Steven Kazan Asbestos Attorney

Attorney Steven Kazan

Steven Kazan is one of the nation’s preeminent and most experienced asbestos litigation attorneys. For the past 44 years, he and the law firm he founded have represented hundreds of injured workers suffering from asbestos-related mesothelioma in some of the most high-profile cases in history, against Johns-Manville, Fibreboard, Johnson & Johnson, and others.

Steven’s groundbreaking work has helped victims and their families redress the wrongs done to them, and his work has prompted changes in asbestos law that benefit victims. He is also active in helping to improve workplaces through education and legislative advocacy.

But Steven’s illustrious career was not planned; it evolved by serendipity. Indeed, timing, his courage and his unwavering commitment to help others seek justice, allowed him to become a leader in this critical area of law.

The early years

Steven was born and raised in the Bronx, N.Y. His father was born in Poland and came to the U.S. as a toddler; his mother was a native New Yorker. His parents owned a florist shop in Queens, N.Y.

Steven always excelled at school. He attended the prestigious Bronx High School of Science and then Brandeis University, where he studied politics and economics. He was accepted at several law schools and chose Harvard Law School.

After law school, Steven worked as an appellate attorney at what was then the Interstate Commerce Commission in Washington, D.C. His work at the commission required a lot of travel across the country, including California. Steven liked the West Coast and landed a job in the civil division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco, where he tried cases against a leading medical malpractice law firm, Werchick & Werchick, which was so impressed with Steven’s courage and ability, that it hired him.

Going out on his own and setting legal precedents

After working at Werchick for a couple years, Steven decided to open his own firm in Oakland, Calif., in 1974 to specialize in medical and legal malpractice cases. The cases started flowing in, but it was a letter he received from a labor union rep for manufacturing workers at the Johns-Manville plant in Lompoc, CA that really launched Steven’s asbestos litigation career. The letter asked Steven to help plant workers who were sick and dying from on-the-job exposure to asbestos.

One of the first cases he filed against Johns-Manville was on behalf of Reba Rudkin, who developed asbestosis after working 29 years at the company’s plant in Pittsburg, Calif. At that time, companies could invoke workers’ compensation as the exclusive remedy for employee health issues, thus protecting them against employee lawsuits. Johns-Manville was really a group of separate companies, only one of which was Mr. Rudkin’s employer and entitled to the workers’ compensation defense. Steven, however, argued that Johns-Manville and all of its subsidiaries committed fraud and conspiracy, because documents showed they all had known for decades about the hazards of asbestos.

The Rudkin case was precedent setting, prompting the California Supreme Court to rule that workers could sue their employers under those circumstances. From November 1981 to February 1982, Steven tried the case of Bob Speake, a co-worker of Rudkin’s, and won a verdict of $150,000 for Speake against Johns-Manville.

The Speake case was considered a “threshold in asbestos litigation” that helped push Johns-Manville into bankruptcy in August 1982. Steven went on to represent nearly 400 Johns-Manville employees, and his legal strategy was widely copied by other asbestos lawyers.

At the same time Steven was trying cases against Johns-Manville, he also filed many lawsuits against Fibreboard Corp. In 1983 he went to trial on behalf of three Fibreboard Emeryville, Calif., plant workers who suffered from asbestosis or lung cancer. Pitts, Miller, Bell v. Fibreboard Corp. was one of the first Fibreboard plant worker cases, having been filed in 1978. The historic verdict resulted in the first punitive damages verdicts against Fibreboard in the United States.

Recent cases

Over the last four decades, Steven and the firm he founded, Kazan, McClain, Satterley & Greenwood (Kazan Law), have filed more than 2,000 asbestos cases. Several cases, including ones against Ford Motor and Johnson & Johnson, have gained national and international attention.

