May 14th 2010: Jayne Conroy Appointed To Leadership Position In Toyota Multi-District Litigation
Santa Ana, California, May 14, 2010: Hanly Conroy co-founder Jayne Conroy was today appointed to the lead counsel committee engaged in economic loss claims against automotive giant Toyota in the multi-billion dollar, multi-district unintended acceleration cases. Ms. Conroy was one of nearly 100 applicants for one of only nine seats on the prestigious committee. United States District Judge James V. Selna, the judge presiding over all federal cases filed against Toyota in the United States, made the appointment in a May 14 Order, which followed nearly a full day of courtroom arguments made by each of the many applicants as to why they should be appointed. Following the appointment, Ms. Conroy, who has served in leadership roles in other high-profile multi-district federal cases, said, “I am honored and delighted to have convinced Judge Selna of my abilities and willingness to serve in this important position, and I look forward to working with the Court and my colleagues to make this multi-district proceeding as efficient and expeditious as is humanly possible given its magnitude and the important public safety issues at stake.” The case is pending in the United States District Court for the Central District of California and is captioned In re: Toyota Motor Corp. Unintended Acceleration Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation, Case No. 8:10ML02151 JVS (FMOx).
May 2010: Hanly Conroy announces settlement of contingent fee antitrust lawsuit. $32 Million Deal Between Synergetics and Alcon.
NEW YORK, Hanly Conroy Bierstein Sheridan Fisher & Hayes LLP of New York City, today announced the resolution of their client Synergetics USA, Inc.’s (Nasdaq: SURG) antitrust lawsuit pending against Alcon Laboratories, Inc., and Alcon, Inc. Synergetics announced on April 27, 2010, that it had entered into a Settlement and Licensing Agreement and a Supply Agreement with Alcon, pursuant to which all litigation between the companies would be settled and Alcon would receive a license to sell certain Synergetics-patented products. Alcon will pay Synergetics $32 million in the arrangement.
A team of lawyers from Hanly Conroy Bierstein Sheridan Fisher & Hayes LLP represented Synergetics in the antitrust litigation. In a unique approach to commercial litigation, the firm took on the high-risk litigation under a contingency fee arrangement, whereby Synergetics would pay attorney fees only as a percentage of any recovery in the case. Traditionally, commercial litigation is pursued by outside counsel paid at ever-increasing hourly rates. Under the contingent fee agreement, Synergetics will pay its outside counsel $10.5 million.
According to Hanly Conroy co-founder Paul Hanly, this arrangement reflects the increasing comfort level of corporate general counsels in using plaintiff-only contingent fee attorneys to pursue commercial litigation. “Corporate general counsel have finally come to understand that plaintiff contingency fee lawyers involved in complex litigation are a huge boon to cash-strapped companies: such arrangements can involve near-zero cash disbursements and the potential for huge recoveries.” Trading in Synergetics stock was reported up as much as 72 percent the day after the announcement.
Synergetics and Alcon compete in the sale of light sources and instruments and tools used in vitreoretinal surgery, a highly specialized area of ophthalmological surgery focusing on procedures in the posterior (back) portion of the eye. Surgeons use a primary piece of equipment known as a vitrectomy machine to perform vitreoretinal procedures.
Lawyers from Hanly Conroy Bierstein Sheridan Fisher & Hayes LLP filed the antitrust lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in April, 2008. The suit alleged that Alcon engaged in certain anti-competitive conduct in the market for vitreoretinal surgical equipment and supplies. Synergetics’ allegations included that Alcon used the market power enjoyed by its vitrectomy machine in an unlawful manner, forcing surgeons to purchase from Alcon the ancillary instruments, tools, and external light sources used in vitreoretinal surgeries. Most notably, Synergetics alleged that Alcon unlawfully tied the sale of its fiberoptic illuminator to the sale of single-use disposable cassettes necessary to operate the Alcon vitrectomy machine.
Hanly Conroy Bierstein Sheridan Fisher & Hayes LLP worked closely with co-counsel Simmons Browder Gianaris Angelides & Barnerd LLC of East Alton, Ill., The case was Synergetics USA, Inc. v. Alcon Laboratories, Inc. and Alcon, Inc., 2008-cv-3669 (DLC).
About Hanly Conroy Bierstein Sheridan Fisher & Hayes LLP
Hanly Conroy Bierstein Sheridan Fisher & Hayes LLP currently represents both individuals and corporations in a variety of complex matters. The firm strives to provide first-class, sophisticated litigation counsel to its clients, who range from individuals injured by drugs and other products and by acts of international terrorism to companies in need of strategic counsel in the prosecution or defense of national or commercial litigation. For more information, visit http://www.hanlyconroy.com.
January 2010: Jayne Conroy and Clint Fisher named to leadership positions in two pharmaceutical Multi-District Litigations.
