Atlantic Legal Foundation

ALF trumpets their "deep commitment to redressing the bias against business which manifests itself in favor of narrow 'consumer' or 'environmental' concerns" (ALF Annual Report, 1994). ALF also promotes "sound science" in the courtroom (ALF, "Our Philosophy," 2004). ALF has received funding from ASARCO, ARCO Chemical Co, Chevron, DuPont, Pfizer, and Texaco. Other funding sources include prominent conservative philanthropic foundations, including the Sarah Scaife, Claude Lambe, John Olin, Castle Rock (Coors) and the Philip McKenna Foundations.^[1]

Helping corporations to ignore health and safety legislation

ALF does not appear to initiate lawsuits, but files numerous amicus briefs on issues including charter schools, affirmative action, and the use of scientific testimony in court. It is the latter issue that seems to occupy the most of ALF's recent efforts.

ALF has a science advisory board with 18 members, including 6 Nobel Laureates, most famous among them James Watson, the co-discoverer of DNA. Through its briefs, ALF succeeded in establishing (e.g. they have been cited in Supreme Court rulings) that a high standard should apply to the use of scientific experts. In three different Supreme Court cases (Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Joiner v. General Electric, and Kumho Tire Co. v. Carmichael) ALF convinced the high court that the judiciary should use high standards in determining which scientific evidence is admissible, succeeding in having plaintiff's scientific experts deemed unsuitable, and aided in the determination that trial judges should serve as "gatekeepers" for all experts, not merely scientific ones to ensure only relevant and reliable testimony.

The consequence of such rulings is that plaintiffs litigating against pharmaceutical companies, medical providers, or other corporate concerns will have a more difficult time establishing the scientific basis of their claims. Corporations which finance scientific experts, and the scientists who in many cases are implicated in these cases, would be unopposed in their "expert" claims in the courtroom. Having established this precedent on the federal level, Atlantic Legal Foundation is looking to further expand it at the state levels, where the majority of tort claims are pursued. The logical conclusion of such precedents would be a vast reduction in the size and frequency of judgments against corporations, thus making it profitable for them to disregard health and safety laws.[2]

People

Board of Directors

• Hayward D. Fisk, Chairman, Vice President & General Counsel Computer Sciences Corporation El Segundo, CA
• William H. Slattery President Atlantic Legal Foundation
• Douglas Foster Vice Chairman
• Stephen J. Harmelin

Treasurer Managing Partner Dilworth Paxson LLP Philadelphia, PA Charles R. Work Secretary Partner McDermott, Will & Emery Washington, D.C. Francis B. Burch, Jr. Co-Chairman DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary US LLP Baltimore, MD George S. Frazza Of Counsel Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler LLP General Counsel (Ret.) Johnson & Johnson New York, NY William Graham Partner Connell Foley LLP General Counsel (Ret.) Bethlehem Steel Corporation Roseland, NJ Donald M. Gray Managing Director (Ret.) Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc. Bronxville, NY Carol A. Casazza Herman Assistant General Counsel Pfizer Inc New York, NY Ernest B. Hueter President (Ret.) National Legal Center for the Public Interest Washington, DC R. William Ide Partner McKenna, Long & Aldridge LLP Atlanta, GA Robert E. Juceam Partner Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson New York, NY Edwin L. Lewis General Counsel Photronics, Inc. Brookfield, CT Robert A. Lonergan Vice President & General Counsel Rohm and Haas Company Philadelphia, PA William B. Lytton Executive Vice President & General Counsel Tyco International Ltd. Princeton, NJ Frank H. Menaker Partner DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary Senior Vice President & General Counsel (Ret.) Lockheed Martin Corporation Bethesda, MD Ernest T. Patrikis Partner Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP Former Senior Vice President & General Counsel American International Group, Inc. New York, NY Thomas L. Sager Vice President & Assistant General Counsel DuPont Co. Wilmington, DE Frederick Seitz, Ph.D Director Emeritus Atlantic Legal President Emeritus The Rockefeller University New York, NY Philip R. Sellinger Managing Shareholder - NJ Greenberg Traurig LLP Florham Park, NJ

• Clifford B. Storms Senior Vice President & General Counsel (Ret.)

