Cohen Milstein Hausfeld & Toll Partner Michael D. Hausfeld Named Liaison to the Public Safety Community in Firestone Litigation
11 December 2000
Cohen Milstein Hausfeld & Toll Partner Michael D. Hausfeld Named Liaison to the Public Safety Community in Firestone Litigation
WASHINGTON--Dec. 11, 2000--On Friday, December 8, 2000, the federal district court presiding over the consolidated federal court proceedings against Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc. and Ford Motor Company involving allegations of defects in Firestone ATX, ATX II and Wilderness tires and Ford Explorer SUVs, named Cohen Milstein Hausfeld & Toll partner Michael D. Hausfeld as Liaison to the Public Safety Community, which includes consumer advocacy and watchdog groups and state and federal government entities and officials.
According to Hausfeld, who also serves as counsel in the Center for Auto Safety's tire recall case, "I am honored to be named to this important position. This litigation is first and foremost about protecting the safety of the motoring public. To do that the litigants will require the input, expertise and leadership of the various governmental agencies and public safety groups, such as the Center for Auto Safety, that focus on automotive safety issues. I feel privileged to be able to work with those groups and to advocate their viewpoints in the litigation."
Hausfeld indicated that as Liaison to the Public Safety Community, he would seek to encourage as inclusive a dialogue as possible among the various consumer groups, governmental agencies and members of the public regarding the automotive safety concerns that are at issue in the litigation. Accordingly, he indicated that he has created a public safety newsletter on his firm's website which will provide brief updates about the public safety issues being analyzed in the litigation and will provide a chat room for people to engage in an exchange regarding those public safety issues. The firm's website is located at www.cmht.com.
Cohen Milstein Hausfeld & Toll has significant experience in prosecuting plaintiffs' lawsuits involving threats to public safety, product defects and consumer fraud. The firm successfully represented Native Alaskans affected by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. In 1996, focusing the attention of the nation on racism in corporate America, Cohen Milstein negotiated a historical $176 million racial bias settlement from Texaco, Inc. In Friedman v. Union Bank of Switzerland, et al., the firm represented a class of victims of the Holocaust whose assets were wrongfully retained by private Swiss banks during or after World War II. Currently the firm is representing the Republic of Poland, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Ukraine and the Russian Federation, on issues of slave and forced labor for both Jewish and non-Jewish victims arising from the Nazi persecution during World War II.
Moreover, Mr. Hausfeld and his firm are playing a leadership role in representing various municipalities around the country against handgun manufacturers and distributors to recoup the costs borne by those municipalities in addressing the consequences of handgun violence. Cohen Milstein also is on the Plaintiffs' Management Committee in the Fen-Phen diet drug litigation and participated in negotiating the $4 billion settlement with the manufacturers of the diet drugs. In addition, the firm has represented and continues to represent home purchasers whose homes were clad with defective hardboard siding and defective synthetic stucco systems. The firm has offices in Washington, D.C. and Seattle and is active in major litigation pending in federal and state courts throughout the nation.