Eric Chaffin

About Eric Chaffin

Eric T. Chaffin is a Co-Founder and the Managing Partner of Chaffin Luhana. Eric comes from humble roots as the son of a steel worker and the first person in his family to attend college. Since 2003, he has focused his career on exclusively representing plaintiffs.

In 2010, Eric co-founded Chaffin Luhana as a national, plaintiffs-only product liability and catastrophic personal injury firm.

In traditional product liability litigation, Eric has handled a wide array of cases against various types of manufacturers, with dozens of multimillion-dollar recoveries. In mass tort pharmaceutical and medical device litigation and environmental litigation, Eric has been appointed by federal and state courts to various leadership positions including the Denture Cream Product Liability Litigation in the Southern District of Florida that resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements.

Eric also has extensive appellate experience in both civil and criminal cases. He has represented the government, organizations, and individuals before various state and federal appellate courts, including the Pennsylvania Superior Court, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Earlier in his career, prior to focusing exclusively on representing plaintiffs, Eric held various positions. He was a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York. In that role, Eric prosecuted a wide variety of criminal cases, including narcotics trafficking, organized crime, murder, racketeering, money laundering, immigration fraud, terrorism, arms trafficking, securities fraud, perjury, mail fraud, public corruption and wire fraud.

Before being a federal prosecutor, Eric was a federal district court law clerk and a corporate defense attorney with Reed Smith LLP. As a young lawyer at Reed Smith, he represented Fortune 500 companies in criminal investigations, defended companies in a number of consumer and antitrust class actions and in mass torts, and defended a regional power company in an age discrimination case to a successful defense verdict. While Eric values the perspective his defense work at Reed Smith provided him, the more extensive work he does these days—for survivors—is in keeping with his humble roots and personal values.

Eric maintains residences with his family in Connecticut and the Greater Pittsburgh area, splitting time between the firm’s various offices. When Eric is not managing the firm or working with his clients, he enjoys volunteering, time with his family, endurance sports, hiking, fishing, skiing, and traveling. Eric is an avid cyclist, runner and swimmer. He is a former Ironman All World Athlete (top 10% points ranking in the world for the 140.6-mile and individual 70.3-mile triathlon distances in his age group), a former Ironman 70.3 All World Athlete (top 10% points ranking in the world for the half-Ironman 70.3-mile triathlon in his age group) and competed in various other long-distance races including the New York City Marathon, and RAIN (a 161-mile bike race across Indiana). Eric’s volunteer work started in college when he founded a student group at WVU that became the school’s chapter of Habitat for Humanity. Now, he’s a Trustee of the Chaffin Luhana Foundation, organized the firm’s #10ksandwiches drive during the pandemic, and volunteers with Big Brothers and Big Sisters.

Select Successes

• Co-Lead Counsel and Co-Liaison Counsel In Re: Denture Cream Litigation, which resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in recoveries for individual plaintiffs
• Served on the plaintiff’s counsel committees in the multidistrict litigation involving defective Medtronic and Guidant heart devices in the District of Minnesota, which resulted in over $100 million and $240 million in settlements respectively
• Counsel for a California corporation in the Electronic Article Surveillance market in a David-and-Goliath type action for anti-competitive advertisements in violation of the Lanham Act in California federal court, resulting in a confidential settlement
• $17.5 million class settlement against Dell and Dell Financial on behalf of defrauded consumers who were victimized by a “bait-and-switch” financing scheme
• $9 million single product liability settlement against a product manufacturer
• $3.8 million settlement for wrongful death caused by automobile defect against an auto manufacturer
• $2.5 million settlement for workplace wrongful death
• $2 million settlement for child burned by gel fuel
• $1.5 million settlement for two investors against a broker for losses from unsuitable investments
• $1 million settlement for two individuals injured in an ATV accident
• $800,000 settlement for foot fractures from an auto accident
• $750,000 settlement for a concussion from an auto accident
• $435,000 settlement for a cervical fracture from a single-car auto crash
• $300,000 settlement for a shoulder tear from a trucking accident

Areas of Practice

• Automobile Accidents
• Trucking Accidents
• Product Liability
• Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Mass Torts
• Premises Liability
• Whistleblower
• Workplace Injuries

Bar Admissions

• State of New York
• State of Ohio
• Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
• State of West Virginia
• State of Connecticut
• United States District Court, Eastern District of New York
• United States District Court, Northern District of New York
• United States District Court, Southern District of New York
• United States District Court, Western District of Pennsylvania
• United States District Court, Southern District of West Virginia
• United States District Court, Northern District of West Virginia
• United States District Court, Southern Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
• United States District Court, Southern Court of Appeals, Third Circuit