Burg Simpson: Denver’s Tight ‘Knit’ Law Firm

June 20th, 2011. By BrendaC

Lawyers Giving Back looks at a side of lawyers and law firms you don’t hear too much about—the side that gives back…pays it forward..and shares the love. We’ve found quite a number of attorneys who log non-billable hours helping others—simply because they believe it’s the right thing to do. Their stories are inspiring, and hey, who knew lawyers were so…good? If you’ve got a story to share about an attorney who’s doing the right thing, let us know—we’d love to let others know, too. Today, we’re talking with legal secretary Gina Clement of Burg Simpson…

Legal Secretary Gina Clement: “giving back…is really rewarding and makes me like working here even more.” 

It maybe isn’t what you’d expect to happen at a law firm like Burg Simpson, but then again it might be. A major law firm that engages itself in serious litigation is hardly the place you’d expect to find people knitting in the office lunchroom—but that is exactly what happens several times a year. 

The “Kaps for Kendall” knitted hat drive started six years ago when legal secretary Gina Clement was struck by the strength and courage of a young Denver, Colorado woman who was born with Fanconi Anemia (FA), a rare and often fatal blood disease. 

To save her life, Kendall Atkinson would have to undergo a bone marrow transplant. Unfortunately it meant losing her long curly hair—no minor inconvenience to a young girl just barely out of her teens. To cope with the hair loss, Kendall began knitting hats. 

Sadly, the bone marrow transplant failed and Kendall died at age 20. But the knitted hat drive continues and, through the efforts of the Burg Simpson knitters, it continues to raise money for the Fanconi Research Fund and provide warm fuzzy hats for individuals across the US who are going through treatment for FA or other diseases, like cancer, that might also involve hair loss. 

“At first I thought won’t that be fun, we will do something for charity,” says Gina Clement. “And when I met the Atkinson family I felt like I had known them my whole life. I absolutely love to knit and it’s a great way to do something for the community.” 

Burg Simpson has a deep and abiding commitment to giving back to the community and the firm has earned a reputation for contributing time and hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to a variety of worthy causes in the Denver area.  

For legal secretary Gina Clement it’s a nice break from some of the more weighty issues the lawyers and staff usually deal with. “It’s a chance to cool your head a little bit,” says Clement. “It’s just really awesome that everyone genuinely cares about giving back here. It is really rewarding and makes me like working here even more.” 

Gina Clement is legal secretary to attorney Michael Burg, founding partner of Burg Simpson.  

Asbestos News Roundup: 6.16.11

June 16th, 2011. By LucyC

A roundup of recent asbestos-related news and information that you should be aware of. An ongoing list of asbestos hot spots from the Asbestos News Roundup archive appears on our asbestos map.

Asbestos Lawsuits

New Orleans, LA: A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed on behalf of Milan Arthur Barackman who died recently from asbestos mesothelioma. The suit alleges he was exposed to the lethal carcinogen more than thirty years ago.

Michael Mason, representative of the succession of the Mr. Barackman, named Foster Wheeler, General Electric Co., Owens-Illinois Inc., Rapid American Corp., Uniroyal Inc., Viacom Inc. and Riley Power Inc. as defendants in the lawsuit.

In the asbestos lawsuit, Mason alleges that Mr. Barackman suffered asbestos exposure while he was aboard United States Navy vessels from approximately 1966 until the late 1970s. The exposure was a result of asbestos dust emanating throughout the USS Rehoboth, the USNS Albert J. Meyer, the USNS Flyer, the USNS Wyman, the USNS Kingsport and the Sgt. Alfred Schoup, the lawsuit states. Barackman was diagnosed with asbestos mesothelioma in 2010.

The lawsuit accuses the defendants of producing an unreasonably dangerous product, failing to warn, strict products liability, defective design and breach of implied and expressed warranties. (Louisianarecord.com)

Charleston, WV:  A couple from Kentucky has filed an asbestos lawsuit against 135 companies which they claim are responsible for Edward A. Reed’s diagnosis of asbestos mesothelioma.

Reed, who was diagnosed with asbestos disease in March 2011, alleges he was a smoker from the 1950s until the 1970s, but then quit. He alleges that defendants failed to warn him of the danger of asbestos, which he was exposed to from 1956 until 1992.

