About the Firm
Roberta Ashkin has been in the forefront of tort litigation since the late 1980's with the onset of litigation on behalf of DES victims exposed in utero to this dangerous pharmaceutical agent. In her 28 year career she has successfully litigated untold numbers of cases in the medical malpractice, consumer product and pharmaceutical liability fields representing victims exposed to dangerous pharmaceutical drugs and devices including Vioxx and Bextra, Serzone, Accutane, Latex Gloves, oral contraceptives, Viagara, the Dalkon Shield and Copper Seven devices, Guidant Stents and others. She has also devoted her time to representing thousands of workers and their families exposed to asbestos and a number of other toxic and chemical agents in the home and workplace including benzene, radiation, organic solvents, carbon dioxide and cancer-producing agents contaminating these environments. Roberta received her undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, from Hofstra University.
A 1978 graduate of St. John's University School of Law, she initially began her legal career as an editor of Moore's Federal Practice before joining the defense medical malpractice litigation bar. Soon recognizing her true calling she became associated with some of the stalwarts in the plaintiffs' bar among them the legendary Harry Lipsig and later, Alfred Julien, as managing attorney of his high profile national plaintiff's tort practice; as a partner of Trolman Glaser and Lichtman, where she headed up its medical malpractice department, and as the resident partner in the New York office of the nationally renowned Dallas-based firm of Baron & Budd, before launching her own firm. Her prominence in the New York Bar has resulted in her association in an "Of Counsel" position to a number of well known and prestigious national firms, among them the Levin Papantonio firm based in Pensacola ,Florida where she interfaced on a number of existing and developing mass tort projects, among them, the pharmaceuticals PPA and Serzone; the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania firm of Kline and Specter, for which she served as local counsel in its Serzone litigation; the Montgomery, Alabama law firm of Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methin, Portis & Miles for which she serves as local counsel in its Serzone, Hormone Replacement Therapy, Bextra and Celebrex litigations; the Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld and Toll firm of Washington, D.C., with which she serves as co-counsel in its Hormone Replacement Litigation in New York and nationally; the Taylor, Martino & Kuykendall firm of Mobile, Alabama, for which she currently serves as co-counsel on the firm’s national Vioxx and Bextra litigation and other mass torts; and the prestigious Kuykendall & Associates, with which she co-counsels on all the firm’s national single and mass tort projects.
Most recently, Ms. Ashkin has been named “Of Counsel” to the esteemed Charleston, West Virginia firm, The Calwell Practice, and manages the firm’s New York office and New York-based litigation.
Past Secretary and Treasurer of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association, Ms. Ashkin is also the founder and immediate past Chair of the organization's Women's Caucus. She serves on the Board of Directors of Public Justice, a national public interest law firm engaged in the litigation of environmental and public interest issues. She is also an active member of the American Association of Justice (formally the Association of Trial Lawyers of America )serving in the past by ATLA presidential appointment on the Public Affairs Liaison Committee, and presently. The AAJ PAC Task Force and State Affairs Committees. Ms. Ashkin has also served since 2002 on the Board of Directors of Daytop Village, a not for profit organization which works to rehabilitating youth and young adults with drug and alcohol abuse and dependency issues. Ms. Ashkin is on the Board of Cancer Schmancer (http://www.cancerschmancer.org), Fran Drescher’s national organization devoted to ensuring that all women's cancers be diagnosed in Stage 1, when they are most curable. Ms. Ashkin has been nominated to serve as a delegate to Russia by People to People to meet with Russian attorneys to discuss advancing the Russian legal system
She has served on a number of committees interfacing with the legal profession and the judiciary in the areas of medical malpractice and products liability, including the New York County Lawyers Association, for which she served as the Medical Malpractice Committee Chair, and as a member of the Supreme Court, New York County Medical Malpractice Committee before Justice Jacqueline Silberman, Chief Administrative Judge of the Supreme Court, New York County. She is also on the Attorney Committee for Andrew Cuomo, the New York State Attorney General.
Ms. Ashkin has been intimately involved on the local and national political fronts. In 2003 she was by named as Senior Advisor of Women’s Issues, by Representative Richard Gephardt in his “Gephardt for President” campaign.
