Meet our team of birth defects attorneys
There’s a reason why victims of birth defects turn to our alliance to get justice.
Our team has over 40 years of combined experience in birth defects litigation in cases involving semiconductor and electronics manufacturing, pesticides, and energy production. Our experience and our long list of verdicts and financial recoveries for our clients are why people turn to us to get justice for birth defects. As an alliance of experienced birth defects attorneys, we have the resources and ability to fight on behalf of our clients against corporations who put them in danger. Find out more about working with our team of legal experts, and the attorneys that make up our birth defects victims alliance.
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Talk to a Lawyer NowMeet the Leaders of the Birth Defects Alliance
Steven Phillips
Steve’s passion involves the prosecution of complex and ground breaking litigations, giving voice and representation to the severely injured while taking on the largest and most powerful corporate defendants. In his 40-year legal career, he has taken on computer giants such as IBM, Intel, Motorola and AMD, whose chemicals have inflicted appalling birth defects on the offspring of its workers; Philip Morris USA and other tobacco manufacturers; pesticide manufacturers such as Monsanto; and power companies such as AES, whose coal ash waste has devastated communities and caused birth defects in exposed populations.
Diane Paolicelli
The health and safety of women have been Diane Paolicelli’s focus over her 30-year legal career. Her work has helped to vindicate the rights of women wrongfully exposed to mercury, arsenic, and other toxic heavy metals and chemicals, which wreak havoc with their reproductive systems, and cause them to be infertile or bear children with birth defects. She has a deep interest in protecting vulnerable people injured by corporations who fail to protect them from dangerous products, and has devoted her career to helping victims of birth defects caused by toxic chemicals in the semiconductor industry and beyond. Diane Paolicelli is a founding partner of Phillips & Paolicelli, LLP.
David Strouss
Thornton Law Firm partner and experienced birth defects attorney David Strouss heads the firm’s birth defect litigation involving birth defects from parental exposure to toxic chemicals which occurred in industries like semiconductor manufacturing and agriculture. Mr. Strouss prosecuted and won some of the country’s first birth defects cases caused by glycol ethers and other solvent exposures in the semiconductor industry, and has represented over 150 clients with birth defects linked to parental occupational and environmental exposures in the United States and abroad.
Peter Kraus
Founding and managing partner of Waters Kraus & Paul, Peter Kraus has tried countless toxic tort cases in state and federal courts across the country, resulting in many multimillion-dollar verdicts for his clients. He is a strong supporter of consumer and victims’ rights, and in 2020 was appointed by the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives to serve a second term on the board of the Federal Judicial Center Foundation. Licensed to practice law in Texas, California, Hawaii, Missouri, and Virginia, Peter also serves on the American Board of Trial Advocates.
L. Richard DeRobertis
Born in Tucson, Arizona, Rick DeRobertis lived and attended school in the San Francisco Bay Area. He graduated from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1979, he began practicing environmental and natural resources law in Los Angeles, but soon moved to Hawaii. Rick joined the Galiher law firm in 1983, representing claimants with mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases. Rick is now the firm’s lead appellate lawyer. Although Rick had previously practiced in the environmental law area, his work with the firm allows him to do the kind of law he really wanted: helping workers and their families against manufacturers of defective products.
Ilana K. Waxman
Ilana Waxman is the managing partner at Galiher DeRobertis & Waxman. She was born and raised on the beautiful island of Maui. Her insightful legal analysis has brought her to the forefront of some of the most important legal issues in asbestos and product liability litigation. Ilana represents families dealing with birth defects caused by pesticides and other toxic chemical exposures. In addition, she works on cases involving asbestos, whistleblowers, pharmaceuticals, and other product liability and wrongful death claims.
Danielle George
Partner at Phillips & Paolicelli, Danielle George has a proven track record of success as lead trial counsel in cases involving birth injuries, cancers, traumatic brain injury, defective medical devices and wrongful death. Danielle graduated from New York University, and earned her Juris Doctor degree from New York Law School. She is licensed to practice law in New York State and New Jersey, and licensed to appear before the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and the Federal District Court of New Jersey.
Victoria Phillips
Partner at Phillips & Paolicelli, LLP, Victoria Phillips concentrates on complex product liability litigation, toxic exposures, and class actions. Before becoming a civil litigator, Victoria was an Assistant District Attorney at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. She graduated magna cum laude from Williams College, and from Columbia Law School, and is admitted to practice law in both New York and New Jersey.
