Readers may not have seen that former U.S. District Judge Jack B. Weinstein passed away this week at the age of 99.

He sat on the Eastern District of New York bench from 1967 to 2020, having been nominated to the bench by President Lyndon B. Johnson. He presided over a number of landmark and significant matters, but readers of the MassTortDefense blog may know him best for a series of important rulings in the asbestos litigation,  DES cases, tobacco claims, as well as the Agent Orange cases, covering class action issues, choice of law, the intersection with bankruptcy, general and specific causation, the government contractor defense, and more.

He didn’t always get it right (in our view or that of the Second Circuit) but his brilliance, reasoned analysis, and innovative efforts to manage mass tort litigation simply cannot be denied. RIP Judge.

 

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Photo of Sean Wajert Sean Wajert

Sean P. Wajert is a partner at Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP, and the Managing Partner of Shook’s Philadelphia office.  He concentrates his complex litigation practice on the defense of companies from a variety of industries, including the chemical, consumer product, drug and…

Sean P. Wajert is a partner at Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP, and the Managing Partner of Shook’s Philadelphia office.  He concentrates his complex litigation practice on the defense of companies from a variety of industries, including the chemical, consumer product, drug and medical device industries.  His practice focuses on complex commercial litigation, mass tort, toxic tort and product liability litigation, and appellate work. For a decade he served as Chair of the Products Liability Group of his prior firm.  Sean also taught complex litigation issues for ten years as a Lecturer-in-Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

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