It all began with a phone call from a high-tech work-er in the greater Boston area about 20 years ago.

Thornton Law Firm partner David C. Strouss had already dedicated years of his practice to helping workers in toxic tort cases.

But when a worker in the semiconductor industry ex-plained that he and his wife were unable to have children, likely because of the effects of his job on his reproductive system, Strouss began to take a closer look.

What he learned led to a lawsuit on behalf of the work-er and evolved into a specialty for the firm: the representa-tion of families with children born with catastrophic birth injuries due to the exposure to toxic substances in the workplace.

Strouss’ first case in the semiconductor industry was followed by many others.

“In order for a computer to function at an optimal level, the components have to be very pristine,” he explains. What this means for the employees build-ing the products is work in a so-called “clean room” that is sealed off from other parts of the manufac-turing plant, with external air not allowed in. The result is exposure to chemicals not just once but repeatedly as the air that contains the toxins is recy-cled around the workers.

The ethylene glycol ethers commonly used in the semiconductor chip industry from the mid-1970s until the early 1990s are known to cause birth de-fects, Strouss says. Female employees who may be unaware of their condition during the first few weeks of pregnancy can be unknowingly exposed, and in turn expose their unborn children to hazardous chemicals.

“We can’t succeed in these cases unless the sci-ence supports us,” Strouss notes. His cases depend on multiple epidemiological studies documenting a very high rate of miscarriages at semiconductor plants.

Defendants typically counter that the studies only document an elevated rate of miscarriages and not birth defects.

But according to Strouss, “the reason for that is that birth defects [appear in] the unfortunate chil-dren that survive and do not die in utero.”

While the use of ethylene glycol ethers has been phased out, the firm’s caseload has not let up. Cases involving agricultural workers exposed to pesticides and other chemicals are on the rise, with Thornton at the forefront of the litigation, often filing first-of-its-kind lawsuits.

FEATURE ARTICLE

Firm leads way in toxic tort birth defect litigation

Michael P. Thornton was a young lawyer just two years out of Vanderbilt Law School when he attended a conference in New York City in the 1970s. At an early morning panel attended by only a few other attorneys he heard a presentation about a new type of litigation: asbestos. Intrigued, Thornton found early success in representing shipyard and con-struction workers. While his prac-tice has expanded to include oth-er forms of toxic tort litigation, four decades later Thornton Law Firm continues to represent clients in claims for mesothelioma and oth-er asbestos-related injuries.

Q: What was the firm like when you were just starting out?

A: We started in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and were there for two years before we opened the first office in Boston in 1980. I had a secretary and a paralegal but I was the only lawyer.

Q: How did your focus on asbestos cases begin?A: We started filing them in the 1970s on behalf

of workers in the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. We had some success with the early cases and some unions asked if we might represent some of their workers. When we filed our first case, there were less than 50 asbestos cases in the country. We were at the very beginning of the litigation.

Q: With so few cases having been filed, what persuaded you that asbestos litigation was going to take off?

A: I learned a lot about asbestos and asbestos disease and how many people had been exposed

occupationally, primarily in shipyards or construc-tion projects, boilermakers or sheet metal work-ers. I knew what the numbers were and that it was a question of time before people were diagnosed. I was a believer — I thought asbestos was going to be a big litigation force in the United States.

Q: Have asbestos cases had an impact on civil

litigation? A: Asbestos changed the whole world in civil lit-

igation. It was the first real mass tort litigation in this country, followed by lead paint and tobacco in the 90s, and now drug, pharmaceutical and med-ical device cases. The principles are pretty much the same: Somebody made a product that hurts people and didn’t provide warnings.

Q: As awareness of the dangers of asbestos has increased, has the litigation dropped off? Do you expect it to?

A: The non-malignant cases have dwindled and we are focused much more now on malignan-cies, but the actual number of asbestos cases being filed has been about the same for the last 20 years. One hopes that will someday drop off. But the long latency period after being exposed to asbestos means that people are still being diag-nosed in 2016 from exposure in the 1970s.

Q: Do any cases over the last four decades stand out for you?

A: For the most part, when we represent peo-ple in personal injury cases or birth defect cases, we can’t make them well or cure them. What we can do is help families that have been put in tough spots because of very severe health problems caused by disease by getting money on their be-half from defendants, the people responsible for their condition.

QAand

Michael P. Thornton

FOUNDER

THORNTON LAW FIRM

David C. Strouss sees cases as a vehicle for change in worker health and safety.

