Richard S. Lewis

EXPERIENCE

Environmental & Product Liability

Representative environmental and product liability litigation examples include:

• SCWA v. Dow and SCWA v. 3M Company – Rich presently serves as co-lead counsel in two environmental cases on behalf of the largest public water board in the country against 3M Company and Dow for contamination of the local public drinking water supply.
• Attorney General of the State of New Jersey, et al. v. Dow Chemical Co., et al. – Environmental litigation on behalf of the State of New Jersey against the manufacturers of the toxic chemical 1,4-dioxane for contamination of the State’s natural resources and drinking water supply, as well as deceptive and fraudulent business practices regarding the sale of 1,4-dioxane products to industrial facilities and New Jersey consumers.
• Rich has litigated both individual and class childhood lead poisoning cases and has handled environmental and workplace safety cases in India, and South Africa.
• Rich was counsel to a youth advocacy NGO for a climate change amicus brief filed before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

 

In the U.S., Rich has been appointed to serve as co-lead counsel in mass tort and product liability class action cases including:

• In re StarLink Corn Products – asserting claims by farmers for genetic modification contamination of the U.S. corn supply
• In re PPA – Asserting claims by users of unsafe over-the-counter medicines

 

He has also been appointed to the MDL Steering Committee in:

• In re AFFF
• In re Prempro Products (HRT) Liability Litigation
• In re NFL Players' Concussion Injury Litigation
• In re NCAA Student Athlete Concussion Injury Litigation
• In re Stryker Rejuvenate and ABG II Hip Implant Products Liability Litigation
• In re Bard IVC Liability Litigation
• In re Bair Hugger Forced Air Warming Products Liability Litigation
• In re Chinese Manufactured Drywall Products Liability Litigation – Rich was a member of the trial team that obtained a comprehensive remediation and property damages verdict for seven Virginia homeowners. He has significant experience in working with public health experts and related Daubert issues.

 

Rich served or presently serves as counsel in numerous actions to obtain medical monitoring and property damage relief for communities exposed to toxic chemicals, unsafe working conditions, or unsafe drugs. These include:

• In re NFL Players' Concussion Injury Litigation
• In re NCAA Student Athlete Concussion Injury Litigation
• In re Porter Ranch (Methane Gas Leak)
• In re Diet Drug Litigation (Fen-Phen) – Resulted in a $4 billion settlement providing medical monitoring in addition to individual personal injury awards.
• Farnum v. Shell – An oil spill pollution case in Barbados against international oil companies, that resulted in a settlement providing property damage compensation for 26 farmers and landowners
• Harman v. Lipari – A superfund case that resulted in a settlement providing medical monitoring for thousands of residents who lived on or played near a landfill.

Human Rights

• Bongani Nkala and 69 others v. Harmony Gold Mining Co., Ltd., et al – Rich was lead counsel in this groundbreaking case, which concluded in a massive settlement in South Africa to recover compensation for tens of thousands of South African goldminers who suffered occupational lung disease. The settlement is on behalf of a class of goldminers going back 50 plus years to 1965 against the entire goldmining industry in South Africa.
• Communication to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, Sacchi et al. v. Argentina et al – Rich is co-counsel in this groundbreaking Petition to the UN involving climate change as a violation of children’s civil and human rights.

Public Entity

We have extensive experience representing public and governmental entities, including state Attorneys General Offices, municipal utility boards, and counties in high-stakes investigations and litigation involving a variety of legal practice areas, including antitrust, consumer protection, financial services, and environmental law. The firm’s public entity portfolio includes:

• Retention by state Attorneys General Offices for antitrust litigation against Big Tech platforms.
• Retention by the largest public water supplier in the country relating to environmental contamination.
• Retention by public entities to pursue antitrust claims relating to fraud in financial markets; and
• Retention by the state of West Virginia in one of the earliest cases against the pharmaceutical industry relating to the opioid crisis, filed decades before the current wave of opioid litigation.