PR Experts, Lawyers Mapped Tort Reform Strategy in Gibson Dunn Meeting

Tort Law

PR Experts, Lawyers Mapped Tort Reform Strategy in Gibson Dunn Meeting

Posted Jun 23, 2008, 05:34 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s public relations strategy to change tort law had its genesis in a meeting held at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher around nine years ago.

The strategy includes judicial campaign contributions, advertising seeking to influence voters, and lawmaker lobbying, the New York Times reports. An annual list ranking states’ judicial climates is part of the effort, too, while another “judicial hellholes” list is compiled by the American Tort Reform Administration.

Steven Hantler, who at the time was an assistant general counsel at DaimlerChrysler, headed an effort to develop the strategy. He said those who attended the meeting included Gibson Dunn partner Theodore Olson, who later became solicitor general; Mike Murphy, a McCain campaign strategist in 2000; former Reagan speechwriter Clark Judge; and Robert H. Bork Jr., the son of the former Supreme Court nominee and now the leader of a PR firm called the Bork Communication Group.

Hantler formerly headed the chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform, formed 10 years ago, and currently chairs the American Justice Partnership, another group advocating tort reform.

Since that initial meeting tort-reform advocates have succeeded in getting a 2005 law passed that moved many class action lawsuits from state to federal courts, and have seen the indictment of several well-known trial lawyers. Still, the Times story notes that trial lawyers are pursuing their own strategies, and says tort-reform battles aren’t likely to end any time soon.

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