David S. Casey Jr.

Casey is on the 22-lawyer plaintiffs steering committee for the 500 or so consolidated cases in the massive Volkswagen diesel emissions cheating scandal. Under steady urging by Senior U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer of San Francisco, the matter has moved forward fast. In late August, Casey was at a hearing over a tentative deal between the automaker and its roughly 650 U.S. dealers to compensate them for losses. "I'm particularly pleased that in this and other parts of the settlements so far, we have made sure that if vehicles are taken off the market they will be fixed or destroyed. They won't be shipped for resale to other countries with weaker environmental laws," Casey said. "That would have been wrong."

An earlier deal with the attorneys for car owners calls for Volkswagen to spend up to $10 billion buying back or repairing about 475,000 vehicles with two-liter engines. Litigation over three-liter vehicles remains in the works, Casey said. "We're getting an overwhelmingly positive response from class members for the deal so far," he added. "We continue to keep enormous pressure on Volkswagen as we prepare for trial on the three-liter vehicles. This case could be used as an example of effective use of multidistrict litigation. It's been a remarkable journey and we're not done yet." In re: Volkswagen "Clean Diesel" Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, 15-md-2672 (N.D. Cal., filed Dec. 8, 2015).

Casey has the heirs of two major sports stars on his client list. For the family of San Diego Padres superstar Tony Gwynn, he is suing the smokeless tobacco industry over Gwynn's death at 54 in 2014 from salivary gland cancer. Gwynn v. Altria Group, 3:16-cv-01999 (S.D. Cal., filed May 23, 2016). "Tony was at San Diego State at age 17 when he became highly addicted to 'dip' thanks to on-campus marketing by the makers of Skoal," Casey said.

And for the family of Junior Seau — a 10-time all-pro NFL linebacker who played for the San Diego Chargers and was found to have suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, after committing suicide in 2012 — Casey is deeply involved in a players' national brain injury class action against the league. Casey intends to opt out of what he called an inadequate 2014 settlement now before the U.S. Supreme Court to pursue Seau's case individually, he said. In re: National Football League Players' Concussion Injury Litigation, 2:12-md-02323 (E.D. Penn., filed Jan. 31, 2012).

Casey oversees California's four federal judicial selection committees that have advised Sen. Dianne Feinstein on candidates over the past eight years. "I tee up the options; she makes the decisions," he said. "It's been a real honor."

— John Roemer