LLPA t t o r n e y s a t L a wThorntonLaw Firm

FOUR DECADES OF PRACTICE

20 | Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly | September 5, 2016 www.masslawyersweekly.com

1975 Michael P. Thornton graduates from Vanderbilt Law School

1978 Thornton Law Firm founded in Portsmouth, New Hampshire

1980Thornton files first asbestos case in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts

1982 Thornton’s Boston office opened at 18 Tremont Street

1985 Thornton files 100th mesotheli-oma case

1985- present

Thornton and employees spon-sor Heading Home, a Boston family shelter providing Christ-mas gifts for each resident

1987Thornton files first lead paint case against lead industry, which details decades of indus-try knowledge and deception

1989Thornton wins first punitive damages award in a Massachu-setts asbestos case

1992Thornton wins largest asbestos damage award in a Massachu-setts asbestos case

1992

Thornton wins reinstatement of three women’s sports teams at University of Massachusetts Amherst in Title IX pro bono case

1993Thornton wins the then-largest award in MCAD history for hand-icap discrimination

1995

Thornton attorneys selected to join litigation effort against tobacco industry on behalf of Commonwealth of Massachu-setts

1995 Thornton files 500th mesotheli-oma case

1998Thornton wins first ever em-ployment discrimination verdict against the National Basketball Association

TOBACCOThornton Law Firm led a team of lawyers rep-

resenting Massachusetts in a landmark lawsuit against the Tobacco industry.

The suit sought to recover the cost of Medicaid payments made for tobacco-related diseases. The case resulted in an $8 billion settlement which pays Massachusetts hundreds of millions of dollars each year for over two decades.

ASBESTOSThornton Law Firm and co-counsel have obtained

significant verdicts and settlements on behalf of cli-ents suffering from asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma. These include:

• $9,300,000 on behalf of the family of an 84-year-old man with peritoneal mesothelioma exposed to asbestos spray during the construc-tion of the Prudential Tower in Boston

• $6,800,000 on behalf of the family of a 55-year-old man with mesothelioma who was exposed to asbestos while in the Navy and as a repairman

• $4,800,000 for a 47-year-old woman with me-sothelioma who suffered bystander exposure to asbestos

• $4,500,000 for a 76-year-old man with meso-thelioma who was a career mechanic and had been exposed to asbestos in brake linings, clutches and gaskets

• $4,400,000 for the family of a male machinist who developed mesothelioma after having been

exposed to asbestos and asbestos-containing materials while aboard the U.S.S. New Jersey (BB-62) from approximately 1953 to 1957

• $4,000,000 to an 81-year-old former sheet metalworker diagnosed with mesothelioma

• $4,000,000 for a 76-year-old man with meso-thelioma who suffered exposure to asbestos through work in the Navy and in power plants

• $3,250,000 to a 61-year-old man with meso-thelioma who worked as a laborer at an insu-lation fabrication shop in metro Boston in the early 1970s and was exposed to asbestos while wearing a defective respirator

• $2,800,000 to a 69 year old former plumber, drywaller and laborer, who developed mesothe-lioma due to exposure to asbestos and asbes-tos-containing materials

• $2,600,000 for the family of a 72-year old ship-yard worker with mesothelioma who suffered bystander exposure

• $2,500,000 on behalf of the family of a 67-year-old pipe fitter who suffered from mesothelioma

• $2,500,000 for the family of a 62-year-old man diagnosed with mesothelioma who was exposed to asbestos through his work in auto-motive repair

• $2,100,000 to a 64-year-old diagnosed with mesothelioma who worked at a variety of indus-trial, commercial and residential jobsites

• $1,900,000 for a 57-year-old sheet metalwork-er with mesothelioma

• $1,900,000 for a 73 year old residential boiler contractor who developed mesothelioma

• $1,800,000 to a 79-year-old former Naval met-alsmith who was diagnosed with mesothelioma

• $1,500,000 to the family of a laborer diag-nosed with mesothelioma after working at an insulation fabrication shop using a defective respirator in metro Boston in the early 1970s

CONSTRUCTION ACCIDENTSThornton Law Firm has obtained substantial ver-

dicts and settlements in construction accident lit-igation, which have enabled injured workers and their families to live their lives with financial securi-ty. Recent results include:

