Susan Barfield:
Hello everyone. Thank you for joining another episode of the Leverage Report. Super excited to have Andy Childers with us today. We’re going to be talking all things MTMP and just excited to have Andy join us and give us really, I mean, some sneak peeks on some of these panel discussions. Andy, just real quickly, I want you to give a little bit of a background on yourself, but just for those who may not know, Andy is the founding partner of Childers, Schlueter and Smith. So thanks so much for joining Andy, and just share a little bit about your background.
Andy Childers:
Well, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. So my background, I first got involved in Mass Torts in late 1999, early 2000 for those of the folks watching who were around back then, you’ll recall that was the tail end of the first round of the Fen-phen Diet drug litigation. So we got involved in that. I actually continued litigating Fen cases till about 2015, but that was how I first got involved in Mass Torts. It was a good one to get involved with as the first mass tort. And like you said, we started our firm here, Childers Schlueter and Smith in 2001, the very beginning of 2001. So we’re in our 23rd year as a firm.
Susan Barfield:
So a thing or two about mass torts.
Andy Childers:
Well, I’ve certainly seen a lot of my share of the action in Mass Torts, but I continue to learn new things constantly, especially as the longer I’ve practiced in this area, I’ve gotten to work with more and more just amazing attorneys and I learn so much from that. I’m not just talking about the folks who’ve been doing this forever, either the new attorneys too. I am so impressed by the crop of attorneys that’s coming through Mass Torts now, and I’ve been learning a lot from them as well.
Susan Barfield:
Yeah, super exciting. The level of talent we get to partner with a lot of those attorneys and firms. So I hear you well talking a little bit about MTMP because that is literally right around the corner in October and you’re going to be a busy man talking on some panels. And so wanted to understand a little bit more. If I understand correctly, Andy, you’re going to be giving insights and updates as it relates to chemical hair relaxer and the infant formula and paraquat litigation. So if you don’t mind just giving us any sneak peeks or anything that everything, because we want people to share up the discussion a little bit.
Andy Childers:
I’m happy to. And just so everybody knows, I’m not making these things up. I actually, I’ve got appointed roles in each of those litigations in those MDLs. I’m the co-lead, one of the co-leads in the Preterm infant Formula, MDL, the Plaintiff’s Liaison Counsel, and the Paraquat MDL, and I’m a member of the P S C and hair relaxer. So what I’m going to tell you is based on actual firsthand knowledge of what’s going on there, and just tell me where you’d like me to start. You want me to just start with preterm formula?
Susan Barfield:
Yeah, let’s do that.
Andy Childers:
All right. So what’s going on now in that MDL is general liability and case specific bellwether discovery. We’ve got those going on simultaneously. So the defendants are continuing to produce to us thousands and thousands and millions of pages of documents, and we are actively deposing. Their employees had one just last week. We got several more coming up in the next probably three months. We’re hoping to get through as many of ’em as we can. We’ve got 12 bellwether pool plaintiffs. The depositions are going forward, the initial set of depositions in those cases are underway and we are hoping that we can get through those in a fashion so that we can actually get to trial sometime in 2024. It’d be late 2024 if we get there, but that’s our hope.
Susan Barfield:
Yeah, that’s exciting. Things sound like they’re moving right along. Yeah. What about hair relaxer?
Andy Childers:
So hair relaxer, I would say we’re still pretty early in that MDL, it’s interesting, it’s a very large MDL with a lot of different defendants, which is a totally different animal. The co-leads have done a very nice job in that MDL of breaking out the P E C and P S C members into defendant specific teams. There are so many defendants and I’m on one of those teams. I’m a member on another to kind of link together their similar companies and what we’re doing. All the different teams are preparing to conduct 30 B six depositions to get really down into the weeds with each of these companies and how they operate and what products they sold over the years and then send additional discovery. And in fact, as soon as I get done talking with you, I’ve got to meet and confer with defense counsel for the defendants that I’m the co-chair of.
Susan Barfield:
Okay. Any main challenges with that litigation?
Andy Childers:
I think the biggest challenge right now is just the scope of it. There are so many different defendants. The products were sold over so many years and it’s just hard to sort of wrap your hands around something that big. But again, I think the co-leads are doing a really good job, especially with how they’ve broken it out into teams.
