have been wronged by the tortious acts of others, including pharmaceutical and medical device cases, products liability, mass torts, catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, and whistleblower actions.

Julia is an attorney in the firm’s Toxic Torts Section handling opioid litigation, representing the State of Georgia as private counsel. She is also working on cases involved in the Paraquat litigation. Before joining Beasley Allen, Julia was lead counsel in plaintiff’s litigation, including wrongful death and complex products liability cases. Julia also handled talc injury cases filed under the Asbestos Act throughout Georgia.

The documents in a lawsuit have a story to tell. I provide the conduit between that story and the lawyers looking to find them. My clients are some of the best storytellers in the world. My mission is to help them "tell better stories." I help them interrogate the documents produced in discovery and find the information need to win the case. I am passionate about assisting them in their fight for justice and against corporate greed and institutional abuses. I believe that technology can enable lawyers to serve their clients more effectively. I believe technology amplifies the abilities of lawyers; it does not displace them. I believe technology can improve outcomes for clients, not just the lawyers who serve them.

Edward Lake is one of the founding partners of Gacovino Lake. Mr. Lake grew up working in the garment center in New York City. While learning the various aspects of running a clothing manufacturer, he gained the experience and skills that would ultimately pave the way for founding and running one of the largest Mass Tort practices in the country.

David Wool represents clients in toxic tort, pharmaceutical and medical device litigation. In his practice at Andrus Wagstaff, David has been intricately involved in the several major litigations. David was appointed to the Plaintiff's Steering Committee in multi-district litigation (MDL) 2642, In Re Fluoroquinolone Products Liability Litigation, by the Honorable John R. Tunheim to represent thousands of plaintiffs suffering from permanent and debilitating peripheral neuropathy. Additionally, David served a critical role in MDL 2741, In Re Roundup Products Liability Litigation, successfully arguing against the first motion to dismiss filed anywhere in the country setting the stage for continued litigation. David is admitted to practice before the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, and represents clients in nearly every state across the country.