United States District Court Judge Inge Johnson has appointed Clint Fisher and Jayne Conroy to leadership positions in the Chantix Products Liability Litigation pending in Birmingham, Alabama. Clint is a member of the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee and Jayne is Co-Lead State Liaison Counsel.
In the Yasmin and Yaz Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation pending in the Southern District of Illinois, Jayne serves as Co-Chair of the Law and Briefing Committee.
October 2009: Hanly Conroy welcomes Mitchell Breit to the firm.
Hanly Conroy is delighted to announce the arrival of Mitchell Breit as the newest member of the firm. Mitchell has a long and distinguished career as a plaintiffs' class action, mass torts and environmental catastrophe lawyer, and he brings to the firm his experience and expertise in those areas along with some very high profile cases. Prior to joining the firm Mitchell was a partner in the New York offices of Whatley Drake, before that a partner at Milberg Weiss and before that at Weitz & Luxenberg.
May 2009: Hanly Conroy partners Paul Hanly, Andrea Bierstein and Steven Hayes again named to "best lawyers" lists.
The 2009 edition of New York Super Lawyers again names three of the six Hanly Conroy partners: Paul Hanly, Andrea Bierstein and Steven M. Hayes. "We are delighted that fully 50% of our partners have been named to this list once again," said Andrea Bierstein, referring to the fact that she appears for the second, and partners Hanly and Hayes for the third year in a row. "That is a testament to the extraordinary abilities of our firm and the reputation it has garnered," she added. Separately, Hayes has been named to the 2009 edition of Best Lawyers in America for his stellar work in the area of entertainment law.
April 9, 2009: Hanly Conroy client prevails on important Statute of Limitations issue in Delaware Supreme Court.
On April 9, 2009, Hanly Conroy won a significant victory for its client - and for plaintiffs generally - when the Supreme Court of Delaware, sitting en banc, unanimously ruled that a plaintiff who had previously sued in Texas - and whose case had been dismissed in Texas for lack of personal jurisdiction - could bring a new action in Delaware, even though the Delaware Statute of Limitations had by then expired. The Court agreed with Hanly Conroy's argument that, pursuant to the Delaware "Saving Statute," the plaintiff had one year from the final termination of his Texas lawsuit to commence a new action in Delaware. Represented by other lawyers, the plaintiff had originally sued in Texas in 2001, and he litigated his case all the way to an unsuccessful petition for a writ of certiorari in the United States Supreme Court in 2006. Plaintiff then retained Hanly Conroy and started a new lawsuit in Delaware. The Delaware Court of Chancery dismissed the new case, ruling that the one-year period of the Saving Statute had begun to run in March of 2006 when the Texas Supreme Court denied a motion by plaintiff for a rehearing. Since the plaintiff sued in Delaware in April 2007, the Court of Chancery ruled that the new Delaware lawsuit had been filed too late. Reversing the lower court, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled that the Texas action did not fully terminate, for purposes of the Saving Statute, until the United States Supreme Court denied plaintiff's petition for certiorari in October 2006. Measuring the one-year period from that date, plaintiff's Delaware action was timely. The lawsuit, Reid v. Siniscalchi, is a derivative action involving claims arising from a joint venture to finance Russian communications satellites.
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March 23, 2009: Hanly Conroy clients first in nation to be paid in landmark Pfizer Bextra/Celebrex Settlement.
More than 95% of the 203 clients of Hanly Conroy and co-counsel SimmonsCooper LLC have received their settlement amounts in the landmark Pfizer settlement of more than 5,000 Bextra and Celebrex personal injury claims, the first large volume of such claims to have been paid. "Working with the tremendous back-office support of our co-counsel SimmonsCooper, we were able to get nearly all of our clients paid their settlements in the last few days," explained Jayne Conroy, one of three lead negotiators of the terms of the nationwide settlement program. "It is highly gratifying to have been able to secure these early payments for so many deserving victims, and we are especially delighted to have received so many emails and calls from clients thanking our two firms for our work," she added.
Hanly Conroy is at the forefront of national, mass tort personal injury litigation, and is dedicated to achieving justice for all of its clients.
March 4, 2009: Supreme Court Rules Patients May Sue Drug Companies for Injuries; Bush Administration Policy on State Court Suits Rejected.
The United States Supreme Court on March 4, 2009 rejected the claims of the pharmaceutical industry, with the support of the Bush Administration, that patients may not sue prescription drug manufacturers for injuries resulting from inadequate warnings on drug labels, sometimes called “package inserts,” that accompany all prescription drugs. The case, Wyeth v. Levine, No. 06-1249, pitted the rights of consumers against the pharmaceutical industry’s claim that only the federal Food and Drug Administration can determine whether warnings of risks associated with prescription drugs are adequate, and turned on the issue of whether the existence of FDA regulatory authority “preempts” (trumps) state court civil damage suits. In rejecting that proposition, the Supreme Court expressly rejected the newly-adopted position of the FDA during the Bush Administration that such civil suits unduly burdened the ability of the FDA to regulate prescription drugs. Click here for the Opinion.
