BulletProofBlog the blog on crisis communications

In this regular feature, Bulletproof interviews top plaintiffs’ counsel for their perspective on the crises likely to affect businesses in the near future. Today, we speak to Erika Kelton, a partner at Phillips & Cohen LLP in Washington, DC, which specializes in representing whistleblowers in qui tam lawsuits. We spoke to Ms. Kelton about the highly significant but relatively untouted new award program for whistleblowers contained in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, ... READ MORE

In this regular feature, Bulletproof interviews top plaintiffs’ counsel for their perspective on the crises likely to affect businesses in the near future. Today, we speak to William J. Geller, a lawyer at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C in New York, who is representing a group of 15 buyers at the Trump SoHo Hotel Condominium in Manhattan. The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan on August 2, claims that, in both sales pitches and statements ... READ MORE

In this regular feature, Bulletproof interviews top plaintiffs’ counsel for their perspective on the crises likely to affect businesses in the near future. Today, we speak to Richard Myers of Philadelphia’s Paul, Reich & Myers, P.C., who for the past nine years has litigated Summers v. Certainteed Corp. and Nybeck v. Union Carbide Corp., an asbestos case that will likely have major repercussions for most other business sectors as well, especially in Pennsylvania. In July, the ... READ MORE

In this regular feature, Bulletproof interviews top plaintiffs’ counsel for their perspective on the crises likely to affect businesses in the near future. Today, we speak to Geoffrey Damon of Butkovich & Crosthwaite Co. LPA in Cincinnati, who is seeking to file a class action against Ford Motor Co. and the United Auto Workers on behalf of 80 union workers. The workers lost their seniority rights after they were recalled to work at a Ford ... READ MORE

In this regular feature, Bulletproof interviews top plaintiffs’ counsel for their perspective on the crises likely to affect businesses in the near future. Today, we speak to Stephen Gardner, litigation director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), which has advised McDonald’s restaurants of its intent to file suit against the fast food giant unless it removes promotional toys from its meal packages. An advisory letter is legally required in several states ... READ MORE

In this regular feature, Bulletproof interviews top plaintiffs’ counsel for their perspective on the crises likely to affect businesses in the near future. Today, we speak to Greg Beck, a staff lawyer with Public Citizen Litigation Group. That non-profit advocacy organization is co-counsel for the respondent, James McCoy, in Chase Bank USA v. McCoy. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear JPMorgan Chase & Co's appeal in this lawsuit, which claims that the bank violated ... READ MORE

In this regular feature, Bulletproof interviews top plaintiffs’ counsel for their perspective on the crises likely to affect businesses in the near future. Today, we speak to Donald Haviland of Haviland Hughes, LLC in Philadelphia. Mr. Haviland has filed a lawsuit in a Philadelphia federal court on behalf of three claimants, and is seeking class status, to force Johnson & Johnson’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit to increase the scope of cash refunds for consumers who ... READ MORE

In this regular feature, Bulletproof interviews top plaintiffs’ counsel for their perspective on the crises likely to affect businesses in the near future. Today, we speak to Shannon Liss-Riordan of Lichten & Liss-Riordan, P.C. in Boston. Ms. Liss-Riordan represents plaintiffs in Pius Awuah et al. v Coverall North America Inc., a lawsuit that has taken employment reclassification cases to a new level. In March, Massachusetts District Judge William Young ruled that the plaintiffs, classified by Coverall ... READ MORE

In this regular feature, Bulletproof interviews top plaintiffs’ counsel for their perspective on the crises likely to affect businesses in the near future. Today, we speak to Robert A. Bracken in the Pittsburgh office of Pribanic Pribanic + Archinaco. Mr. Bracken is representing four online gamers in a case against Linden Research, creator of Second Life, and its founder Philip Rosedale. They claim the company redacted the plaintiffs' ownership rights to virtual "land" without reasonable ... READ MORE

In this regular feature, Bulletproof interviews top plaintiffs' attorneys for their perspective on the crises likely to affect businesses in the near future. Today, we speak to David Sanford of Sanford Wittels & Heisler LLP, a class action litigation boutique with offices in New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. On May 19, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, a U.S. unit of Novartis Pharmaceutical Corp, was ordered to pay Sanford’s clients – a group of 5,600 female employees – ... READ MORE