When Chemical Crises Strike with Ed Gentle and Kip Benson
Concepts: Toxic Events, Toxic Torts, Chemical Disasters, Emergency Response, Legal Activity, Risk Mitigation, Claims Settlement, Chemical Litigation
Soon after emergency response teams scramble into action to address chemical fires, explosions, or other toxic events, attorneys begin gathering and analyzing information either to mitigate corporate risk or to seek remedies for anyone impacted by such an event.
Listen to my interview with Edgar C. "Ed" Gentle III and Katherine "Kip" Benson of Gentle, Turner & Benson LLC, about legal activity that goes on in the immediate aftermath of a toxic event, using as a backdrop the recent chemical plant disaster that forced 17,000 Conyers, Georgia, residents to evacuate and many more to shelter in place as a toxic plume hung stubbornly over the homes of as many as 100,000 residents. Ed and Kip draw on their deep experience resolving this type of litigation -- including the settlement of a 20-year-old disaster at the same location -- to discuss the flurry of activity that unfolds at law firms and inside legal departments within hours of a disaster. They also share the impact on such cases of a recent $600 million court-approved settlement of claims that followed the highly publicized toxic train derailment that occurred in East Palestine, Ohio, in early 2023.
This is Ed Gentle's second appearance on the podcast. He spoke with me on Episode 48 titled Medical Monitoring for Modern Times. He was the featured speaker on that subject for an HB CLE webinar distributed on the West LegalEdcenter, then Kip Benson joined him for an advanced level webinar on the Medical Monitoring Tort Remedy. You can download his article on the subject for free as published in the Journal of Emerging Issues in Litigation.
I hope you enjoy the conversation! If so, give us a rating!
This podcast is the audio companion to the Journal on Emerging Issues in Litigation. The Journal is a collaborative project between HB Litigation Conferences and the vLex Fastcase legal research family, which includes Full Court Press, Law Street Media, and Docket Alarm.
If you have comments, ideas, or wish to participate, please drop me a note at Editor@LitigationConferences.com.
Tom Hagy
Litigation Enthusiast and
Host of the Emerging Litigation Podcast
Home Page
LinkedIn
Want to appear on the Emerging Litigation Podcast?
Send us your idea!
It's possible it could make this man smile. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
In addition to his legal practice, Ed Gentle regularly gives talks and writes papers about topics related to mass torts. Some of the topics he has addressed include the challenges of administering local settlements and the selection of lead counsel by the courts. He attended the University of Alabama School of Law as a Hugo Black Scholar. He earned his J.D. and was admitted to the Alabama State Bar in 1981.
Ms. Benson earned her J.D. from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1998 and was admitted to the Alabama State Bar in 1998. In addition to the Alabama State Bar, Ms. Benson is a member of the Birmingham Bar Association.