“The Court has delivered a fatal blow to the scandalous efforts of the Bush/Rove Administration to steal the constitutional rights of injured patients through its promulgation of the now-discredited FDA Preamble of 2006,” said Jayne Conroy, who leads Hanly Conroy’s prescription drug litigation group. Ms. Conroy added that the Court’s decision in Levine “directly benefits scores of our firm’s clients who are entrenched in complex litigation against the drug companies for the very failures that were at issue in the case before our Supreme Court.”
Hanly Conroy is a leader in prescription drug litigation nationwide, and looks forward to ever more aggressively advancing the rights of its clients in the wake of the important Levine decision.
October 17, 2008: Pfizer announces $894M settlement of Bextra and Celebrex litigation, including nearly 200 Hanly Conroy cases.
On October 17, 2008, drug giant Pfizer announced the settlement of substantially all of the personal injury lawsuits brought against it by patients alleging injuries from ingestion of the prescription medications Bextra and Celebrex. Hanly Conroy represented nearly 200 of the individuals whose cases are being settled. “This is a great day for all persons who claimed injury from taking Bextra, and we are pleased that we were able to achieve these settlements for our clients,” said Hanly Conroy founding partner Jayne Conroy, who was one of the three lead negotiators of the terms of the landmark settlement.
September 2008: Hanly Conroy partners Paul Hanly, Andrea Bierstein and Steven Hayes named to “best lawyers” lists.
The 2008 edition of New York Super Lawyers, published in September in both The New York Times Magazine and as a free-standing magazine, names three of the six Hanly Conroy partners: Paul Hanly, Andrea Bierstein and Steven M. Hayes. “We are delighted that fully 50% of our partners have been named to this list,” said Andrea Bierstein. “That is a testament to the extraordinary abilities of our firm and the reputation it has garnered,” she added. Partners Hanly and Hayes have been on the list in the past, while Bierstein joins for the first time. Separately, Hayes has been named to the 2009 edition of Best Lawyers in America for his stellar work in the area of entertainment law.
September 2008: Hanly Conroy files copyright action involving films “Rear Window” and “Disturbia.”
Hanly Conroy has been retained to represent the owner of the story rights from which the renowned Hitchcock film “Rear Window” was made in a copyright infringement lawsuit against director Steven Spielberg, Dreamworks LLC, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures and others involving the film “Disturbia.” The action alleges that the Spielberg film is substantially similar to and infringes upon the “Rear Window” story, and was filed in the Southern District of New York in September.
August 2008: Hanly Conroy files patent infringement action against Google.
Hanly Conroy is acting as counsel to Web Tracking Solutions LLC and Daniel Wexler in a patent infringement lawsuit against Google which alleges that the method used by Google to track the number of people who click on advertising publishers’ ads infringes a patent issued to Mr. Wexler as inventor and licensed to Web Tracking. The action was filed in the Eastern District of New York in August.
August 28, 2008: Hanly Conroy files RICO actions on behalf of mutual fund investors.
Suing on behalf of mutual fund investors, Hanly Conroy filed derivative and class action lawsuits against mutual fund managers and advisors who unlawfully invested and lost tens of millions of dollars in illegal offshore gambling entities. Until 2006, a number of foreign companies took bets over the Internet from gamblers in the United States, which the suits claim is a violation of federal and state law. The suits allege that the mutual fund managers knew or should have known of the illegality. For example, the prospectus of one of the gambling companies acknowledged that its “activities are considered to be illegal by relevant authorities” in the US. The value of the shares of the gambling businesses tumbled when authorities in the US began a crackdown in 2006. The complaints also allege that, in addition to violating RICO, the managers were negligent, breached their fiduciary duties to the funds and their investors, and wasted fund assets. The actions are the first of their kind and are filed in federal court in New York. Click here to learn more.
April 2008: Jayne Conroy named to Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee in gadolinium litigation.
United States District Court Judge Dan A. Pollster has named Jayne Conroy to the prestigious Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee in the multi-district federal litigation pending in Cleveland, Ohio involving personal injuries suffered by patients administered gadolinium-based contrast agents in connection with magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic resonance angiogram scans. This litigation, encompassing both federal and state claims, targets giants General Electric, Bayer and Mallinckrodt, and involves complex issues of science and medicine and horrific, often fatal injuries.
The attorneys of Hanly Conroy Bierstein Sheridan Fisher & Hayes LLP have been featured or quoted in the news media and have been involved in high-profile cases numerous times over many years. If you are interested in reading prior stories about the attorneys they are easily found by a Google search or a search of law-related databases.
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