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On March 3, 2023, Judge Mary M. Rowland, U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, appointed a number of attorneys to leadership positions for the hair product litigation cases in MDL 3060: In Re: Hair Relaxer Marketing Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation. In the order making her appointments, the judge noted that she had relied on a number of criteria, including a willingness and availability to commit to a time-consuming project; the ability to work cooperatively with others; professional experience in this type of hair product litigation; access to sufficient resources to advance the litigation in a timely manner; and diversity.
The Order lists the following leadership appointments:
Plaintiffs’ Co-Lead Counsel
Benjamin L. Crump, Ben Crump Law Firm
Fidelma Fitzpatrick, Motley Rice LLC
Michael A. London, Douglas & London, P.C
Diandra “Fu” Debrosse Zimmermann, DiCello Levitt LLC
Plaintiffs’ Liaison Counsel
Edward A. Wallace, Wallace Miller
Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee (PEC)
Brian Barr,Levin Papantonio Rafferty
Tim Becker, Johnson Becker
Jayne Conroy Simmons, Hanly Conroy
Kelly M. Dermody, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein
Jennifer Hoekstra, Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz, PLLC
LaRuby May, May Jung
Rene F. Rocha, Morgan & Morgan
Larry Taylor, The Cochran Firm
Navan Ward, Beasley Allen
Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee (PSC)
Anne Andrews, Andrews & Thornton
Greg Cade, Environmental Law Group
Thomas P. Cartmell, Wagstaff & Cartmell LLP
Andrew Childers, Childers, Schleuter & Smith
Erin Copeland, Fibich Leebron Copeland Briggs
Maria Fleming, Napoli Shkolnik
Lee Floyd, Breit Biniazan
Kendra Y. Goldhirsch, Chaffin Luhana LLP
Kristine Kraft, Schlichter Bogard & Denton
Buffy Martines, Laminack, Pirtle & Martines
Melanie Muhlstock, Parker Waichman
David A. Neiman, Romanucci & Blandin, LLC
Michelle Parfitt, Ashcraft & Gerel, LLP
Syreeta Poindexter, Babin Law
EricaRae Garcia, Weitz & Luxenberg
Steve Rotman, Hausfeld
Richard W. Schulte, Wright & Schulte LLC
Ashlie Case Sletvold, Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise, LLP
Chris Stewart, Stewart Mille Simmons
Aimee Wagstaff, Wagstaff Law Firm
Mikal Watts, Watts Guerra
On February 7, 2023, the Motion to Transfer that had been submitted to the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) by plaintiffs seeking to consolidate all pending actions filed against a number of defendants, including cosmetics giant L’Oreal, for injuries allegedly sustained by the use of Defendants’ hair care products, was granted. Plaintiffs claim that exposure to the endocrine-disrupting chemicals found in the defendants’ hair relaxer products caused “disruption of the endocrine system”. These products are commonly used by millions of women of color and according to a report published in October, 2022, in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, may be associated with an increased risk for uterine cancer.