Presently Ms. Ashkin serves by judicial appointment as Plaintiff Liaison Counsel in New York Hormone Replacement Therapy Litigation, New York Serzone Litigation, and as a member of the Plaintiff’s Counsel Steering Committee in the State Supreme Court’s Bextra and Celebrex Litigation.
She has served as an active lecturer to the legal profession including the New York State Trial Lawyers Institute, The American Association of Justice, and Mass Torts Made Perfect on a variety of legal topics and has been an invited guest speaker on a number of local and nationally televised legal/public interest programs. She is admitted to the bars of the State of New York, the United States District Courts for the Eastern, Southern, Western and Northern Districts of the State of New York, and the United States Supreme Courts.
Of Counsel
The Calwell Practice
Stuart Calwell is a founding member of the firm. Mr. Calwell, born in Washington, DC is a 1970 graduate of Marshall University and a 1974 graduate of West Virginia University. He is admitted to practice before the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, U.S. District Courts, Southern and Northern Districts of West Virginia, the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court. An author as well as jurist, Mr. Calwell’s writings include "How to Handle a Dioxin Case," Mathew Bender Guide to Toxic Torts, 1988; and "Exposure to Toxic Chemicals-An Unfamiliar Risk in the Railroad Workplace," Journal of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, Vol. 95, No. 2, 1986. Mr. Calwell’s practice areas include Asbestos Litigation, Environmental Law, Toxic Torts, Personal Injury, Medical Malpractice, and Labor Law.
Kuykendall and Associates LLC
Kuykendall and Associates LLC was formed by Frederick T. Kuykendall III, the former managing partner of the Cooper Mitch firm, in 1997. Shortly after its formation, Jerome A. "Buddy" Cooper joined the group.
In the decade since its formation the firm has continued the representation of working men and women in labor and employment matters, personal injury, toxic tort and class action litigation and returned, along with its associated counsel, hundreds of millions of ill-gained dollars to victims.
Drawing on nearly three decades of experience, the firm’s focus has been never deviated from its simple mission: to put the client’s interests and needs first and to ensure that the individual concerns of each client is satisfactorily resolved. While the firm’s members are trial lawyers, the firm’s reputation for resolving complex litigation through negotiation has grown to the point that it is routinely retained to solve some of the largest cases in the Country. Working with strategic partners such as Levin Papantonio, Herman Mathis, Taylor Martino, the Ashkin Law Firm, and others, the firm is able to respond to virtually every client’s legal need.
The firm has among other things been actively involved in polybutelene pipe, rezulin, phen-fen and PPA litigation, as well as Vioxx, Bextra and Zyprexa injury claims.
Roberta Ashkin to chair DMI Civil Justice Advisory Board
The Drum Major Institute will announce the creation of its DMI Civil Justice Advisory Board in fall of 2007. The Advisory Board will support and strengthen DMI’s advocacy of a pro-civil justice agenda as part of its work to advance a progressive agenda of social and economic justice for our country.
“We are thrilled that Roberta is joining us,” said Andrea Batista Schlesinger, Executive Director of the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy. “She understands that the strength of our civil justice system is an indication of our larger commitment to equity, justice, and smart public policy.”
Members to be announced shortly. To visit TortDeform.com, DMI’s pro civil justice blog, please click here.
ROBERTA ASHKIN has been in the forefront of tort litigation since the late 1980's with the onset of litigation on behalf of DES victims exposed in utero to this dangerous pharmaceutical agent. In her 28 year career she has successfully litigated untold numbers of cases in the medical malpractice, consumer product and pharmaceutical liability fields representing victims exposed to dangerous pharmaceutical drugs and devices including Vioxx and Bextra, Serzone, Accutane, Latex Gloves, oral contraceptives, Viagara, the Dalkon Shield and Copper Seven devices, Guidant Stents and others. She has also devoted her time to representing thousands of workers and their families exposed to asbestos and a number of other toxic and chemical agents in the home and workplace including benzene, radiation, organic solvents, carbon dioxide and cancer-producing agents contaminating these environments. Roberta received her undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, from Hofstra University.
