Rob Gifford focuses his practice in the field of product liability on a national, regional and local scale. He serves as co-chair of the firm’s Product Liability Practice Group.

Mr. Gifford serves as national counsel to several companies in cases involving: asbestos, silica, benzene, vinyl chloride, manganese, mold and other organic and inorganic substances. He recently represented a food company in a national recall and coordinated the risk assessment response.

Mr. Gifford was instrumental in drafting and implementing West Virginia’s Asbestos Case Management Order in 2003. He lead the West Virginia Silica Screening Investigation and Case Management Order Committees. In September 2005, Mr. Gifford lead defense counsel efforts to defeat the creation of a Silica Mass Litigation Panel. Mr. Gifford has effectively managed over 30,000 asbestos cases since 1993. In all toxic tort areas, he has represented international and local companies on theories of negligent design and manufacture, strict liability, failure to warn, post-sell duty to warn and warranty claims.

AREAS OF CONCENTRATION

• Product liability
• Toxic torts
• Class actions & mass torts
• Nanotechnology

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

1994         Steptoe & Johnson
1993-94    Lamp O’Dell Bartram & Entsminger

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

• Defense Research Institute
• Defense Trial Counsel of West Virginia

INDUSTRY / CIVIC MEMBERSHIPS

• President, Board of Directors, Health Access, Inc.
• Federalist Society
• National Association of Manufacturers

AWARDS / HONORS

• Chambers USA America’s Leading Lawyers for Business
• Super Lawyers®

PUBLICATIONS

• “Nanotechnology,” West Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Safety Subcommittee, June 2008
• Co-Chair, Harris Martin’s “New Exposures in Benzene Litigation Conference,” May 17-18, 2007, Las Vegas, Nevada
• “Quantifying Total Damages To Establish Settlement Values,” March 28, 2007, ACI’s Resolving Mass Tort Products Liability Claims, New York, New York
• “Preliminary Discovery Issues in Benzene Litigation”, February 2-3, 2006, Harris Martin’s Benzene Litigation 101 Conference, San Antonio, Texas
• “West Virginia Asbestos Claims and Litigation: A Case Study for Current Federal Legislative Reform,” April 28, 2003, Eurolegal Asbestos Claims and Litigation Seminar, London, England
• “2002 West Virginia Mass Trials: Tactics and Tribulations,” March 27, 2003, American Conference Institute, 4th National Forum on Asbestos Litigation, San Francisco, California
• “A Retrospective Analysis of Future Asbestos Claims: How Traditional Product Liability Theories Have Been Converted into Recoverable Premises Liability Claims”, October 10, 2002, American Conference Institute, Asbestos Litigation: The Next Generation, New York, New York