David S. Casey, Jr.

Casey has a robust legal practice in addition to managing the law firm his father founded in 1946.

One of his big cases is the epic national litigation over the opioid health crisis. “We represent eight cities, including San Francisco and Napa, as part of the group in the Ohio negotiating class,” Casey said, referring to the cases consolidated before U.S. District Judge Dan A. Polster of the Northern District of Ohio, National Prescription Opiate Litigation, 1:17-md-2804 (N.D. Ohio, consolidated Dec. 12, 2017).

“Even among the lawyers working on the case, everyone knows someone affected by opioids,” he said.

Casey spoke in an interview a few days after a major defendant, the Sackler family’s Purdue Pharma, the maker of the drug blamed for much of the epidemic, OxyContin, offered to settle more than 2,000 suits for up to $12 billion, including $3 billion from the Sacklers.

“That’s a big number,” Casey said. “That was news, but I think there will be a much bigger number to come.” He pointed out that divided by 2,000, $12 billion wouldn’t go far. “The Sacklers are going to have to give up pretty much everything they have,” he predicted. The family is said to be worth as much as $14 billion.

As a member of the negotiating class, Casey has a vote. “Any settlement figure has to be approved by 75 percent of the public entities,” he said.

Casey has a perspective on the opioid case informed by his participation in the tobacco litigation that resulted in a $206 billion master settlement agreement in 1998. “I don’t think the opioid figure will approach that number,” he said, “but we did learn some lessons to apply here about directing the funds better than we did with the tobacco money.”

On November 15, Casey will be honored as Alumni of the Year by the University of San Diego Law School. Casey laughed when he was reminded of the upcoming award.

“Not bad for a guy who almost flunked out his first year,” he said. Casey recalled that his father believed that because he had had to work his way through school, so should his son. “He had me managing apartment complexes my first year. I told him I had to stop. I was most improved student my second year.”

Casey created scholarships at USD Law in memory of his father, who died in 2003, and in honor of his mother, Alberta, who turned 101 in August. The scholarships go to USD students who wish to study at the law school.

“My mother was one of the first women to study at USD as an undergraduate,” Casey said.

— John Roemer