Featured Guests:
Rachel Weintraub is Assistant General Counsel for the Consumer Federation of America (CFA). CFA is an advocacy, research, education, and service organization. As an advocacy group, it works to advance pro-consumer policy on a variety of issues before Congress, the White House, federal and state regulatory agencies, state legislatures, and the courts. Its staff works with public officials to promote beneficial policies, to oppose harmful policies, and to ensure a balanced debate on important issues in which consumers have a stake. As a research organization, CFA investigates consumer issues, behavior, and attitudes using surveys, polling, focus groups, and literatures reviews. The findings of such projects are published in reports that assist consumer advocates and policymakers as well as individual consumers. This research also provides the basis for new consumer initiatives, public service advertising, and consumer information and education efforts. As an education organization, CFA disseminates information on consumer issues to the public and the media, as well as to policymakers and other public interest advocates. Conferences, reports, books, brochures, news releases, a newsletter, and a website all contribute to CFA's education program. Finally, as a service organization, CFA provides support to national, state, and local organizations committed to the goals of consumer advocacy, research, and education. Some of these organizations are consumer advocacy, education, or cooperative organizations that belong to the federation.
Kenneth Wexler, founding partner of Wexler Toriseva Wallace LLP, devotes his practice to helping those whose rights have been denied or who have been victims of the unscrupulous or fraudulent actions of others, most often more powerful entities. Founder of the firm that bears his name, Ken was also a founding partner in the firm of Miller Faucher Cafferty and Wexler, LLP. Prior to that, he was a partner in the Chicago law firm then known as Much Shelist Freed Denenberg Ament & Eiger, P.C. Ken has been in leadership positions in cases with far-ranging subject matters, including brand name manufacturer suppression of competition from generic drugs, fraudulent and deceptive product overcharges, discrimination and harassment, corporate waste and mismanagement, cost recovery for defective medical devices, false advertising, and government fraud. Ken’s practice is devoted to complex class action and commercial litigation.
Ken has served as lead counsel in numerous high profile cases, including the following.
- In Re Pharmaceutical Industry Average Wholesale Price Litigation, MDL No. 1456 (D. Mass.) (Early in 2002, WTW initiated a wave of class-actions nationwide against the dominant pharmaceutical manufacturers to stop the fraudulent publication of a fictitious price called Average Wholesale Price, or AWP. Manipulation of AWP by defendants caused federal and state governments, third party payors and consumers to vastly overpay for prescription drugs)
>Ken was appointed co-lead counsel and have been actively involved in all aspects of this monumental case.
>Trial began against AstraZeneca, Bristol Meyers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson and Schering Plow in November, 2006. Jennifer Connolly, another partner at WTW, has had a prominent role on the trial team.
-Nichols v. SmithKline Beecham Corp., Case No. 2:00-CV-06222-JP (E.D. Pa.) (An antitrust case in which plaintiffs alleged that several of Defendants’ patents for paroxetine hydrochloride were improperly listed in the FDA Orange Book and that Defendants’ patent infringement litigation against various generic drug manufacturers was “sham” litigation designed to keep generic versions of Paxil® off the market)
Ken, as one of three co-lead counsel, had to build the Paxil case from the ground up. The Paxil litigation is believed to be one of the first, if not the first, to allege misuse of patents to delay generic competition in a pharmaceutical market brought under Section 2 of the Sherman Act rather than Section 1.
Despite these hurdles, and after extensive discovery and investigation, the case settled for $65 million in cash. The favorable response to this hard-fought settlement was overwhelming ---- over 60,000 consumers filed claims.
-Wiginton v. CB Richard Ellis, Inc., Case No. 1:02-CV-06832 (N.D. Ill.) (A nationwide class-action brought by WTW seeking to remedy systemic sexual harassment in the offices of CB Richard Ellis nationwide)
-New England Carpenters Health Benefits Fund v. First DataBank, Case No. 1:05-CV-11148 (D.Mass.) (Ken is co-lead counsel in this matter alleging a conspiracy to suddenly increase the published spread between Average Wholesale Prices and Wholesale Acquisition Cost for pharmaceuticals in the 2001-2002 time frame, causing end purchasers to pay billions of dollars extra for needed pharmaceuticals. The case has settled against one defendant and preliminary estimates pin the savings to consumers and third party payors resulting from the settlement at $4 billion. The case is still pending against another alleged co-conspirator in the United States District Court sitting in Boston.)
-In re BP Products North America, Inc. Antitrust Litigation, MDL No. 1801 (N.D. IL) (Ken has again been appointed interim co-lead class counsel, representing purchasers of propane who were injured by BP’s alleged unlawful manipulation of the price of propane gas after it cornered the TET propane market in February 2004)
Roger Clark is the founding member and managing partner of Clark, Goldberg & Madruga www.clarkgoldberg.com. In his more than 25 years practicing law, Roger has earned a national reputation as a successful trial attorney representing insurers, cable television providers, and small and large businesses in a broad range of business litigation matters. “My philosophy has always been that the attorneys in this law firm must be prepared not just to ‘litigate’ a case, but to try it before a judge or jury, while at the same time keeping the client’s goals and objectives squarely within our sights.” Roger is rated “AV” by Martindale-Hubbell, which is the highest rating that can be bestowed upon an attorney.
Hosted by Steve Murphy.
Brought to you by "America's Premier Lawyers"
Contact:
Rachel Waintraub
Assistant General Consel, Consumer Federation of
America
www.consumerfed.org
Kenneth Wexler
Partner, Wexler Wallace LLP
www.wtwlaw.com
Co-host Roger Clark
Partner, Clark, Goldberg & Madruga
www.clarkgoldberg.com
Steve Murphy
Executive Producer & Host
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