HarrisMartin's MDL Conference: Transvaginal Mesh and ACTOS Litigation Speaker Profiles

• With a diverse career spanning nearly 30 years, Richard J. Arsenault’s experience as a trial lawyer, author, speaker, mediator, expert witness, and teacher has provided a unique foundation for navigating complex litigation.
  
  At a recent class action fairness hearing, Harvard Law Professor Arthur Miller testified that Arsenault is one of the “leaders in the area of complex litigation.” Likewise, Professor Edward Sherman, former dean of Tulane Law School and author of the Complex Litigation treatise, has described Arsenault as one of the “experts” in class actions.
  
  The National Law Journal has recognized Arsenault as having one of the nation’s largest personal injury verdicts. He has Martindale Hubbell’s highest rating for legal ability and ethical standards and is listed in other peer reviewed publications including the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers and “Best of United States”. He has appeared in the “Best Lawyers in America” publication for over 15 consecutive years. He also serves as a faculty member for LSU Law School’s Trial Advocacy Program; a faculty composed of Federal and State Court Judges, professors and prominent attorneys. He has been a part of that program since its inception nearly 20 years ago. In addition to a busy litigation practice, Arsenault has also been retained to provide expert testimony and has served as a mediator in mass tort litigation. Additionally, Trial Magazine has called upon Arsenault to peer review articles they consider for publication.
  
  The architect of many significant litigation recoveries, Arsenault has been appointed to negotiating teams in major multidistrict litigation. He served on the Executive Committee and as Class Counsel in environmental litigation where the defendant agreed to a substantial settlement just days before trial. He was also appointed to the Vioxx MDL Plaintiff Steering Committee, where there is likewise a substantial pending settlement. Whether through trial or creative alternative dispute resolution, Arsenault has the experience to tackle and resolve complex litigation.

Fred Thompson leads Motley Rice’s Medical practice group, managing the firm’s litigation related to defective medical devices, harmful pharmaceutical drugs and medical malpractice as well as overseeing the firm’s nursing home abuse litigation team. In this role, Fred litigates personal injury and economic damage recovery cases on behalf of individuals harmed by negligence, product defects or misconduct.
His work has led to his appointment to numerous leadership positions, including Plaintiffs’ Co-Lead Counsel in the federal Digitek® consolidation and membership on the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committees in the Medtronic Sprint Fidelis® defibrillator lead, Avandia® and Trasylol® federal multidistrict litigation. Fred also serves as chairman of the American Association for Justice’s Digitek® Litigation Group and co-chairman of the Kugel® Mesh Litigation Group. He co-authored “Composix® Kugel® Mesh: A Primer” for the Spring 2008 AAJ Section on Toxic, Environmental & Pharmaceutical Torts newsletter.

With more than two decades of diverse experience in personal injury, commercial and toxic tort law, Fred is also active with the firm’s consumer fraud, commercial and economic damage litigation. He has represented clients in litigation involving bond issues and securities fraud in federal, state and bankruptcy forums as well as through alternative dispute resolution. Additionally, Fred has practiced commercial transaction work, including contracting, corporate, partnership and limited liability company formation, and capital acquisitions.

Recognized as an AV® rated attorney by Martindale-Hubbell®, Fred is a member of the American Association for Justice and frequently speaks on medical litigation topics at legal seminars throughout the country. He serves his local community as a Board Member for the East Cooper Community Outreach organization.

Neil D. Overholtz specializes in pharmaceutical litigation, and has successfully handled thousands of defective drug and medical device cases, including fen-phen, Rezulin, Baycol, Bextra/Celebrex, Vioxx, Medtronic Defibrillators, and Guidant Defibrillators.

Recently, Mr. Overholtz has the distinction of having been appointed as national counsel on the Plaintiffs' Steering Committees for several federal products liability MDL's (Mullti-District litigations), including the Trasylol MDL pending in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida, before the Honorable Judge Middlebrooks, the Viagra MDL in the District Court in Minnesota, before the Honorable Judge Magnuson, as well as the Medtronic Sprint Fidelis Lead Wire MDL before United States District Court Judge Richard Kyle. Additionally, Mr. Overholtz has served as co-lead counsel in the In Re America Online, Inc Version 5.0 Software Litigation, MDL Docket No. 1341 (S.D. Fla), helping to negotiate a cash settlement for affected AOL members in excess of $15 Million as well as significant injunctive relief.

