Litigation
Jun. 15, 2002
Winning Litigator
Top 30 Women Litigators - Michèle Corash - Michèle Corash's client list runs the gamut. From the wine industry to the Port of Long Beach, Corash has defended them all as the state's leading Proposition 65 litigator.
Michèle Corash
Michèle Corash's client list runs the gamut. From the wine industry to the Port of Long Beach, Corash has defended them all as the state's leading Proposition 65 litigator.
The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1996 (Proposition 65) requires the governor of California to produce a list of all substances that in some amount cause cancer or birth defects. The list contains 800 to 900 substances, according to Corash.
Corash, partner and chair of the environmental law group at San Francisco's Morrison & Foerster, has handled hundreds of Proposition 65 cases.
"I've never litigated and lost," Corash says. "I've either settled or litigated and won."
Corash won what she says is the only Proposition 65 trial ever to go to verdict. She represented Cummins Inc., which makes diesel engines. Environmental World Watch claimed that Cummins was violating Proposition 65 because it was exposing the public to exhaust. Environmental World Watch v. Cummins, S082974 (Los Angeles Super. Ct., verdict Dec. 15, 2001)
While Corash encourages most of her clients to settle, Cummins felt that it was important to show that the claims had no merit.
"[Cummins was] willing to take this to trial and to prove that they were right - which they were," Corash says.
Most of Corash's other clients refuse to dole out the resources to go to trial, where the burden of proof is always on the defendant, according to Corash. However, she stresses that settling doesn't make them guilty.
"Not a single company settled a Prop. 65 because they thought they were wrong," Corash says.
Her other clients include Clorox Co., Corning Inc., Steuben Co. and Simpson Timber Co.
Stefanie Knapp
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