Highly-experienced asbestos trust advisor

During his distinguished asbestos litigation career, Steven Kazan has had the honor of serving on nearly all Trust Advisory Committees (TAC) and Asbestos Creditors’ Committees (ACC) that were formed in the past 30 years to provide oversight of the creation and administration of asbestos trust funds, which compensate victims of asbestos exposure who develop asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma.

Asbestos trust funds were created as part of the bankruptcy reorganization of asbestos manufacturers that were sued multiple times for asbestos exposure and were forced to reorganize their assets to continue operating. Today, there are more than 50 asbestos trust funds with over $32 billion in remaining assets.

Currently, Steven serves on two dozen TACs for active trusts, including Owens Corning/Fibreboard Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust, Celotex Asbestos Settlement Trust and W.R. Grace Asbestos PI Trust. Most trusts have an ACC, while in bankruptcy and then a TAC after the trusts are created, and Steven is often a member of both committees for each trust.

Groundbreaking work on asbestos trust fund committees

Steven serves in a fiduciary capacity on TACs to make sure that victims’ rights are protected in the trust, and he interacts with trustees to ensure that the trust operates according to established rules. On ACCs, Steven can investigate the asbestos company and participate in developing the company’s bankruptcy reorganization plan.

Steven’s first important trust committee work was for the Amatex Corp. trust in 1982. Amatex was a small Pennsylvania-based asbestos textile maker. Thousands of people who worked with Amatex’s products filed claims against the company. Steven was one of two plaintiff’s attorneys on the ACC, and later, he also worked on the TAC when it was formed.

Another big bankruptcy Steven worked on was Celotex, which filed for Chapter 11 in 1990. Tens of thousands of lawsuits were filed against Celotex for exposure to its products, which included pipe insulations, ceiling tile and raw asbestos fiber. Steven was on the ACC, and is on the TAC for the Celotex Asbestos Settlement Trust, and he negotiated intensely with the trust and company to ensure that adequate funds are available to protect all future asbestos victims. Future asbestos victims are a critical factor in the funding of asbestos trusts because it often takes several decades for an asbestos-related disease to be diagnosed.

As part of the Celotex trust negotiations, Steven worked with experts who calculated estimates of the potential number and values of future cases, and helped create a matrix of values for different kinds of claims.

Steven has also successfully objected to bankruptcy and trust fund plans that were not structured fairly for asbestos victims. In 2003, he objected to boiler manufacturer Combustion Engineering’s plan to pay out more to early asbestos victims than to later victims. Steven’s objection persuaded the Third Circuit court to reverse Combustion Engineering’s plan, and the court established procedures for Combustion Engineering’s reorganization that would serve as a blue print for all bankruptcy trust cases thereafter. During the renegotiation that followed his victory against Combustion Engineering, Steven negotiated another $250 million in funds for the company’s victims.

Ensuring bankruptcy plans protect asbestos victims

Currently, Steven is chairing the ACC in the bankruptcy of Bestwall LLC, and appealing the Energy Futures Holdings Corp. (EFH) plan, in the biggest bankruptcy since Enron, because the plans are unfair to asbestos victims. In the EFH case, the court approved the company’s plan to only compensate victims who filed a claim by December 2015, preventing most future victims from ever filing claims. The decision was unprecedented in asbestos bankruptcy law, and Steven is working hard to reverse the decision.