Steven Kazan

Founding, Senior and Managing Principal Steven Kazan has played a significant role in asbestos litigation for over four decades. Mr. Kazan filed his first case on behalf of an asbestos victim in 1974 and since then has represented thousands of injured workers and their family members in court cases. He has dedicated the majority of his practice to representing workers suffering from mesothelioma in third party asbestos lawsuits (against manufacturers, contractors, distributors, and premises owners). In addition, he has also represented victims of asbestos lung cancer as well as seriously disabling asbestosis.

Mr. Kazan has also been nominated by the U.S. Trustee and appointed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to serve as a member or as counsel to victim members on almost all asbestos bankruptcy reorganizations, including Amatex, Carey Canada, Celotex, H.K. Porter, Babcock & Wilcox, Armstrong World Industries (AWI), W.R. Grace, North American Refractories Company (NARCO), Federal-Mogul, Kaiser Aluminum, Global Technologies (GIT), ACandS, ARTRA, Owens Corning/Fibreboard, Plibrico, T&N, U.S. Gypsum, Combustion Engineering, the Muralo Company, Congoleum, Flintkote Company, Special Electric, ABB Lummus Global, T H Agriculture & Nutrition (THAN), Leslie Controls, Garlock, General Motors, the Budd Company, DII, Energy Future Holdings (EECI/Ebasco), Pittsburgh Corning Trust (PCC), Bestwall (formerly Georgia Pacific), and Thomas Dee Engineering.  For Bestwall and Thomas Dee Engineering, Mr. Kazan serves as the Asbestos Creditors’ Committee (ACC) Chair.  For Garlock, he is Co-chair of the ACC.

In almost all cases where the bankruptcy reorganization is approved, Mr. Kazan has been approved by the Federal Court to serve as a member of The Trustees’ Advisory Committee (TAC) to work with The Trust on behalf of asbestos victims.  For Leslie Controls, ABB Lummus, and Combustion Engineering, Mr. Kazan serves as TAC Chair.  For the Kaiser Aluminum and NARCO Trust Advisory Committees, he is Co-chair.

For over forty-five years Mr. Kazan has been a lecturer, speaker, moderator, program chairman and participant at various legal, medical, and insurance seminars and conferences throughout the world focusing on asbestos, toxic torts, and mass torts. He has lobbied and testified in Congress on behalf of asbestos victims and before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees on asbestos litigation and legislation.

Prior to starting the firm in Oakland in 1974, Mr. Kazan was an Assistant to the General Counsel of the Interstate Commerce Commission in Washington, D.C. (1967-1969); an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of California (1969-1971); and an associate at Werchick & Werchick, a plaintiffs’ medical malpractice specialty law office in San Francisco (1971-1974.)

Education

• Harvard University (LL.B., 1966)
• Brandeis University (A.B., 1963)
• Education
  • Harvard University (LL.B., 1966)
  • Brandeis University (A.B., 1963)

  Bar and Court Admissions

  • New York (1967)
  • California (1970)
  • S. Courts of Appeals, Third, Fifth and Ninth Circuits
  • California and U.S. District Courts, Northern, Eastern, and Central Districts of California
  • S. Supreme Court (1971)

• Organizations
  • California Consumers Attorneys of California (Board of Governors 1980-1995, Vice-President 1990, Parliamentarian 1989)
  • Alameda-Contra Costa Trial Lawyers Association (President 1980)
  • Alameda County Bar Association
  • Federal Bar Association
  • New York State Bar Association
  • California State Bar Association
  • Trial Lawyers for Public Justice
  • AFL-CIO Lawyers’ Coordinating Committee
  • New York State Trial Lawyers Association
  • American Association of Justice
  • Great Britain’s Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL)
  • Allen E. Broussard Law School Scholarship Foundation (Chairman of the Board of Directors)