Our California mesothelioma law firm is limited to cases involving catastrophic injury and death from exposure to asbestos.

 
Since its founding in 1974, Kazan Law has represented thousands of people suffering from asbestos related illnesses, particularly mesothelioma. Among our principals are pioneers in asbestos litigation­ — the most experienced mesothelioma lawyers in California. We have unparalleled expertise in asbestos bankruptcy reorganizations and asbestos bankruptcy funds.

Kazan Law employs a staff of more than 80, including 25 attorneys and a team of paralegals and professional investigators. We specialize in complex litigation involving catastrophic professional liability and personal injury, and pursue responsible parties in cases involving:

• products liability
• premises liability
• negligence and punitive damage causes of action
  • in third party civil cases and
  • before Bankruptcy Trust Funds.

Our team of exceptional attorneys has won precedent-setting rulings by the California Appellate and Supreme Courts. All of the principals and many of the associates have extensive trial experience.

There are about 2,500 new cases of mesothelioma diagnosed each year in the United States. The laws and guidelines regarding winning a lawsuit are complicated and vary from state to state. Attorneys at Kazan Law focus intensely on asbestos law. They know the intricacies of asbestos litigation and have the experience to successfully take a case through the court system. They are a special breed.

Kazan Law is consulted by and gives advice to more than a thousand potential clients each year. We have filed more than two thousand cases in our history. Each case is individually developed and handled by a small team of attorneys, paralegals and professional investigators.

We are proud that our mesothelioma law firm is large enough to have extensive resources and databases and many years of experience. More importantly, we are small enough to ensure—by limiting new cases to 20–25 per year—that every client receives individual and outstanding representation.

Why Our Mesothelioma Law Firm?

We have two important goals in our representation of clients:

1. To go as far as possible within the limits of the legal system to redress the wrong done to each of our clients.
2. To have a broader impact to improve the workplace through:
   • public education about occupational health and safety
   • legislative advocacy
   • support by the The Kazan McClain Partners’ Foundation, Inc
   • active participation in WORKSAFE!—a California statewide coalition that supports occupational safety and health

The mesothelioma attorneys at Kazan Law have the focus, experience and knowledge to handle your asbestos lawsuit and secure the justice and compensation you deserve.

Our Mesothelioma Law Firm’s Foundation

The Kazan McClain Partners’ Foundation, Inc, was formed in 1994, and over the years has disbursed over $20 million in grants to a wide array of community and civic organizations, including $6 million for mesothelioma research. Our mission is to benefit the public through grants to organizations and individuals in order to:

• support research into causes of, treatment for, and prevention of occupational and environmental diseases;
• increase and improve public awareness about workplace health and safety, and public health;
• enhance access to, participation in, and education about the legal system and governmental processes;
• advance programs that provide services which lessen the burdens of government and/or provide relief to the poor, distressed or under-privileged;
• combat community deterioration and lessen neighborhood tensions.

We have supported internships and fellowships for public interest positions at the following organizations:

We have also funded scholarships and stipends for youth at:

We have funded medical research for cures of asbestos diseases in cooperation with:

We have also been able to respond to global disasters including Hurricane Katrina, the Indonesian Tsunami, the earthquake in Pakistan and the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan. And we are proud funders of Worksafe, a non-profit dedicated to promoting occupational safety and health.

We are a public charity under IRC 501 (c)(3), with a volunteer part-time staff and a volunteer working board. The Kazan McClain Partners’ Foundation’s expenses are defrayed by Kazan Law, which means that all donations go directly to charitable services.

Our Mesothelioma Law Firm’s Pro Bono Work

Fighting for mesothelioma patients who were exposed to asbestos at work is what we do at Kazan Law. Seeing first-hand every day the senseless tragedy of honest hard-working people facing death because of neglect and carelessness by those who manufactured, designed, sold and installed asbestos- containing products inflames our sense of justice. Our outrage inspires us to work not only to seek justice for our clients coping with asbestos-caused mesothelioma but also to strive to prevent other people from dying or ever becoming afflicted with work-related injuries or illnesses.

