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About Our DES Lawyers

Aaron M. Levine
Brandon J. Levine
Andrew E. Levine
Jennifer Levine
Renee Robinson-Meyer
Maricel Cruz
Steve Lewis
Benjamin J. Cooper
Sabine Francis

 

Aaron M. Levine

Aaron Levine is President and principal DES lawyer of the firm Aaron M. Levine & Associates. In his 40 years of practice, Mr. Levine has been devoted to consumer rights in the fields of dangerous drugs (DES - Diethylstilbestrol), defective devices, and medical malpractice. He has been a force in expanding the legal rights of consumers, successfully represented thousands of victims injured because of the negligence of doctors and the exaggerated claims of drug and pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Mr. Levine is certified as a trial specialist by the National Board of Trial Advocacy, and was voted Lawyer of the Year Award from the DC Trial Lawyers Association. His Martindale-Hubbell rating is "A.V.", the highest possible rating. He has been appointed by federal judges and the committee of the American Trial Lawyers Association to lead the national battles for victim compensation in the field of DES (diethylstilbestrol), a hormone previously used to protect pregnancy; cardiac pacemakers; Chloroquine, an anti-arthritic drug; Dalkon Shield, or intrauterine devices; and silicone breast implants. Mr. Levine has served as an appointed consumer representative to the United States Food and Drug Administration.

From the onset of his career, Mr. Levine has fought for a level playing field in the area of consumer rights. Serving as Legislative Assistant to a United States Senator and Congressman, he was engaged in drafting legislation protecting the consumer, including the first Medicare bill. As a result of Mr. Levine's litigation, two drugs and medical devices have been withdrawn from the market, and two physicians have been removed from hospital practice; one was sent to jail after exposure of criminal practices (an accomplishment that earned Mr. Levine the formal commendation of the United States Department of Justice).

Mr. Levine has prosecuted claims against manufacturers of defective devices and dangerous drugs throughout America, Belgium, Holland, France, Germany, and Italy. In two mass tragedies, DES and Dalkon shield, Mr. Levine was able to obtain over $80 million in damage settlements for his clients with extensive networks of in-house and consulting specialists in the areas of obstetrics, gynecology, pharmacology, toxicology, pathology, pediatrics, neonatology, genetics, radiology, sonography, epidemiology, neurosurgery, anethesiology, biomedical engineering, emergency room medicine, and the specialties of diagnostics and drug testing.

As a frequent advisor on legal issues for television, radio, and print media, Mr. Levine appeared on 60 Minutes II regarding his Fen-Phen settlement, the first million-dollar settlement regarding this diet drug. On dozens of occasions, Mr. Levine has made advisory appearances or given television interviews to explain the dangers of silicone breast implants, cardiac pacemakers, DES hormone therapy, eye injuries, and birth control drugs and devices.

Mr. Levine has authored numerous scholarly articles on legal issues, and has lectured widely. Thirty years ago, his law review article on product liability predicted the onset of the mass tort phenomenon in consumer litigation. His authoritative chapter on DES appears in Proof of Facts, and he has contributed significant articles to both medical and legal books and magazines.

Mr. Levine is also a wide-ranging lecturer who has addressed the Medical Society of the District of Columbia, the Maryland Dental Society, American Trial Lawyers Association, Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation, National Medical Association, the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, and the Arthur Miller Harvard panel discussions at Washington Hospital Lawyers for Public Justice, among others. He is one of the founders of Trial Lawyers for Public Justice.

 

Renee L. Robinson-Meyer

Ms. Meyer has been an associate with Aaron M. Levine & Associates for over eleven years and has focused her practice on product liability, medical malpractice issues. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Meyer spent eleven years as a critical care registered nurse at VA Hospitals in Pittsburgh, PA, Palo Alto, CA, and Washington, DC. She also worked at Georgetown University Medical Center, where she specialized her practice in the areas of cardiology and cardiac surgery. She was the co-author of "Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: Medical, Surgical and Nursing Management, "Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing 13 (1993).