A 1978 graduate of St. John's University School of Law, she initially began her legal career as an editor of Moore's Federal Practice before joining the defense medical malpractice litigation bar. Soon recognizing her true calling she became associated with some of the stalwarts in the plaintiffs' bar among them the legendary Harry Lipsig and later, Alfred Julien, as managing attorney of his high profile national plaintiff's tort practice; as a partner of Trolman Glaser and Lichtman, where she headed up its medical malpractice department, and as the resident partner in the New York office of the nationally renowned Dallas-based firm of Baron & Budd, before launching her own firm. Her prominence in the New York Bar has resulted in her association in an "Of Counsel" position to a number of well known and prestigious national firms, among them the Levin Papantonio firm based in Pensacola ,Florida where she interfaced on a number of existing and developing mass tort projects, among them, the pharmaceuticals PPA and Serzone; the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania firm of Kline and Specter, for which she served as local counsel in its Serzone litigation; the Montgomery, Alabama law firm of Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methin, Portis & Miles for which she serves as local counsel in its Serzone, Hormone Replacement Therapy, Bextra and Celebrex litigations; the Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld and Toll firm of Washington, D.C., with which she serves as co-counsel in its Hormone Replacement Litigation in New York and nationally; the Taylor, Martino & Kuykendall firm of Mobile, Alabama, for which she currently serves as co-counsel on the firm’s national Vioxx and Bextra litigation and other mass torts; and the prestigious Kuykendall & Associates, with which she co-counsels on all the firm’s national single and mass tort projects.
Most recently, Ms. Ashkin has been named “Of Counsel” to the esteemed Charleston, West Virginia firm, The Calwell Practice, and manages the firm’s New York office and New York-based litigation.
Past Secretary and Treasurer of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association, Ms. Ashkin is also the founder and immediate past Chair of the organization's Women's Caucus. She serves on the Board of Directors of Public Justice, a national public interest law firm engaged in the litigation of environmental and public interest issues. She is also an active member of the American Association of Justice (formally the Association of Trial Lawyers of America )serving in the past by ATLA presidential appointment on the Public Affairs Liaison Committee, and presently. The AAJ PAC Task Force and State Affairs Committees. Ms. Ashkin has also served since 2002 on the Board of Directors of Daytop Village, a not for profit organization which works to rehabilitating youth and young adults with drug and alcohol abuse and dependency issues. Ms. Ashkin is on the Board of Cancer Schmancer, Fran Drescher’s national organization devoted to ensuring that all women's cancers be diagnosed in Stage 1, when they are most curable. Ms. Ashkin has been nominated to serve as a delegate to Russia by People to People to meet with Russian attorneys to discuss advancing the Russian legal system.
She has served on a number of committees interfacing with the legal profession and the judiciary in the areas of medical malpractice and products liability, including the New York County Lawyers Association, for which she served as the Medical Malpractice Committee Chair, and as a member of the Supreme Court, New York County Medical Malpractice Committee before Justice Jacqueline Silberman, Chief Administrative Judge of the Supreme Court, New York County. She is also on the Attorney Committee for Andrew Cuomo, the New York State Attorney General.
Ms. Ashkin has been intimately involved on the local and national political fronts. In 2003 she was by named as Senior Advisor of Women’s Issues, by Representative Richard Gephardt in his “Gephardt for President” campaign.
Presently Ms. Ashkin serves by judicial appointment as Plaintiff Liaison Counsel in New York Hormone Replacement Therapy Litigation, New York Serzone Litigation, and as a member of the Plaintiff’s Counsel Steering Committee in the State Supreme Court’s Bextra and Celebrex Litigation.
She has served as an active lecturer to the legal profession including the New York State Trial Lawyers Institute, The American Association of Justice, and Mass Torts Made Perfect on a variety of legal topics and has been an invited guest speaker on a number of local and nationally televised legal/public interest programs. She is admitted to the bars of the State of New York, the United States District Courts for the Eastern, Southern, Western and Northern Districts of the State of New York, and the United States Supreme Courts.
The DMI Staff
September 19, 2005
Ashkin Law Firm
580 Broadway Suite 906
New York, New York 10012
Office: 212 -965-0010
Fax: 212 -965-1301
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Super Lawyers 2007 Metro Addition recognizes Ashkin Law.
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Welcome to
Ashkin Law.
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Roberta Ashkin interviewed on formation of her firm. Click to watch video.
