Trial Magazine

True trial lawyers have common connective tissues: You are passionate, you live the law as a sacred calling and not as a job or work, and you cannot abide injustice in any form. It’s why I love the company of my brothers and sisters of AAJ. And after the horrific terrorist attacks of 9/11, you showed the world who you really are.

Since 1946, ATLA had been a force that used its power to stop bills that hurt the powerless. But the late, legendary Tommy Boggs—ATLA’s outside lobbyist for decades—wisely and quickly advised us to “work with Congress on this one, not against them.”

Traditional litigation would be futile: The two airlines involved—American and United—had woefully inadequate insurance coverage to compensate the victims and their families. With nearly 3,000 deaths, thousands of injuries, and tens of billions of dollars of property damage, it was a mass-scale catastrophe—so ATLA had to think outside the box.

ATLA’s mantra to Congress became: You can’t bail out the airlines without helping the innocent victims. Linda Lipsen went to work, using the enormous personal and professional capital that she and the association had accumulated over decades. In an extraordinary 60-hour span beginning at 11 a.m. on Sept. 19, 2001, with an ATLA delegation in House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt’s office, the proposed legislation (the Airline Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act) was restructured to put the victims first by including the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF).

To meet the moment and avoid unnecessary delays, Congress suspended its rules, and the bill did not go to any committees. ATLA’s Executive Committee voted unanimously to provide free services to all 9/11 victims and their families. Congress passed this bipartisan bill at 11 p.m. on Sept. 21, and President George W. Bush signed it the next day.

The bill was originally written by the late, delightful Dan Cohen, then the association’s director of national affairs. With him were Bob Peck and Mike Starr, two of the association’s best legal minds and hearts. The VCF was a masterpiece of full relief: no need to prove liability; individualized economic and noneconomic damages, including past and future damages and pain and suffering; no damages caps; no limitations; and even hedonic damages. Victims could decide not to opt into the VCF and instead litigate against any party—only a tiny fraction did so. And the property damage claims were excluded from the bill. It was the first entitlement to pass Congress since Medicare was created.

Immediately after the bill passed, ATLA established Trial Lawyers Care (TLC) and put out a call for volunteers. You responded overwhelmingly, and TLC was off and running. Former ATLA President Larry Stewart dropped everything in his practice to be TLC’s first president and usher it into its robust existence. Larry’s Herculean efforts were emulated by subsequent TLC leaders—the indefatigable and “can-do” Steve Peskin and the late, beloved Richard Bieder—and by the extraordinary, selfless Bill Mauk, who left his practice in Idaho to volunteer as TLC’s Director of Litigation Support in New York City. (For more, see p. 52.) Then New York State Trial Lawyers Association (NYSTLA) president Hugh Campbell and NYSTLA past president David Golomb, as well as countless other members, also jumped into the breach.

This was an enormous outpouring of humanity and generosity—and it showed the world who trial lawyers really are.

Nearly 1,100 ATLA/TLC lawyers from around the United States and 11 other countries represented over 1,700 families. Many presented the cases in person before Kenneth R. Feinberg, the empathetic and tireless special master of the VCF.

Among the thousands of TLC heroes were many leaders without whom there never would have been a fund or TLC: ATLA staff members Chris Koerner, Carlton Carl (our poet laureate), and the late Tom Henderson, and the members of ATLA’s Executive Committee, including Mary Alexander, David Casey Jr., Todd Smith, and the late Fred Baron, to name just a few. Their passion and courage should not be forgotten.

The amazing TLC lawyers who represented the victims worked pro bono. This was an enormous outpouring of humanity and generosity—and it showed the world who trial lawyers really are.

Leo Boyle is a partner at Meehan, Boyle, Black & Bogdanow in Boston and can be reached at lboyle@meehanboyle.com. He served as ATLA’s president from 2001–2002.