Mark Lanier, of The Lanier Law Firm. Photo: Adam Shane/Las Vegas Corporate Photographers
Trial lawyer Mark Lanier and two English barristers have launched a new firm in the U.K. focusing on the kinds of lawsuits Houston-based Lanier Law Firm handles in the U.S., such as mass tort, antitrust and product liability litigation.
The partners in the new firm, Lanier, Longstaff, Hedar & Roberts, are U.K. barristers Tom Longstaff and Duncan Hedar, both former solicitors who worked at Linklaters before becoming barristers; Lanier; and Kevin Roberts, chief operating officer of the Lanier Law Firm.
Lanier Longstaff is based in Manchester, and Longstaff said they expect to grow the firm to 15 lawyers in the short term. It is organized as an alternative business structure licensed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
Lanier said recent changes in the law in the U.K. created a system similar to the multidistrict litigation system in the U.S. that will allow the firm to do litigation such as mass torts and commercial litigation on a large scale.
"There's been a change in the legal landscape in England that makes a number of cases we handle over here attractive over there," Lanier said.
The firm has been in the works for several months.
Longstaff said he and Hedar reached out to Lanier because he is a leading class–action lawyer in the U.S. and knows how to handle group litigation.
"Group litigation is a growth area in the U.K. It's not a particularly well-developed area of the law in England, but a number of law firms have started to specialize in this area in recent years. A number are collaborations between established U.S. lawyers and English firms," he said.
The new firm will handle group litigation, including products liability, consumer class actions, and competition law, which is known as antitrust litigation in the U.S., Longstaff said.
"There is no limit to the type of work the firm will do," he said, noting that some lawsuits will replicate the type of cases that Lanier has already tried successfully in the U.S.
The litigation at the new firm will primarily be contingency fee, Longstaff said, and the first lawsuit may be filed next week.
Lanier, who has had a home in Oxford for years, said Manchester is about as far from London as Dallas is from Houston.
A press release about the firm's opening on Wednesday lists several verdicts won by Lanier, including more than $9 billion against pharmaceutical companies over the diabetes drug Actos, $1.5 billion over metal-on-metal hip implants, and $4.7 billion for 22 women and their families who alleged that use of Johnson & Johnson's talcum powder caused the women's ovarian cancer.
Lanier said he cannot predict the size of verdicts Lanier Longstaff may win in the U.K., but "we should be able to get British justice for British citizens."
Brenda Sapino Jeffreys
Senior reporter Brenda Sapino Jeffreys covers the business of law in Texas. Contact her at [email protected] On Twitter: @BrendaSJeffreys