The defendants are being sued upon theories of negligence, contaminated buildings, breach Read the rest of this entry »

Biz as Usual: Novo Nordisk Settles re NovoSeven, Seeks Brand Manager

June 14th, 2011. By AbiK

In case this one slipped under your radar, Danish drug company Novo Nordisk agreed to a settlement to the tune of $25 million to put to bed whistleblower allegations that it wrongly marketed its drug, NovoSeven (aka recombinant human coagulation Factor VIIa, or simply, Factor VII) as a treatment for traumatic bleeding due to injury.

Of course, outside of hemophiliacs—the obvious and intended audience for such a drug—who else could such a drug be marketed to? Well, gee, who might bleed a lot…let’s see…uh…well, there’s been a war going on over in Iraq and Afghanistan…maybe NovoSeven could be used to stop a soldier’s bleeding…whatdya think?

Sure, I’m being facetious here as I’m wont to do—but could such a scenario have really been all that far off—even if Novo Nordisk claims otherwise?

And ordinarily, this might have a shred of altruism to it—who wouldn’t want to help our soldiers? But here’s the catch: it seems that, according to The Baltimore Sun, NovoSeven was “a largely experimental drug” and it lacked FDA approval for combat wounds. According to the article, Novo Nordisk began promoting NovoSeven to military doctors way back in 2000, and by 2006, “Army protocol in Baghdad called for injecting it into virtually every casualty with signs of serious bleeding. Some Special Forces units in Afghanistan supplied combat medics with the drug, to inject in the field.”

Sounds like fairly extensive and routine use to me. 

Add to this that studies have shown that off-label use of NovoSeven—which not only includes using it to treat combat wounds but also using NovoSeven for intracranial hemorrhage, cardiac surgery and aortic aneurysm, liver transplants and prostatectomy—has not translated to a reduction in mortality rates, and the use of NovoSeven for heart surgery and intracranial hemorrhage actually increased the risk of thromboembolism.

And this is how we want to treat our soldiers’ combat wounds?

I use the term “treat” a bit loosely—The Baltimore Sun had profiled three soldiers who’d been “treated” with NovoSeven in a series of articles written back in 2006. Sadly, two of those three soldiers later died as a result of complications related to blood clots. (Post script, the FDA has since added a warning to NovoSeven.)

Regardless, Novo Nordisk claims no wrongdoing (of course) in the NovoSeven settlement and, as business must keep on movin’ on, it appears Novo Nordisk is now seeking a new Senior Brand Manager for NovoSeven (see job posting above).

Attorney Reeves Whalen Picks Fights for Good Causes

June 13th, 2011. By BrendaC

Lawyers Giving Back looks at a side of lawyers you don’t hear too much about—the side that gives back…pays it forward..and shares the love. We’ve found quite a number of attorneys who log non-billable hours helping others—simply because they believe it’s the right thing to do. Their stories are inspiring, and hey, who knew lawyers were so…good? If you’ve got a story to share about an attorney who’s doing the right thing, let us know—we’d love to let others know, too. Today, we’re talking with attorney Reeves Whalen of Burg Simpson…

Attorney Reeves Whalen: “…whenever you have an opportunity to see how others live it changes…what you are willing to do to help other people.”

Attorney Reeves Whalen epitomizes the idea that we are the sum total of our experiences. Raised in Massachusetts in a family of five biological and six adopted siblings, including a younger brother and sister who are disabled, an older brother with Down’s Syndrome, two African American siblings, a Hispanic brother and a Native American sister, Whalen comes to the table, any table in fact, with a depth and understanding few other young lawyers can match.

Attorney Reeves Whalen helping at a Girls Orphanage in Haiti

“I think the lessons I learned from my childhood gave me a barometer to assess right and wrong and have definitely led me to a place where I feel pretty comfortable picking my fights,” says Whalen, who joined the Burg Simpson law firm after graduating from the University of Denver in 2007.

Whalen was nominated for the 2010 Colorado Bar Association’s Outstanding Young Attorney Award and recently named to the Denver Business Association’s Top 40 under 40 list. He is part of Burg Simpson’s mass tort litigation team and involved in Yaz birth control litigation and the DePuy hip replacement litigation. He also is managing a number of other personal injury files. At 32, Whalen is just getting started.

“Burg Simpson has always been committed to helping families in dire situations when they’ve been injured or hurt by large commercial interests. I am proud to be associated with this law firm. Just as I am in my personal life, people here are dedicated to the idea that when someone falls down you step in and help them.”

And for Whalen, stepping in to help goes far beyond the confines of the office or the courtroom. In 2009, before the earthquake brought international attention Haiti’s unfathomable problems, Whalen, inspired by a book about a doctor working in Haiti, did a tour of duty helping build an orphanage 3 hours from Port Au Prince.

