Crowell & Moring Continues Its West Coast Expansion With the Addition of Torts Partner Kevin C. Mayer in Los Angeles

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Sep 13, 2010, 10:58 ET

WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Crowell & Moring LLP is pleased to announce the addition of partner Kevin C. Mayer to the firm's Torts Group. Based in the firm's Los Angeles office, Mayer brings more than 25 years of litigation and trial experience to the firm's national torts practice, where he will represent clients as national coordinating counsel and handle a wide range of complex commercial and mass tort litigation, including construction, toxic tort, OSHA, environmental, and products liability litigation.

"Kevin is the right blend of strategist and tenacious advocate who is a perfect fit for our growing California team of trial lawyers and our torts practice, which handles high-profile torts litigation throughout the country," said John Vandevelde, head of the firm's Los Angeles office. "As a leading torts lawyer with years of experience in the courtroom, Kevin's move also benefits clients of our Environment & Natural Resources Group and our Energy Group, whose needs range from counseling to litigation."

Mayer's arrival continues the steady influx of highly experienced trial lawyers into Crowell & Moring's California offices that began with the addition of Lightfoot Vandevelde Sadowsky Crouchley Rutherford & Levine attorneys in 2008. The firm added more than 30 lawyers in 2009, including 28 litigators from Francisco-based Folger Levin & Kahn. This most recent addition brings Crowell & Moring's California bench to more than 70 attorneys in its Orange County, Los Angeles, and San Francisco offices, and expands the firm's national torts practice, which focuses on the management, litigation and trial of individual cases as well as class actions and mass consolidated proceedings.

"Crowell & Moring is known in the industry as the 'go to' firm that can efficiently handle the most vexing toxic tort, mass tort, and environmental litigation cases," said Mayer. "Their level of sophistication and trial experience is truly unique, and I am honored to join this elite team of litigators."

Over the course of his career, Mayer has represented numerous clients in the oil and chemical, mining, manufacturing, entertainment, construction, dietary supplement/nutraceutical, and financial industries in a variety of federal, state and territorial courts and government agencies, including multiple national coordinating and trial counsel roles. His work has been instrumental in achieving numerous favorable published appellate decisions for industry in the toxic torts arena.

Most recently, as defense counsel for a major chemical products manufacturer and amicus counsel for industry trade associations, Mayer was instrumental in obtaining precedent-setting intermediate appellate and California Supreme Court opinions under the "sophisticated user" doctrine. The defense states that makers of hazardous products do not need to warn knowledgeable users about the risks when those hazards are already known.

Mayer currently serves as Co-Chairman of the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association's Legal Task Force. He is a member of the Steering Committee for the Defense Research Institute's (DRI) Toxic Tort and Environmental Law Committee and a member of the Trial Tactics Subcommittee. An acknowledged authority on the admissibility of and challenges to expert witness opinion testimony, Mayer is also the only attorney member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Association for Environmental Health Sciences Foundation – a highly academic organization of noted luminaries in the field. He is a recipient of the Burton Foundation's Award for Legal Achievement, and, most recently, was elected to the Board of Governors for the Association of Business Trial Lawyers, Los Angeles Chapter. Mayer received his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. While in law school, Mayer was Extern to the Honorable Eugene F. Lynch, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Crowell & Moring LLP is an international law firm with more than 500 lawyers representing clients in litigation and arbitration, regulatory, and transactional matters. The firm is internationally recognized for its representation of Fortune 500 companies in high-stakes litigation, as well as its ongoing commitment to pro bono service and diversity. The firm has offices in Washington, DC, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orange County, Anchorage, London, and Brussels. Visit Crowell & Moring online at http://www.crowell.com.