Overview
Craig H. Zimmerman is an experienced product defense and toxic tort litigator. He defends companies in a wide variety of product exposure and environmental toxic tort matters across the United States.
Craig acts as national coordinating and strategic counsel for a Fortune 100 company in the defense of a docket of wrongful death and personal injury cases related to alleged asbestos exposure, and has done so successfully for 15 years. He is deeply experienced in evaluating and developing the persuasive presentation of complex facts and science to courts and juries, and in structuring litigation efforts from inception through to successful trial and appeal results. Craig also advises clients on how to strategically deploy available litigation resources to ensure the optimal match of experience, skill sets and economies to obtain the desired result.
Craig has represented target defendants as lead or principal counsel in a wide variety of complex tort litigation settings, including mass state court actions, federal and state MDL proceedings, and putative class actions. He has also shepherded an asbestos liability driven Chapter 11 case to a beneficial conclusion.
Results
- Acts as coordinating and strategic national counsel managing all aspects of an extensive portfolio of toxic tort cases, with substantial successes at trial and on appeal. Streamlined overall docket management to achieve certainty of case and docket information, dramatically reduced indemnity values and closely controlled defense costs. Collaborated with team to craft cutting-edge presentation of newly developed and directly relevant medical/genetic science.
- Led multi-firm team of trial and appellate counsel in successful fight to eliminate a particularly broad form of product liability in Illinois, in an effort that ultimately required 25 cases tried to verdict, eight appeals and seven years to eliminate claims entirely. All cases resulted in either immediate success at trial or subsequent success on appeal.
- Represented Fortune 100 company in developing and implementing innovative solution to long-term (and explosive) asbestos liability, through creative use of § 524(g) of Bankruptcy Code, including 11-year hiatus in asbestos litigation in advance of asbestos trust effective date.
- Led day-to-day defense of a large petroleum company in MDL No. 1358, In re Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) Products Liability Litigation, which attempted to combine several putative private-well-owner class actions, and defeated plaintiffs’ attempts to obtain class certifications.
- Represented Fortune 100 petroleum corporation as national coordinating counsel, managing defense of property and personal injury claims asserted throughout the United States relating to putative leaking underground storage tanks.
Recognitions
- The Legal 500 2015-2016
- Leading Lawyers Network 2010
Community
- American Bar Association
- Patron, Metropolitan Opera, New York City
Credentials
Education
Georgetown University Law Center, JD, magna cum laude, 1989
Brandeis University, BA, magna cum laude, 1984
Admissions
Illinois
New York
Courts / Agencies
Supreme Court of the United States
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
United States District Courts for the Northern, Central and Southern Districts of Illinois
United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York
United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin
