Mark Chalos, Kenny Byrd, and John Spragens to Teach at Vanderbilt Law

Lieff Cabraser Nashville Attorneys Appointed as Adjunct Faculty for Fall 2018 “The Practice of Aggregate Litigation”

Lieff Cabraser Nashville attorneys Mark P. Chalos, Kenneth S. Byrd, and John T. Spragens have been appointed to the adjunct faculty at Vanderbilt Law School to teach “The Practice of Aggregate Litigation” in the Fall 2018 semester as part of the school’s 2018-2019 academic year.

The course will cover practical aspects of multidistrict litigation (MDLs), class actions, and other large-scale aggregate litigation. The class will study the relevant legal principles and rules, including topics like attorney marketing for plaintiff and defense clients; strategy and drafting motions for and against centralizing cases in MDLs; crafting case leadership structures; the economics of aggregate litigation; large-scale e-discovery and relation motion practice; case, constituent and client management within aggregate litigations; selection of cases for bellwether trials; crafting settlements; and claims processing and liens.

Located on the Vanderbilt University campus in Nashville, Tennessee, Vanderbilt Law School has trained top lawyers for careers throughout the United States and around the world for 140 years.

About Mark Chalos

The managing partner of Lieff Cabraser’s Nashville office, Mark Chalos represents individuals who have suffered catastrophic personal injuries and families whose loved ones died due to the negligence or misconduct of others. Mark represents counties and cities nationwide in the national opioids litigation. He is serving in the national case leadership, including preparing the bellwether cases for trial.

Through jury trials, Chalos has held wrong-doers accountable, including representing 32 school children who were videotaped undressing in their school locker room ($1.28 million jury verdict) and a young woman who suffered a severe brain injury in a car wreck (nearly $4 million jury verdict). He also obtained an $8 million arbitration award on behalf of a business client, and overall has obtained millions of dollars in settlements for families who have been harmed by wrongful conduct.

About Kenneth Byrd

A partner in Lieff Cabraser’s Nashville office, Kenneth Byrd represents consumers in consumer protection cases and individuals and the families of loved ones who died in personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits filed in courts in Tennessee and across the Southeast and Midwest. Byrd is also a member of Lieff Cabraser’s False Claim Act practice group, helping whistleblowers to stop fraud and the misuse of funds in government contracts and programs.

Over the last several years, Byrd has represented the families of deceased smokers in trials in Florida federal court against the tobacco companies for their 50-year conspiracy of misrepresenting the dangers of smoking cigarettes and for intentionally engineering the design of cigarettes to make them more addictive. In several trials, juries have returned multi-million dollar verdicts. Byrd was lead trial counsel in such a jury trial that led to a notable 2013 victory, and has been second chair in several other trials.

About John Spragens

John Spragens is an associate in Lieff Cabraser’s Nashville office who represents plaintiffs in class action injury, consumer, and whistleblower litigation against corporations that manufacture dangerous and defective products, conspire to fix prices, and misuse taxpayer funds. A member of the firm’s defective products and personal injury practice groups, he has represented families of deceased smokers in trials in Florida federal court against the tobacco companies for their 50-year conspiracy of misrepresenting the dangers of smoking cigarettes and for intentionally engineering the design of cigarettes to make them more addictive. In 2014, he participated in a tobacco industry trial in which a jury awarded his gravely injured client $27 million in compensatory and punitive damages.