Arvin Maskin concentrates his practice in products liability, mass tort, class action and complex litigation, and co-heads the firm’s practice in this area. For the past twenty years, he has served as lead counsel in some of the largest mass tort products liability litigations in the country. Formerly with the US Department of Justice in Washington DC, he was the government’s lead counsel in such seminal matters as the “Agent Orange” and “Times Beach” litigations. Mr. Maskin has been consistently successful in handling a broad range of significant products liability and mass tort matters for domestic and international clients.
The matters which he has handled range from the defense, national coordination and resolution of major products liability, toxic tort and consumer fraud litigations, in some cases seeking billions of dollars, involving asbestos, breast implants, industrial chemicals and their by-products, genetic research, lead, aircraft, automotive products, electrical and navigation equipment, and pharmaceuticals and medical devices to counseling relating to industrial, consumer and OTC products, FDA and EPA compliance, the Consumer Product Safety Act, product recalls (domestic and international), congressional investigations, corporate acquisitions, product distribution, marketing and labeling, products liability prevention, insurance, internal investigations, food tampering and crisis management.
Mr. Maskin has also handled mass torts and product liability matters, as well as major product recalls all over the world, including Africa, the Middle East, throughout Europe, Latin America and Asia.
Mr. Maskin is often sought in the defense of high-stakes, high-profile mass tort matters. He has been a lead counsel and negotiator in connection with World War II forced and slave labor class actions involving eight different nations, and has served as lead counsel in the defense and resolution of 33 separate state class actions and an MDL concerning some 170 million automobile and light truck tires. He is currently handling several class actions involving African apartheid-related claims and African-American slavery descendents suits, as well as multiple class actions and related litigations throughout the country involving the sale of hundreds of thousands of bullet-proof vests. He is also a nationally recognized attorney on punitive damages, class actions and multidistrict litigation, as well as the use of science in the courtroom, and has chaired national conferences and has counseled multinational corporations on all aspects of corporate crisis planning and management.
Mr. Maskin is a member of the American Law Institute and is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He was a member of the American Law Institute’s Consultative Group for the Restatement of the Law of Torts (Third): Products Liability, and has served as a member of the Institute’s Consultative Group for the Restatement of the Law of Torts: General Principles. He also served as a reviewer for the Manual for Complex Litigation (Third) for the Federal Judicial Center.
Currently, Mr. Maskin is co-chairman of the Subcommittee on Complex Torts Subcommittee of the Committee on Corporate Counsel, Litigation Section. He was immediate past co-chairman of the Mass Tort and Product Liability Subcommittee of the Committee on Corporate Counsel. He is also past chairman of the Toxic and Hazardous Substances and Environmental Law Committee of the Torts and Insurance Practice Section of the ABA. He has been appointed to the Task Force on Mass Torts of the US Chamber of Commerce, and serves as a member of the Boards of Advisors of BNA’s Civil Trial Manual, Toxics Law Reporter and Product Safety & Liability Reporter, Leader Publications Products Liability Law & Strategy, among others. Mr. Maskin also serves as a member of the Legal Policy Advisory Board of the Washington Legal Foundation.
Mr. Maskin’s appointments and memberships include:
- Fellow, American Bar Foundation
- Member, Legal Policy Advisory Board, Washington Legal Foundation
- Member, Task Force on Mass Torts of the US Chamber of Commerce
- Member, American Law Institute
- Member, ALI’s Consultative Group for The Restatement of the Law of Torts (Third) Products Liability
- Invited commentator for the Manual on Complex Litigation (Third) for the Federal Judicial Center
- Former chairman of the Torts & Insurance Practice Section’s Committee on Toxics & Hazardous Substances and Environmental Law, American Bar Association
- Current co-chairman of the Products Liability Subcommittee of the Committee on Corporate Counsel, Litigation Section, America Bar Association