This Duquesne law grad surpassed his aspirations when he filed a groundbreaking NFL concussion suit
Image from Shutterstock.
Pennsylvania lawyer Jason Luckasevic aspired to represent working folks and to someday own a nice vehicle after he graduated from Duquesne’s law school and started practice in 2000.
Luckasevic began work at Goldberg, Persky & White by taking asbestos depositions for steel plant workers every day for six months, according to an article in the New York Times Magazine. The firm’s motto was “working lawyers for working people,” which seemed a good niche for Luckasevic.
“My attitude was, I’m going to work hard, do good at this and be successful,” he told the Times. “Hopefully, I’ll be like some of the established guys in the firm and start making some nice money and have a nice vehicle.”
Luckasevic’s plans changed, however, as a result of a friendship with a Nigerian-born forensic pathologist he met through his brother, who was in a medical residency at the Allegheny County medical examiner’s office. The doctor, Bennet Omalu, had autopsied six former players with the National Football League, noticing their brain tissue was consistent with Alzheimer’s disease. When the doctor published his findings, he was attacked for his conclusions.
Luckasevic decided to help defend his friend’s reputation. He began meeting with NFL players and filed suit on behalf of 75 of them in 2011, shortly after he made partner. Some at the firm feared the lawsuit could cost so much as to put it in bankruptcy. With his firm’s blessing, Luckasevic teamed up with two other plaintiffs lawyers who signed up their own players. Eventually he acquired 535 clients. His theory was that the players were never warned of the potential dangers from repeated concussions.
Both sides agreed to a $765 million settlement in the multidistrict case in August 2013before U.S. District Judge Anita Brody ruled whether the players’ collective bargaining agreement prevented the suit. After Brody refused to approve the settlement because of fears it might not provide enough money to qualified former players, a new agreement was reached that had no compensation cap on funding. Brody could approve the new settlement as early as Nov. 19.