In 2012, Kazan Law won a $6.825 million verdict against Ford Motor on behalf of auto mechanic Patrick Scott, who contracted mesothelioma from decades of working on Ford cars and trucks. Kazan Law argued that Ford was aware of asbestos-related illnesses but failed to tell mechanics that it used asbestos in its brakes, clutches, gaskets and other parts.

In 2018, Kazan Law won a historic $117 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson and Imerys Talc America on behalf of Stephen Lanzo, a lifelong user of Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder who was diagnosed with mesothelioma. Kazan Law showed that Johnson & Johnson knew since the 1960s that its baby powder contained asbestos.

Asbestos bankruptcy trusts

In recent years, Steven has shifted his focus from trying cases to advising on the bankruptcy reorganization of asbestos companies and the management of asbestos bankruptcy trust funds. The U.S. Congress determined that companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection due to asbestos claims must establish asbestos trust funds to ensure that victims receive the financial compensation they deserve. About 60 corporations have set up asbestos trust funds to remain viable in the face of massive liability for toxic asbestos exposure.

Steven works with the following active trusts:

ABB Lummus Global Inc. 524(g) Asbestos PI Trust
ACandS Asbestos Settlement Trust
Armstrong World Industries Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust
ARTRA Asbestos Trust
ASARCO Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust
Babcock & Wilcox Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust
Celotex Asbestos Settlement Trust
Combustion Engineering 524(g) Asbestos PI Trust
The Congoleum Plan Trust
Dll Industries, LLC Asbestos PI Trust
Federal Mogul Asbestos Personal Injury Trust
The Flintkote Asbestos Trust
G-I Holdings Inc. Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust
J.T. Thorpe Settlement Trust
Kaiser Asbestos Personal Injury Trust
Leslie Controls, Inc. Asbestos Personal Injury Trust
Motors Liquidation Company Asbestos PI Trust
North American Refractories Company Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust
Owens Corning/Fibreboard Asbestos Personal Injury Trust
Pittsburgh Corning Corporation Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust
Plant Asbestos Settlement Trust
The Plibrico Asbestos Trust
T H Agriculture & Nutrition, L.L.C. Asbestos Personal Injury Trust
Thorpe Insulation Settlement Trust
United States Gypsum Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust
Western Asbestos Settlement Trust
W.R. Grace Asbestos PI Trust`
Garlock Sealing Technologies Trust

Steven works with the following active bankruptcies:

Bestwall LLC: The reorganization of Georgia-Pacific LLC, where he chairs the asbestos creditors committee; and
Energy Future Holdings Corp.: Where he was one of two asbestos lawyers on the general creditors committee and is the lead objector on the appeal from an order confirming the plan of reorganization.

Mesothelioma research, education

Steven and the firm established the Kazan McClain Partners Foundation Inc. in 1994 to support institutions that fight for the little guy and provide funding for mesothelioma research. To date, the foundation has given out more than $20 million in grant money to help make a difference in people’s lives. The foundation worked with University of Chicago researchers to fund pleural mesothelioma research, which was presented at the International Mesothelioma Interest Group conference in May 2018. The foundation also supports thoracic cancer programs at UCSF and Stanford.

The Kazan McClain Partners Foundation also funds scholarships for law students and youth interested in careers in government or law. The foundation also helps many organizations, such as the East Bay Community Law Center, that provide legal services and education to underserved communities.

Steven is also the President and CEO of the Allen E. Broussard Law School Scholarship Foundation. This scholarship is offered to law students with the goal of “promoting diversity in the legal profession by assisting under represented law students to take their place at the table.”

Awards

Steven has won numerous citations and awards for his groundbreaking asbestos litigation work. He has been named to Super Lawyers and made the Best Lawyers list 10 times; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce selected his firm as a Top Plaintiffs’ Firm for Asbestos Litigation. In 2017, Steven received the prestigious Consumer Attorneys of California Edward I. Pollock Award “in recognition of many years of dedication, outstanding efforts and effectiveness on behalf of the causes and ideals” of consumer attorneys.