Jury verdicts• $4,300,000 for the family of a 24-year-old la-

borer who suffered complex left grade 1 open pilon fracture, closed right distal radius frac-ture, comminuted fracture of distal right radi-al metaphysic, fracture of the ulnar styloid as well as post-traumatic stress disorder

• $2,900,000 for the family of a plumber who contracted cancer as a result of exposure to toxic materials in the construction business

• $2,065,000 for the family of a 62-year-old la-borer killed in a scaffold fall

• $1,025,000 for a 55-year-old concrete cutter whose knee was injured in a scaffold fall

Settlements• $2,300,000 for a 58 year old drywaller who

fell through a hole in a roof resulting in multi-

THORNTON LAW FIRM: THROUGH THE YEARS

Significant Verdicts and Settlements

www.masslawyersweekly.com September 5, 2016 | Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly | 21

1998Tobacco lawsuit on be-half of Commonwealth of Massachusetts settles for $8,000,000,000.

1999Thornton joins first-of-its-kind lead abatement case against lead industry in Rhode Island

1998-2001

Thornton successfully litigates first case in Massachusetts and one of the first in the nation alleging reproductive harm resulting from semiconductor clean room chemical exposure

2005- present

Thornton sponsors Stevan E. Downey golf tournament to raise awareness of mesothelioma and raise money for the Internation-al Mesothelioma Program at Brigham & Women’s Hospital

2006- present

Thornton files first of dozens of lawsuits nationwide on behalf of children with severe birth defects resulting from parental exposure to chemicals

2006

Thornton brings tobacco class action seeking lung cancer screenings; establishes medical monitoring tort under Massa-chusetts law

2007- present

Thornton pioneers innovative subrogation solutions for medi-cal care providers

2008- present

After $1 million pledge for ren-ovation, Thornton House opens for mesothelioma victims and families to stay during treat-ment

2008- present

Thornton brings series of groundbreaking foreign ex-change cases against banks, saving pensions and investors nationwide hundreds of millions of dollars

2009 Thornton files 1,000th mesothe-lioma case

2016Thornton lawyers part of groundbreaking international birth defect settlement

2016 1,000th guest stays at Thornton House

ple fractures

• $2,400,000 for a 60-year-old man who was caught in a cable-pulling machine and suf-fered a bilateral forearm amputation (with surgical reattachment)

• $975,000 for a 43-year-old man with nerve damage from electrical shock from a faulty light

• $950,000 for a 21-year-old summer worker with leg injuries as a result of a forklift acci-dent

• $890,000 for a 57-year-old pipefitter with acid burns from contaminated pipe

• $875,000 for a 55-year-old sheet metalwork-er with back injuries from falling steel

• $800,000 for a 48-year-old welder with or-thopedic injuries from an exploding pressure tank

• $650,000 for a 63-year-old worker with neck injuries from a scissors lift fall

PERSONAL INJURY & PRODUCT LIABILITY

Through vigorous negotiation, Thornton Law Firm has achieved significant results for injured victims and their families. Recent results include the follow-ing settlements:

• $6,100,000 for a 36-year-old security guard who was ejected from a bus that rolled over on the highway. Sustained traumatic amputa-tion of his left leg (below the knee) as well as closed head injury

• $1,700,000 for the families of four workers who suffered extensive burns when the floor where they were performing floor sanding op-erations suddenly ignited

• $300,000 for a victim of a motorcycle acci-dent on a construction site. The 60-year-old female victim was the passenger on a motor-cycle that tipped over at low speed. She sus-tained broken ribs and a neck injury.

TOXIC TORT & ENVIRONMENTAL LITIGATION

Thornton Law Firm has obtained substantial set-tlements on behalf of victims of toxic exposure and environmental pollution. Recent results include:

• $2,000,000 for the child of a semiconductor chip manufacturing worker born with birth de-fects

• $1,391,500 for a neighborhood with contam-inated soil used as fill on the properties

• $600,000 for a 43-year old diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia who was ex-posed to benzene through his work as an off-set printer

LEAD PAINT

Thornton Law Firm has established record ver-dicts in several courts in lead paint litigation, which have encouraged defendants to settle for record amounts with us and our co-counsel. Recent results include:

Jury verdicts• $4,200,000 for a 7-year-old boy with learning

disabilities and lead levels in the 30s

• $2,000,000 for a 5-year-old girl with lead lev-els in the low 20s, resulting in Attention Defi-cit Disorder

• $1,800,000 for an 8-year-old girl with lead levels in the low 30s, resulting in learning dis-abilities and behavior problems

