Law 360 Profiles Chaffin Luhana LLP

On February 1, 2010, Law360, the national news source for busines lawyers, profiled the opening of Chaffin Luhana LLP. The firm officially opened its doors on January 12, 2010.  The Law360 announcement came admist an early victory for the firm, when the Philadelphia judge overseeing the Mass Tort Program established for denture cream zinc poisoning lawsuits denied Procter & Gamble’s motion to dismiss punitive damages in the cases.

Below is an excerpt from the piece:

Eric Chaffin and Roopal Luhana opened Chaffin Luhana LLP in mid-January, and its focus will be representing plaintiffs in mass torts, securities, consumer fraud and whistleblower cases, according to the firm. The pair have worked together for seven years and together formed Bernstein’s mass tort practice. Chaffin said they had accomplished so much in the past year that they felt they were up for a new challenge. “It’s something that I’ve always had in the back of mind, that I’d like to have my own firm,” he said. “The timing’s really right for us to start our own firm.”

Currently, the firm is involved in a class action against GlaxoSmithKline PLC and the Procter & Gamble Co. regarding denture cream Fixodent, which allegedly has caused zinc poisoning in consumers. The firm won a victory earlier in January when a Philadelphia judge denied Procter & Gamble’s motion to dismiss punitive damages in the cases. Chaffin Luhana will continue to work with securities clients, including shareholders, in cases,
but does not expect to be lead counsel in securities class actions, it said. One of the goals of the new firm, Chaffin said, is to focus more on mass torts. “It didn’t make sense for us to be a smaller part of a large securities firm,” he said. “Now we can focus on our mass tort cases, rather than be so diversified.”

Chaffin received his law degree from Washington and Lee University School of Law. While he has worked in mass tort litigation for many years, he said he was moved to focus his career on injured consumers when his father, a former West Virginia steelworker, died from asbestos exposure three years ago. Prior to joining Bernstein, he worked at Seeger Weiss LLP and Reed Smith LLP, and served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York. Luhana earned her law degree from Seton Hall University School of Law. She focuses her practice in mass torts and consumer fraud, with a particular emphasis in women’s causes.
She was recently appointed to the plaintiff steering committee in the Southern District of Illinois to represent women harmed by oral contraceptives Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella. Before entering private practice, Luhana clerked for Judge Marina Corodemus, a mass tort judge in New Jersey.

“We understand the struggles of working class men and women and pride ourselves in giving the little guy a voice in the courtroom,” Luhana said in a statement. “Our motto at Chaffin Luhana is ‘Doing good by doing right,’” she said.