Ms. Meyer has been actively involved in the resolution of numerous DES cases, including third-generation as well as several obstetrical malpractice cases. She is primarily responsible for the litigation aspects of the 100 DES cases presently in the office, and her combined nursing and legal background is a valuable asset in the evaluation, trial, and resolution of any product liability or medical malpractice case. She also played a significant role in assembling the first Fen-Phen heart valve case settlement in the United States, Sisk v. A. H. Robins, Inc.

Ms. Meyer graduated magna cum laude from Duquesne University (B.S.N., 1985) and is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center (J. D. 1995). She is admitted to the bars of the District of Columbia and Maryland, and is admitted before the Federal District Courts in both of these jurisdictions. Ms. Meyer is a member of the Maryland State Bar Association, Inc., the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, DC, the Prince George's County (Maryland) Bar Association, and the American Association of Critical Care Nurses..

 

Brandon J. Levine

For over fifteen years, Brandon J. Levine has devoted his practice exclusively to representing plaintiffs in personal injury litigation, including medical device and pharmaceutical product liability, medical malpractice, and wrongful death. He has specialized in issues involving statute of limitations, transfer, venue, and jurisdiction as well as conflict of laws. He has acted as local counsel in numerous cases from around the country on behalf of attorneys who wish to access the liberal statute of limitations accorded cases by District of Columbia courts.

Mr. Levine has earned the highest rating by Martindale Hubbell (AV) and he sits on the Board of Governors of the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, DC. Mr. Levine is a member of the bars of the District of Columbia and Maryland as well as all federal courts in these jurisdictions.

Mr. Levine has been actively involved in the litigation, trial and appellate process in numerous DES cases, including several which created ground breaking law in the District of Columbia and Maryland. In addition, he has been substantively involved at the trial and appellate level in other product liability, medical malpractice, and personal injury litigation, including the firm's Dalkon Shield cases, Rio-Hair Perm, Silicone Breast Implants and Norplant.

Because of the firm's national practice, Mr. Levine has become proficient on the laws of various states in the fields of statute of limitations, damages, product identification, wrongful death, and conflicts of laws. He also concentrates on the civil and appellate rules in the Washington area and other courts in America.

 

Jennifer Levine

Jennifer Levine, an affiliate of Aaron M. Levine & Associates, is located in Chicago, Illinois. She specializes in products liability law, primarily DES cases. She has extensive litigation experience, having litigated personal injury claims for the New York Law firm of Simonson, Leibowtiz, P.C. and the City of New York Law Department. She was appointed as a judge to the Illinois Human Rights Commission. Ms. Levine is an adjunct professor at the DePaul College of Law and John Marshall Law School in Chicago.

She lectures widely on women's issues, including sexual harassment and discrimination. She authored the article "Preventing Gender Bias in the Courts: A Question of Judicial Ethics, " 1 Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics 775 (1988).

Ms. Levine graduated cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center (J.D. 1989), and Brown University (A.B. 1986). She is admitted to the courts of Illinois and New York.

 

Steve Lewis

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Lewis, an associate at Aaron M. Levine & Associates, worked for the National Conference of State Legislatures in the field of health policy. He is experienced in several health-related fields including: cardiac research at Stanford University where he studied the use of Balloon angioplasty in conjunction with tissue Plasminogen Activase (tPA) (abstract published in the journal Circulation) and anesthesiology research at the Palo Alto VA Hospital where he studied the teratogenic effects of certain anesthetics.

 

 

Maricel L. Cruz

Maricel L. Cruz joins the firm as a nurse specialist, directing her efforts toward the medical aspects of DES litigation. She completed her studies at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA, earning a baccalaureate degree in nursing. She has been a registered nurse for six years, providing care to patients in low to high risk L&D and Postpartum/GYN settings. Ms. Cruz has also worked as a clinical instructor with the primary focus on maternal-newborn nursing. She is a member of the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) professional nursing organization.