CPC International Inc. Greenwich, CT

• Elia Weinbach Partner, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP
• Stephen T. Whelan Partner Thacher Proffitt & Wood
• James I. Wyer General Counsel (Ret.) American Cyanamid

Atlantic Legal Officers

William H. Slattery President Atlantic Legal Foundation New York, NY Martin S. Kaufman Senior Vice President & General Counsel Atlantic Legal Foundation New York, NY Briscoe R. Smith Senior Vice President & Counsel Atlantic Legal Foundation New York, NY

Advisory Council

David C. Apy Partner McCarter & English Newark, NJ Patricia Buffler, PhD., M.P.H. Professor of Epidemiology Dean Emerita of the School of Public Health University of California Berkeley, CA Henry N. Butler J.D., Ph.D. Director, Judicial Education Program AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies Irvine, CA

• John H. Carley

Senior Vice President-Legal and Regulatory Affairs Cendant Corporation New York, NY Albert W. Driver Editor, The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel General Counsel (Ret.), J.C. Penney Co. Mountainside, NJ

• George E. Ehrlich, MD

Adjunct Professor University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine Philadelphia, PA Frederick T. Elder Ph.D., P.E Principal Frederick T. Elder & Associates Madison, WI Prof. Charles M. Elson Edgar S. Woolard, Jr., Chair John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance University of Delaware Newark, DE Arthur F. Fergenson Partner DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary US LLP Baltimore, MD Alfred L. Ferguson Of Counsel McCarter & English Newark, NJ Ronald E. Gots, MD, Ph.D. Principal International Center for Toxicology and Medicine Rockville, MD Thomas R. Gottshall, Esq. Partner Haynsworth Sinkler & Boyd, P.A. Columbia, SC Philip S. Guzelian, MD Director, Medical Toxicology Department of Pharmacology, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center Denver, CO Thor Halvorssen President The Human Rights Foundation New York, NY Roger S. Kaplan Partner Jackson Lewis LLP Melville, NY Dennis McBride, Ph.D., MPA President Potomac Institute for Policy Studies Arlington, VA Susan L. Meade Senior Vice President (Ret.) JP Morgan Chase & Co. New York, NY A. Alan Moghissi, PhD President Institute for Regulatory Science Columbia, MD Charles W. Mooney, Jr. Professor of Law University of Pennsylvania School of Law Philadelphia, PA Rodney W. Nichols Former President and Chief Executive Officer New York Academy of Sciences New York, NY Adam Offenhartz, Esq. Partner Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP New York, NY Hamilton Osborne, Jr. Partner Haynsworth Sinkler & Boyd, P.A. Columbia, SC William G. Primps Partner Le Boeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae New York, NY Issac Rabino, PhD Professor in Biological and Health Sciences State University of New York New York, NY Alan Charles Raul Partner Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood Washington, DC Paul C. Rooney, Jr., Esq. Partner (Ret.) White & Case Sharon, CT Sally Satel, MD Resident Scholar American Enterprise Institute Washington, DC R. Edwin Selover Senior Vice President & General Counsel Public Service Electric & Gas Co. Newark, NJ Barry H. Smith, MD, Ph.D Senior Vice President The Rogosin Institute New York, NY A. F. Spilhaus, Jr., Ph.D Executive Director American Geophysical Union Washington, DC Lance H. Wilson Senior Vice President American Property Financing New York, NY Prof. Richard Wilson, D.Phil Mallinckrodt Research Professor of Physics Harvard University Cambridge, MA

Note

^ Exxon Secrets profile of the Atlantic Legal Foundation