“It was pretty scary actually,” says Whalen. “There’s no electricity, no clean water and no healthcare really. You are talking about a country that has 200,000 kids orphaned by the AIDS epidemic and over 50 percent of the population can’t read,” says Whalen who was there working with the Center of Hope organization. 

Whalen also serves on the board of Save Our Youth (SOY), a Denver organization that emerged from the city’s problem with gang violence and offers mentorship to at-risk young people. “I personally mentor two young African-American brothers, one 14 and the other 17,” says Whalen who says he is attracted to projects that focus on education.

“There are good things out there worth fighting for, it changes your perspective on the world and there are a lot of worthy causes out there,” says Whalen who recently drove all night to get to an Indian reservation in South Dakota to participate as a guest teacher at a Native American history class.

“I think whenever you have an opportunity to see how others live it changes how you think and changes what you are willing to do to help other people,” adds Whalen.

Reeves Whalen is a graduate of Denver University of Denver Sturm College of Law. Whalen specializes in commercial litigation, products liability and personal injury cases at Burg Simpson. He has helped raise funds to finance a group of medical professionals who traveled to Haiti to assist in the earthquake relief efforts. In 2010, Whalen organized a Continuing Legal Education seminar on Immigration Reform.

Distracted Driver Alert: Keep your Hands off My Ford Touch

June 13th, 2011. By Hunter West

The distracted driver is becoming just as serious a problem as drunk driving used to be before society woke up, looked in the rear view mirror and saw themselves as the pariahs they had become. People still drive drunk—or tired, which is almost as bad—but the penalties for a DUI have increased and there is no longer any tolerance for it.

Distracted driving is the new battleground. The other day near where I live an 18-year-old plowed head-on into a transport truck with his small car. He didn’t stand a chance; the tragedy is that he had been texting while driving. His phone records indicate he had sent a text to a friend just seconds before his promising life came to a tragic end, in an instant.

So why, are manufacturers putting more distracting technology in their vehicles? Because the other guy is, and they want to out-tech to compete? Are drivers asking for this stuff?

Has everybody gone nuts?

Consumer Reports magazine is a bastion of common sense. No ties to lobbyists or manufacturers, funded privately through subscriptions with no bias, with independent testing facilities and protocols second to none. When Consumer Reports likes, or dislikes something, there is significant weight to that recommendation or rejection.

So it is telling that Consumer Reports no longer recommends the Ford Edge Sport.

Why? Because the 2011 model has too much damned technology on board, available to the driver in the cockpit. Specifically, the issue is the MyFord Touch system.

Witness a recent summation of the system by a reviewer in The New York Times:

“Ford has added an 8-inch LCD touch screen in the center of the dash that now coordinates not only entertainment functions, like the radio, satellite radio and MP3 playback, but also phone calls, the navigation system and the climate control, as well as settings for, among many others, the traction and cruise controls.”

In other words, way too much stuff to fiddle with. Consumer Reports has come down hard on it, and cited the system as one of the reasons why the vehicle had low test scores.

There is no question that the technology is amazing. It’s just out of place. And the addition of a touch screen to the dashboard of the 2011 Ford Edge had engineers at Ford balking, arguing that it could be considered a source of driver distraction.

But Ford went ahead with it anyway, assuming presumably that such technology would make boffo TV ads. And it does. The system sounds mighty impressive.

But it’s misplaced in a car, accessible to the driver.

Here’s reviewer John R. Quain again, writing May 27^th in The New York Times:

“While [the screen] has some benefits, like a crystal-clear view from the rear-facing camera, it lacks tactile feedback. So when you reach down to tap on a music selection you must take your eyes off the road or you’ll touch the incorrect tiny button…”

He also noted that the screen is about four or five inches too low, forcing the driver to look down and to the right when accessing the screen.

Which means, the driver is taking his eyes off the road—just for an instant.

That’s how long the 18 year-old took his eyes off the road to hit ‘send’ on his smartphone, a microsecond before his car slammed head-on into the transport truck.

Ford may have a techno-marvel on its hands. However, I have to disagree that the cockpit is the proper place for it. And if a family member of mine were ever to be hurt or maimed by a distracted 2011 Ford Edge driver due to the complexity and availability of the MyFord Touch system, I would make damn sure that the manufacturer that built the silly system into the car in the first place, was one of the primary defendants of my car accident lawsuit.