 

Andrew E. Levine

(not pictured)

Andrew E. Levine received his B. A. from Washington University in St. Louis, MO, and his M. D. from New York Medical College in 1990. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at New York City's Lenox Hill Hospital in 1993. He is currently board certified in Internal Medicine.

Dr. Levine works in the areas of Internal and Emergency Medicine. He is an attending physician in the Emergency Department at Lenox Hill Hospital, which is affiliated with New York University's School of Medicine. He assists the firm on a consultation basis on medical research matters.

 

Benjamin J. Cooper

Benjamin J. Cooper graduated in 2005 from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City. He is a member of the New York and District of Columbia Bars. During his time at Cardozo, Mr. Cooper spent a year’s internship assisting in litigation for the New York City government, assisted battered spouses in procuring restraining orders, and was a Notes Editor for the Cardozo Women’s Law Journal (now the Cardozo Journal of Gender and the Law), where he published two articles on gender studies and women’s issues. Before coming to Aaron M. Levine & Associates, Benjamin Cooper worked in several areas of law including consumer litigation and sexual harassment.

 

Sabine Francis

Sabine Francis has joined the firm as a Physician’s Assistant focusing on the medical aspects of litigation. She completed her Bachelor of Science degree in exercise physiology at the University of California, Davis in 1995. She then went on to complete her Master of Science degree in Physician’s Assistant Studies at Midwestern University in Illinois in 2000. She worked as a Physician’s Assistant at a Northern Virginia orthopedic surgery practice from 2001 until 2003 and then as a primary care provider and pain management specialist for the Department of Neurology at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Washington D.C. from 2003 until 2004. As a result of her training and experience, Ms. Francis has a broad range of clinical expertise and is able to assist the firm by analyzing a wide variety of clinical case material.

 

Our Experts in the Courtroom

The key to any medical product liability or medical malpractice case is in the effectiveness and qualifications of the medical and scientific experts available to testify. Three important areas are:

Fault:

Was the manufacturer or doctor at fault? Did they depart from accepted standards of prudence in their field? Did they fail to adequately test? Did they ignore the scientific literature suggesting the risk involved? Was the drug or device defective and unreasonably dangerous? Was it over promoted, did the distributor fail to warn? An expert in this field must have experience in the field, familiarity with the industry and what are the usual and customary standards and proper conduct in that field, whether it be manufacturing a diet pill or delivering a baby. In the DES exposure cases we call upon our associated experts who have the academic qualifications, experience, and the familiarity with the literature in the 50's and 60's to impress the judge and jury as to the state of the art back then.

Causation / Epidemiology:

Did the negligent act, the defective drug or the departure from accepted standards of prudent and careful medicine actually cause or significantly contribute to the injury? In most medical cases, the victim is suffering from some medical condition that forced a trip to the doctor or the taking of a pill that could be the cause of the ultimate disease. It also could be caused by trauma, infection, genetic or other factors not related to the defective drug, device or medical care. The injured victim is required to prove, through an expert, that the drug, device or care in question actually caused the injury complained of. Usually, this is done through treating physicians, scientists and epidemiologists familiar with the studies, tests and literature of the drug or device under question or similar products, as well as the underlying anatomy and pathology which could explain how the drug, device or care could cause such an injury in the general population or animals. We call upon our associated Obstetricians, Gynecologists, Epidemiologists, Reproductive Endocrinologists and Pathologists who have testified in winning cases.

Damages or Extent of Injury:

In order to obtain compensation, we must present additional medical and therapeutic experts to tell the court about your injury and the ramifications, future medical problems, prognosis, limitation of employment, inability to go about life's activities, or future medical needs. We call upon our experts, treating physicians, disability experts, life planners, actuaries, who have given prior testimony translating these factors into present value dollars.

Some of the other experts we know on a first-name basis and who work with us consistently are in the fields of:

We are affiliated with trial attorneys in every major population center in America who are available to us should local issues arise.


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