Judge Joshua Roberts of the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas vacated the long-standing plaintiffs’ liaison counsel, lead counsel, and executive committee.
A Philadelphia judge has overhauled the leadership structure of the city’s Paraquat mass tort, removing longtime plaintiffs’ lead counsel and appointing new lawyers to help steer the more than 2,000 case-strong litigation.
In a case management order released this week, Judge Joshua Roberts of the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas vacated the plaintiffs’ liaison counsel, lead counsel, and executive committee, which had been entered via a June 2022 order. The court removed multiple members of the plaintiffs’ co-lead counsel, including Aimee Wagstaff of Wagstaff Law Firm in Denver, Fidelma Fitzpatrick of Motley Rice in Providence, Rhode Island, and David Dickens of The Miller Firm in Orange, Virginia.
Wagstaff said in an emailed comment that the adjustments were made because her firm and The Miller Firm resolved their cases and are therefore no longer working on the litigation in active leadership. Last year, and earlier this year, multiple discontinuances were filed in cases in the litigation, including nearly 40 cases from Motley Rice, about 70 cases from The Miller Firm, and nearly 130 cases from the Wagstaff Law Firm.
Michael Daly of Motley Rice, in Philadelphia, remains as plaintiffs’ liaison counsel, with the addition of Lawrence Cohan of Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky, in Philadelphia, and Eric Chaffin of Chaffin Luhana, in New York, as co-liaison counsel.
According to the First Judicial District’s website, 2,037 cases were pending in the Paraquat mass tort program as of Friday. A spokesman with the court said that during the first seven months of the year, the program saw 459 new filings.
Roberts’ order did not appoint lead counsel or any executive committee to replace the previous appointments. He said in a footnote that the court “does not generally appoint membership of ‘executive committees’ or ‘steering committees,’ unlike, for example, federal multi-district litigations.” Roberts noted that counsel “are free to collaboratively determine membership of these committees, if such committees are deemed necessary.”
Discussing the appointment process, Chaffin said the court invited firms to seek liaison counsel roles, and his firm submitted its candidacy based on its numerous cases in the litigation. Chaffin shared that he and his firm have approximately 425 cases filed, with additional cases to come, and noted that the firm has maintained an active presence in the multidistrict litigation, with his cases now nearing resolution.
Chaffin told Law.com that he previously served as liaison counsel in the denture adhesive mass tort in Philadelphia before Judge Sandra Mazer Moss, and that he looks forward to working as liaison counsel before Roberts.
“Larry Cohan and Eric Chaffin are outstanding attorneys and a strong addition to the Paraquat litigation leadership. I look forward to working closely with their firms in guiding the litigation through the busy trial period ahead,” Daly said in an emailed statement.
Cohan, Fitzpatrick and Dickens did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Original press release published Aug 11, 2026, via Law.com
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