Mass Tort Litigation Blog

Welcome Legal Profession Blog

Welcome to the Legal Profession Blog, edited by Professors Alan Childress and Jeffrey Lipshaw at Tulane University Law School and Professor Michael Frisch at Georgetown Law Center!

The Future of Drug Safety: Promoting and Protecting the Health of the Public

One can read online for free the prepublication copy of The Future of Drug Safety: Promoting and Protecting the Health of the Public, a comprehensive review of FDA safety by the Institute of Medicine.  Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Andrew Von Eschenbach has also issued a Statement Regarding the Institute of Medicine Future of Drug Safety Report.

Drug Safety Overhaul Is Urged

Article in today's Los Angeles Times -- Drug Safety Overhaul Is Urged, by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Denise Gellene:

    The government's drug safety system is seriously out of balance, devoting too much
    attention to approving new medications and not enough follow-up to uncovering risky
    side effects, a blue-ribbon scientific panel concluded in a major report released Friday.

    Convened at the request of the Food and Drug Administration after a popular painkiller
    was linked to heart attacks, the experts in medicine, pharmacology, law and other fields
    issued a sweeping call for reform. Its 25 recommendations include establishing a fixed
    term for the FDA commissioner, restricting ubiquitous drug commercials and placing a
    special cautionary symbol on the packaging of newly approved medications.

F.D.A. Nominee Advances; Hurdles Linger

Article in today's New York Times -- F.D.A. Nominee Advances; Hurdles Linger, by Gardiner Harris:

    A Senate committee voted on Wednesday to approve Andrew von Eschenbach to
    head the Food and Drug Administration, but hurdles to his confirmation remain.

    Dr. von Eschenbach has been acting commissioner for a year. Action on his nomination
    was held up for six months because of objections from two Democratic senators, and
    now two Republicans have promised to delay a confirmation vote for entirely different reasons.

Govt Defends Remarks by Former EPA Chief

Article in the New York Times -- Govt Defends Remarks by Former EPA Chief, by the Associated Press:

    The former Environmental Protection Agency chief should not be blamed for telling
    residents near the World Trade Center site that the area was safe after the 2001
    terrorist attacks, the government told an appeals court Thursday.

    Federal officials also argued that a lower court judge was wrong to force Christine
    Todd Whitman to face a 2004 lawsuit by people in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn who
    said they were exposed to hazardous dust and debris from the fallen twin towers.

Farmers Pledge Steps to Avoid Contamination of Produce

Article from today's New York Times -- Farmers Pledge Steps to Avoid Contamination of Produce, by Jesse McKinley:

    Amid growing governmental pressure and public concern about an E. coli outbreak
    caused by contaminated spinach, California farmers promised new procedures for
    growing, handling and shipping their produce on Thursday, in hopes of lifting a
    week-old government warning about the crop.

    The guidelines were announced just hours after federal and state health authorities
    met with hundreds of concerned and occasionally angry farmers crammed into a Farm
    Bureau office here to offer their help in ending an agricultural crisis that is estimated
    by trade officials to have already cost the spinach industry $50 million.

Pattern of E. Coli Outbreaks Is Seen

Article in today's New York Times -- Pattern of E. Coli Outbreaks Is Seen, by the Associated Press:

    Federal health officials said Monday that before the current E. coli outbreak there
    had been 19 food-poisoning outbreaks since 1995 linked to lettuce and spinach. At
    least eight of those were traced to produce grown in the Salinas Valley in California.
    The outbreaks involved more than 400 cases of sickness and two deaths.

    The outbreaks led the Food and Drug Administration to write to California farmers
    last November, urging them to improve the safety of produce.

The After the J.D. Project and Urban Legal Careers

On Monday, October 9, 2006, Southwestern Law School will host a symposium, The After the J.D. Project and Urban Legal Careers, at its campus in Los Angeles.  The "After the J.D. Project" is the first longitudinal study of lawyer careers, tracing nearly 5,000 lawyers who were admitted to the bar in the year 2000.  Registration is $75 for non-Southwestern alumni seeking CLE credit, $50 for Southwestern alumni seeking CLE credit, and $40 for those not seeking CLE credit.   

Expertise in the Courtroom: Scientists and Wizards

On Saturday, October 21, 2006, the Villanova Law Review will host the Annual Norman J. Schachoy Symposium, on Expertise in the Courtroom: Scientists and Wizards.  Separate panels will address Judges, Evidence and Expertise; Post-Daubert Controversies; and Science, Scientists, and Ethics.  General registration is $75, and law student registration for non-Villanova students is $25.