Fran Schreiberg is how we do that. Fran is a brilliant attorney who just happens to be passionate about workers’ rights, specifically their right to a safe and healthy workplace, and who also has an impressive track record in working with both the legislative and executive branches of California state government to protect workers from safety and health workplace hazards of all kinds. Fran provides free advice to unions and other worker organizations that might not be able to afford an attorney of her experience and caliber. We pay Fran so they don’t have to. We let Fran work for them for free also known as pro bono. We have developed the website www.oshaction.org to help workers learn more about their rights and to encourage everyone to take action when anti-worker occupational safety and health measures are underway.

Pro Bono History

In 1980, during Governor Jerry Brown’s first administration, Fran was assisting with a series of legislative proposals including California’s first Right to Know law regarding toxic materials in the workplace. During that period the Governor asked the Director of the Department of Industrial Relations who then asked Fran to find out why the Division of Occupational Safety and Health better known as Cal/OSHA was not bringing criminal cases against companies killing workers as a result of exposure to toxic materials. Fran accepted the challenge.

She then spent four years working for Cal/OSHA and ultimately directed their Bureau of Investigations bringing criminal cases against employers who killed or maimed workers.

While working at Cal/OSHA Fran looked into every fatality that occurred in California.

After the Brown Administration ended, Fran went to work for the State Building & Construction Trades Council of California, AFL-CIO, initially supported by a federal OSHA grant to train workers about their rights. Fran wrote a manual and then personally went to every local building trades council in California to teach them how effectively to file complaints with Cal/OSHA; she reached business agents for every construction trades union, including iron workers, electrical workers, and plumbers, among others.

In 1987 when powerful industry interests succeeded in having Governor George Deukmejian eliminate Cal/OSHA, we were honored to be a part of a group that banded together to fight back. We called ourselves WORKSAFE! and supported an initiative to restore the Cal/OSHA program, Prop 97. It was a tough fight but we succeeded. Cal/OSHA was restored. WORKSAFE continues to advocate for worker safety and health and to this day our law firm supports their work with annual grants and significant in-kind contributions of office space. Fran continues to work closely with the organization she helped found.

When Fran left the State Building Trades in 1991, Steven Kazan realized Fran needed to focus full-time on pro bono work designed to prevent folks from dying and invited her to work for Kazan Law.

“This firm tries to do everything possible to prevent people from ever having to come to see us in the first place,” Fran comments. “So I do trainings for legal services programs, worker centers, unions, and even for businesses. I give workers and their representatives the tools they need to speak up for a safe place to work and to fight retaliation.”

Public Policy Accomplishments

Fran also spends a lot of time in Sacramento on policy work to protect workers. One is SB 193. It would permit the California Department of Public Health to require manufacturers and others to provide information about toxic materials being shipped into California workplaces so that the Hazard Evaluation System & Information Service (HESIS), when there is new scientific or medical information, can assist both employers and employees in protecting against the risks from those chemicals.

Every year over 66,000 American workers are injured or die from preventable workplace hazards or exposure to toxic chemicals.

Although the struggle for safety and health at work is a long one, she sees important victories. For example, the asbestos legislation she wrote, which Gray Davis carried, includes provisions that contractors:

• Be trained and certified for asbestos-related work and utilize trained and certified workers,
• Report projects over 100 square feet and advise Cal/OSHA regarding the precautions they will take to assure that workers and the public are protected, and
• Face criminal penalties for violations.

And since 1999, as a result of a bill she wrote which was carried by then Assembly Member – and later Senate Pro Tempore – Darrell Steinberg, every employer on a multi-employer work site has a duty to assure safety for every employee on that site. That’s one of the most important changes in the law and California is the only state that assures multi-employer responsibility.

Read about some of Kazan Law’s significant mesothelioma and asbestos trial verdicts and appellate decisions. If you have any questions about Kazan Law, please contact us.