• $1,700,000 for a 14-year-old boy with lead levels in the low 20s, resulting in learning dis-abilities

• $1,500,000 for a 13-year-old boy with lead levels in the high 30s, resulting in learning disabilities

Settlements• $1,200,000 for three children with learning

disorders caused by lead levels in the 20s

• $1,100,000 for a 14-year-old boy with a reading disorder and organization problems caused by lead levels in the low 20s

THORNTON INDEX

38 Years in practice

67 Total number of lawyers and staff

35 Employees with more than 10 years tenure

21 Employees for more than 20 years

8 Employees for more than 30 years

6,549Total number of cases handled on a referral basis

930Lawyers who have referred cases to Thornton Law Firm

274Lawyers who have referred more than one case to Thornton Law Firm

29.5Percentage of lawyers who have referred more than one case to Thornton Law Firm

11Lawyers who have referred more than 50 cases to Thornton Law Firm

1,017Families who have stayed at The Thornton House during mesothelioma treatment

19 Average days stayed at The Thornton House

10 months

Longest stay at the Thornton House by one family

$8B Largest settlement

$9.3M Largest verdict

22 | Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly | September 5, 2016 www.masslawyersweekly.com

Michael P. Thornton Founder and chairman of

Thornton Law Firm LLP, Michael Thornton is a nationally recog-nized expert in toxic tort and class action litigation. He started Thornton Law Firm in 1978 when he began representing shipyard and construction workers in as-

bestos and mesothelioma cases. Under his leader-ship, the firm has grown into New England’s largest plaintiff’s only firm representing people who have been injured because of the negligence of others. The firm now handles cases including birth defects from chemical exposure of the parent; asbestos and meso-thelioma; toxic torts; products liability; financial fraud; defective drugs and medical devices; construction accidents and other catastrophic injury cases; and class actions. Mr. Thornton is a founding member of the International Mesothelioma Program Leadership Council, which funds research and other programs that help patients being treated for mesothelioma at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital. In 2008 the Thorn-ton House, a home away from home for patients at the Brigham, opened across the street from the hospital and has housed hundreds of patients and their fam-ilies during mesothelioma treatment. Mr. Thornton was named Best Lawyers Class Action Lawyer of the Year for 2016 and received the American Association for Justice’s Howard Twiggs award for 2016.

David J. McMorrisDavid McMorris directs Thorn-

ton Law Firm’s health care sub-rogation and workplace injury practice. Admitted to practice in both Massachusetts and New York, he has won million dollar verdicts trying construc-tion accident, products liability,

mesothelioma, lead paint poisoning, and other toxic exposure cases. He is the appointed Plaintiffs’ Liai-son Counsel for all asbestos cases filed in federal and state court in Massachusetts. A graduate of the State University of New York at Brockport and Suffolk University Law School, he has been a guest lecturer at Tufts University and Boston University Law School on the topics of latent occupational disease and complex litigation.

David C. StroussDavid Strouss directs Thorn-

ton Law Firm’s birth defect litigation for families with chil-dren with major structural and functional birth defects caused by toxic exposures. He brought some of the country’s first claims for birth defects caused by a parent’s occupational expo-

sure to toxins 20 years ago. He represents children born with birth defects to workers in the semicon-ductor industry, scientific laboratories, furniture fac-tories, industrial plants, and agricultural fields. He currently represents over 150 families of children with birth defects in the United States and South America due to parental environmental and occu-pational toxic exposures. He also litigates cases for cancer arising from exposure to benzene, solvents and other hazardous chemicals, environmental prop-erty damage and defective drugs and medical devic-

es. A graduate of Brown University and Northeastern School of Law, Mr. Strouss was a Special Assistant Attorney General representing the Commonwealth from 1995 through 1999 in the tobacco litigation.

Andrew S. Wainwright

Andrew Wainwright manages Thornton Law Firm’s mesotheli-oma and asbestos trial practice. A graduate of Hobart College and Suffolk University School of Law, he is admitted to practice in Massachusetts and New York.

He has successfully litigated over one thousand cases in the Massachusetts Superior Court, includ-ing appellate arguments before the Massachusetts Appeals and Supreme Judicial Courts. He also han-dles mesothelioma claims against makers of defec-tive masks; construction and jobsite accident cas-es; class actions; insurance bad faith claims; and worker’s compensation. He has spoken at national continuing legal education panels on the topics of asbestos litigation and the admissibility of expert testimony.