Susan Barfield:
Okay. Guard.
Andy Childers:
So paraquat, I’ll say this. Discovery has been a tough road. The defendants in that case have obstructed us at every turn, every chance they can have tried to delay, delay, delay, but we’re making our way through. We got great leadership. I’m sure Erin Copeland, she is the lead council there. She’s doing a great job of keeping the defendants honest as best we can with defendants, but we’re making our way through. We got a lot of depositions scheduled for the next few months. We just had our 10 bellwether plaintiffs picked just this week actually was finalized, and we’re also hoping to go to trial in that MDL in 2024, and that’s here in Atlanta where I’m based. So I’m really excited about that. The thought of sleeping at home during a mass tour trial is pretty appealing to me.
Susan Barfield:
Yes, that is definitely an advantage for you. Okay, so I mean, you’re a familiar face around MTMP for those that may not have registered or thinking like, oh, I wonder if this is a conference I should attend. What would you say to that?
Andy Childers:
Well, I can say this. I have attended, you probably don’t know this. I have attended every single Mass Torts Made Perfect conference since it started other than maybe three. And that was because I had a child born for one of them and then I was in trial for the other couple that I had missed. I can’t imagine a better place to go if you handle mass torts or if you want to handle mass torts or you’re even thinking about mass torts. That’s where everybody is, and that’s where people are sharing information about what’s happening in litigations and about litigations haven’t started yet. They’re sharing information about what’s coming. I wouldn’t miss it other than when I’ve been forced to.
Susan Barfield:
Well, those were good reasons to miss them. And let’s see. What are you most excited about when you think about going to MTMP?
Andy Childers:
Well, I’ll tell you this, I get excited as soon as I get that first brochure, and I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. It comes in the mail and I kind of already know what’s going to be happening, but just getting that brochure with all the pictures and it’s all there and actually spelled out, I really get excited. I start to go through that and start to put my agenda together of the things that I want to do. I’ve kind of, not so much MCing anymore, I’ve sort of slowly phased out of that. I went from doing the entirety of it for every conference to sharing duties with some of the younger lawyers to now stepping back a bit and having other people take over, which has been a great transition too. But I get excited about one, seeing everybody. Two, the entertainment that they bring is Insane. Sting is coming to sing for us at Mass Torts made perfect in a little hall there. I mean, that to me is every time I’m always really, really excited about what we’re going to see and who’s going to be there.
Susan Barfield:
Yeah, the entertainment, just the amount of information that’s being shared. I think also just the networking abilities. And what I have really enjoyed watching is some attorneys that have been in the mass tort space for a really long time, connecting with attorneys that maybe are in personal injury or that are interested in joining mass tort and how they really come alongside teach them like, oh, you got to go talk to this person. You need to work with this group. I mean, it’s just quite amazing. So there’s just so much of that happening.
Andy Childers:
Yeah, I agree. If you pick out a talk that you want to go to a presentation, all you got to do is show up for that. You’re going to find other people who want to talk to you about the project or litigation, whatever it may be, whether it be the folks who are up on the stage talking about it, or folks who are in the audience. You’re going to meet other people who are interested in doing what it is you’re interested in doing. And so I agree with you that the network isn’t insane. It’s just out of this world, the networking, you get there.
Susan Barfield:
And I would say that I have seen a change over the past five years, maybe longer, where many years ago it was like, oh, firms didn’t want to share their secrets of what they were doing or who they were working with. And now it’s just like, man, let’s all work together. There’s plenty of cases to go around, and so let’s make sure we we’re doing it right above. We’re all on the same page.
Andy Childers:
Right. We’re also really looking for good attorneys to work with. I certainly know that I’m not the best attorney out there. Somebody’s always better than me at various things. Maybe I’m good at this and you’re good at that, but I’m always looking for new attorneys that I can work with to do better for my clients and to improve myself.
Susan Barfield:
Exactly. Yeah. That’s awesome, man. Andy, this has been great. I really appreciate the insight. So this wraps up our preview with Andy and we’re just grateful for your time and expertise, and so I’m excited. We’ll see you in October and thanks so much for taking time to do this.
Andy Childers:
Thank you.