Mr. Overholtz has also recently served as co-chair of the Defective Medtronic Pacemakers and Defibrillators MDL discovery committee, and lead the firm's efforts in national litigation, which resulted in a settlement of over $100 Million dollars. United States District Judge James Rosenbaum appointed Mr. Overholtz, to serve 25 of the Plaintiff's Steering Committee Fee Committee. Mr. Overholtz also served a key role on the Guidant Defibrillators and Pacemakers MDL, which resulted in a settlement of over $200 Million dollars.

In the Guidant MDL, Mr. Overholtz was appointed by the federal court as chair of the Guidant National Settlement Allocation Plan Committee, and was appointed to serve as a member of the Settlement Allocation Committee. He is also co-chair of the AAJ Bausch & Lomb Contact Lens Solution Litigation Group. Mr. Overholtz limits his practice to the areas of: pharmaceutical litigation, medical device litigation, consumer class actions, medical malpractice, wrongful death and personal injury; and is currently involved in the following matters: Avandia, Trasylol Heart Surgery Drug cases, Medtronic Sprint Fidelis Lead Wires, Viagra NAION Vision Loss Cases, Bausch & Lomb ReNu Contact Lens Solution, and Medical Malpractice claims.

Mr. Overholtz graduated from the Stetson University College of Law in 1999. Before attending college, Mr. Overholtz graduated Valedictorian from Crestview High School in Crestview, FL. While in law school, Mr. Overholtz was an associate member of the Stetson Law Review and participated in Stetson's Trial Advocacy Program which was ranked number one in country by U.S. News and World Report from 1995-1999. Mr. Overholtz received Highest Grade Honors in several classes including Torts and Property. During law school he was nominated three times to the National Dean's List of law students. In law school, Mr. Overholtz served as an Honors Intern to the Honorable Elizabeth Jenkins on the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida. From 1999-2001 Mr. Overholtz volunteered as coach for the Tate High School Mock Trial Team, who won the 2001 Florida State Championship, finishing 6th nationally.

Mr. Overholtz is currently licensed to practice before all Florida State Courts, all United States District Courts of Florida, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. District Courts for the Western District of Tennessee and the District Court of Colorado.

Mr. Overholtz is a member of the Escambia-Santa Rosa County Bar Association, the American Association for Justice, the Florida Justice Association, and the American Bar Association. Mr. Overholtz is also a regularly invited speaker at CLE programs for other Practicing attorneys in the areas of electronic discovery, deposition taking skills, pharmaceutical litigation, Medico-legal issues, and complex mass torts.

Thomas Anapol, a Shareholder of Anapol Schwartz, concentrates his practice in pharmaceutical and medical device litigation, Asbestos - Mesothelioma and other catastrophic injury related civil litigation.

He co-chairs the firm's Mass Tort Department.

Mr. Anapol currently serves and has served in various positions for the Pennsylvania Association for Justice (PAJ) as a Board of Governor for the Association since 2005 and is its current chair of its Business Partners Committee. He is also a member of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association and American Association for Justice (AAJ). In 2010-2011, he was appointed to serve as co-chair of AAJ’s DePuy Metal on Metal Litigation Group. Mr. Anapol was also appointed to serve on the plaintiff’s discovery committee in the DePuy ASR MDL litigation. Most recently, he was appointed to serve on AAJ’s (SLGCC) Sections and Litigation Group Coordination Committee, the committee which oversees all of AAJ’s section and litigation groups.

Mr. Anapol has been named a Super Lawyer in Pennsylvania every year since 2006. Mr. Anapol routinely lectures on Mass Torts at AAJ and PAJ and other legal seminars across the country.

In 1988, Mr. Anapol received his Bachelor’s degree from Boston University, and earned his law degree from Widener University School of Law in 1991. He is admitted to practice and actively practices in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and various Federal Courts.