Garrett J. BradleyGarrett Bradley is the managing

partner of Thornton Law Firm LLP. In addition, Mr. Bradley manages the firm’s asbestos bankruptcy practice, which processes thou-sands of claims each year for the firm’s asbestos clients. He directs the firm’s class action practice, pri-

marily representing pension funds and other investors who have been the victims of financial fraud and mis-conduct by banks and other large financial institutions. He also oversees the consumer class action and insur-ance bad faith divisions. A graduate of Boston College High School, Boston College and Boston College Law School, he is admitted to the bars of Massachusetts and New York. He represented the Third Plymouth District in the Massachusetts House of Representatives for 16 years. Before joining Thornton Law Firm, he served as an Assistant District Attorney in the Plymouth County Dis-trict Attorney’s office.

Michael A. LesserMichael Lesser manages

the firm’s False Claims Act and Whistleblower litigation prac-tice. He represents individuals who report fraud in federal and state government spending and contracting, such as financial and bank fraud, Medicare and

Medicaid fraud, and healthcare and defense con-tract fraud. He has most recently focused on cas-es involving foreign exchange fraud. He represents whistleblowers before the Securities and Exchange Commission’s whistleblower program. A graduate of Brandeis University and Boston University School of Law, during his time at the firm he has handled cases involving reproductive injury from glycol ethers and mesothelioma resulting from asbestos expo-sure. He was also appointed as a Special Assistant Attorney General for the purpose of representing the Commonwealth from 1995 through 1999 in the to-bacco litigation.

Marilyn T. (Marnie) McGoldrick

Marnie McGoldrick directs the firm’s pharmaceutical drug and medical device practice. She represents individuals who have been injured by defective drugs and devices, whether they

are withdrawn or recalled by the manufacturer or the FDA, or if we believe that there are far more serious health effects than reported by the manufacturer. She is currently pursuing pharmaceutical drug cases including Xarelto, Invokana, Benicar, Actos, Granuflo and Zofran-related birth defects, as well as medical device cases including IVC filters, Essure and Mirena, metal-on-metal hips, Bair Hugger warming blankets and claims involving the use of talcum powder and the development of ovarian cancer. She is a gradu-ate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Suffolk University School of Law.

Brad J. MitchellBrad Mitchell concentrates

his practice in toxic exposure liti-gation, including cases involving birth defects and cancer with exposure to glycol ethers, ben-zene, solvents, pesticides, and other hazardous substances. He has represented clients exposed

to toxic substances while working in microelectronics and semiconductor chip manufacturing, commercial printing, parts washing, silk screen printing, and oth-er industries and occupations. A graduate of Colby College and Vermont Law School, he was a Note Edi-tor for the Vermont Law Review.

Andrea Marino Landry

Andrea Marino Landry rep-resents clients in a variety of the firm’s practice areas, includ-ing birth defects caused by toxic exposures; mesothelioma and asbestos; personal injury; prod-uct liability; and consumer class

actions. She is a graduate of Holy Cross and holds a law degree from Boston College Law School. She was co-counsel on a $9.3 million mesothelioma verdict against Turner and Newall in the United States Dis-trict Court for the District of Massachusetts in 2014.

Evan R. HoffmanEvan Hoffman practices in

complex financial fraud class ac-tions, qui tam, and False Claims Act cases. He has successfully represented private whistleblow-ers and public pension funds in litigation against global custo-dial banks for foreign exchange fraud. Mr. Hoffman also rep-

resents plaintiffs who have contracted mesothelioma as a result of exposure to asbestos. He is involved in the firm’s birth defects and farmworker pesticide litigation practice, working for clients exposed to dan-gerous chemicals. He is a graduate of American Uni-versity in Washington, D.C. and Suffolk University Law School.

Our partners enjoy a nationwide reputation for excel-lence in plaintiff personal injury litigation. They serve individual clients and also consult with institutional clients, national labor organizations, state govern-ments, municipalities and other law firms.

Thornton Law Firm attorneys have formed relationships with highly respected medical and scientific experts, including occu-pational health physicians, toxicologists, epidemiologists, and

industrial hygienists who work with us in the investigation and prosecution of our cases.

To serve clients in other geographical areas, we are affiliated with prestigious firms across the country. In addition, Thornton Law Firm has strategic alliances with other prominent public health law firms who have also received national recognition for their work in asbestos-related litigation, birth defects, and other complex cases.

OUR PARTNERS