Kaye Scholer

During his 35 years of practice, Mr. Glickstein has been involved in some of the most highly publicized product liability litigation matters.

Mr. Glickstein was lead trial counsel for the fire alarm company in the San Juan Dupont Plaza Hotel Fire litigation, which involved over 2,000 plaintiffs (including 97 people killed in the fire) and 200 defendants. The case was settled favorably after a 12-month jury trial.

He has vast experience in product liability class actions, involving such diverse products as artificial heart valves, penile prostheses, pharmaceuticals, agricultural pesticides, blood products, asbestos and tobacco. He has written and lectured extensively on the subject, and has testified before the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules concerning proposed changes to the federal class action rules. Mr. Glickstein has successfully opposed class certification in numerous cases, including In re American Medical Systems, Inc., 75 F.3d 1069 (6th Cir. 1996), where the Sixth Circuit granted a writ of mandamus to decertify a class. He also has defended class action settlements, including international settlements. In one international class action settlement with 50,000 potential claimants, he designed, supervised the implementation of, and successfully defended the adequacy of a massive class notice program in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia, Latin America and the Middle East.

Mr. Glickstein has been a consultant to the City of New York in a class action suit involving over 50,000 potential claimants.

He was lead counsel in Pick v. American Medical Systems, Inc., 958 F. Supp. 1151 (E.D. La. 1997), affirmed per curiam, 198 F.3d 241 (5th Cir. 1999), a leading Daubert decision in the area of disease causation. The court granted summary judgment to the defendant and excluded, in whole and in part, the testimony of 13 plaintiff’s experts in such diverse fields as “immunotoxicology,” pathology, neurology, ophthalmology, biochemistry and infectious disease.

Mr. Glickstein is lead counsel to Pfizer in Viagra litigation, winning summary judgment in seven cases alleging that Viagra causes heart attacks, including affirmances of all three summary judgments that were appealed. Selig v. Pfizer Inc., 735 N.Y.S. 2d 549 (N.Y. App. Div.-1st Dept. 2002). More recently, his team won summary judgment on claims that Viagra can cause permanent vision loss, “effectively ending” the litigation, according to the MDL judge. In re Viagra Products Liability Litigation, 658 F. Supp 2nd 936 (D. Minn. Aug. 19, 2009) (MDL); In re Viagra Products Liability Litigation, 658 F. Supp 2nd 950(D. Minn. Aug. 19, 2009)

Mr. Glickstein was national counsel to Pfizer in the Rezulin and Hormone Replacement Therapy litigations. In the Rezulin litigation, Mr. Glickstein won a Daubert decision that had national importance, prohibiting experts from testifying about a company’s motive, intent or ethics, or about the expert’s interpretation of company documents. In re Rezulin Prod. Liab. Lit., 309 F. Supp. 2d 531 (2004). In other major Rezulin decisions, his team won Daubert rulings excluding claims alleging latent liver injury, liver cancer, cirrhosis and cardio-vascular injury.

Mr. Glickstein currently is national counsel to Boston Scientific in medical device litigation and to Knauf in Chinese drywall litigation.

Mr. Glickstein also has performed product liability due diligence investigations in connection with potential corporate acquisitions, and has counseled clients on proposed tort reform legislation, on product warnings and labeling, on product liability indemnification agreements, in asbestos and silicone cases, and on issues relating to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.