Founding and Senior Partner Steven Kazan has played a significant role in asbestos litigation for over five decades. Mr. Kazan filed his first case on behalf of an asbestos victim in 1974 and since then has represented thousands of injured workers and their family members in court cases. He has dedicated the majority of his practice to representing workers suffering from mesothelioma in third party asbestos lawsuits (against manufacturers, contractors, distributors, and premises owners). In addition, he has also represented victims of asbestos lung cancer as well as seriously disabling asbestosis.
Mr. Kazan has also been nominated by the U.S. Trustee and appointed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to serve as a member or as counsel to victim members on almost all asbestos bankruptcy reorganizations, including Amatex, Carey Canada, Celotex, H.K. Porter, Babcock & Wilcox, Armstrong World Industries (AWI), W.R. Grace, North American Refractories Company (NARCO), Federal-Mogul, Kaiser Aluminum, Global Technologies (GIT), ACandS, ARTRA, Owens Corning/Fibreboard, Plibrico, T&N, U.S. Gypsum, Combustion Engineering, the Muralo Company, Congoleum, Flintkote Company, Special Electric, ABB Lummus Global, T H Agriculture & Nutrition (THAN), Leslie Controls, Garlock, General Motors, the Budd Company, D-II, Energy Future Holdings (EECI/Ebasco), Pittsburgh Corning Trust (PCC), Bestwall (formerly Georgia Pacific), and Thomas Dee Engineering. For Bestwall and Thomas Dee Engineering, Mr. Kazan serves as the Asbestos Creditors’ Committee (ACC) Chair. For Garlock, he is co-chair of the ACC.
In almost all cases where the bankruptcy reorganization is approved, Mr. Kazan has been approved by the Federal Court to serve as a member of The Trustees’ Advisory Committee (TAC) to work with The Trust on behalf of asbestos victims. For Leslie Controls, ABB Lummus, Combustion Engineering, and Flintkote, Mr. Kazan serves as TAC Chair. For the Kaiser Aluminum and NARCO Trust Advisory Committees, he is Co-chair.
For over fifty years Mr. Kazan has been a lecturer, speaker, moderator, program chairman and participant at various legal, medical, and insurance seminars and conferences throughout the world focusing on asbestos, toxic torts, and mass torts. He has lobbied and testified in Congress on behalf of asbestos victims and before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees on asbestos litigation and legislation.
Prior to starting the firm in Oakland in 1974, Mr. Kazan was an Assistant to the General Counsel of the Interstate Commerce Commission in Washington, D.C. (1967-1969); an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of California (1969-1971); and an associate at Werchick & Werchick, a plaintiffs’ medical malpractice specialty law office in San Francisco (1971-1974.)