Brad Mitchell
Brad Mitchell, partner at Thornton Law Firm, has over two decades of experience representing victims who have been exposed to toxic substances in semiconductor chip manufacturing, printing, parts washing, and other areas where toxic exposure is common. His main practice area is toxic exposure litigation, including cases involving birth defects, cancer, and exposure to glycol ethers, benzene, solvents, and other hazardous substances.
Evan Hoffman
Evan Hoffman, a partner at Thornton Law Firm, concentrates his birth defects practice in pesticide spray and drift exposure litigation, representing clients such as farm workers and residents living downwind who were exposed to toxic chemicals from agriculture. A graduate of American University in Washington, D.C. and Suffolk University Law School, Mr. Hoffman was also named one of the Top 40 Trial Lawyers Under 40 in Massachusetts from 2012 to 2016.
Christian Uehlein
Of counsel to Thornton Law Firm, Christian Uehlein represents victims of asbestos exposure and other toxic chemical exposure in personal injury lawsuits, including complex birth defects cases against semiconductor manufacturing and agriculture giants where parental exposure occurred on the job. Mr. Uehlein has been selected to The National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40 list every year since 2012.
David Bricker
With nearly thirty years of state and federal trial experience, David has successfully obtained verdicts in more than 100 jury trials involving asbestos, other toxic exposures and medical devices for his clients. As Thornton Law Firm’s lead trial lawyer and head of the firm’s Beverly Hills office, David litigates birth defect cases in California, Oregon, Washington, New Mexico and Illinois, involving the semiconductor and electronics industries.
Charles Siegel
Charles Siegel serves as the head of the appellate practice at Waters Kraus & Paul, and has argued appeals in eight federal appellate courts, in the supreme courts of Texas and five other states, and in numerous intermediate appellate courts around the country. With experience in the fields of toxic tort, asbestos, birth injury and birth defect litigation, Charles is an accomplished appellate attorney and a member of the American Association for Justice, Public Justice Foundation, the American Bar Association (ABA), the Dallas Bar Association, and the Texas Trial Lawyers Association.
Kevin Loew
Kevin Loew is a partner at Waters Kraus & Paul in the firm’s Los Angeles office. Kevin was admitted to the State Bar of California in 2005, after earning his Juris Doctor degree from Pepperdine University. He received his bachelor’s degree from Emory University. Kevin is a member of the American Bar Association, the American Association for Justice, the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles, and the Consumer Attorneys of California.
Meet the Law Firms of the Birth Defects Alliance
PHILLIPS & PAOLICELLI
Phillips & Paolicelli represents injured children, workers, and people who have been harmed by poor medical care, exposure to toxins at home or work, and dangerous medical devices or pharmaceuticals. The experienced attorneys of Phillips & Paolicelli know that families faced with illnesses and severe medical conditions can be overwhelmed and often ill-equipped to discover the truth and confront powerful companies. But through their legal guidance and representation, they are able to give voice and hope to the victims of corporate greed and negligence — and work together to put an end to harmful corporate and medical practices.
THORNTON LAW FIRM
The attorneys of Thornton Law Firm understand the pain that families face when coping with life-altering birth defects — and the frustration of knowing they could have been prevented. In their combined 40 years of fighting for individuals exposed to harmful substances in complex toxic tort cases, Thornton Law Firm has led cases of local and national importance including a multi-billion dollar lawsuit against the Tobacco industry. They have also obtained settlements in excess of $180 million for their clients who were exposed to ethylene glycol ethers, coal ash, and other hazardous substances and had children born with catastrophic birth defects. Led by founder and nationally renowned leader in the field Mike Thornton, Thornton Law Firm continues to uphold its reputation as one of the country’s top personal injury law firms, and currently has offices in Boston, Los Angeles and Bozeman.
WATERS KRAUS & PAUL
Waters Kraus & Paul seeks to protect the rights of ordinary citizens whenever and wherever they have been harmed by corporate wrongdoing. With offices in Texas, Louisiana, Illinois (by appointment), and California, the attorneys of Waters Kraus & Paul practice across the country in diverse areas of the law — from asbestos and benzene lawsuits and whistleblower litigation to birth injury litigation. Waters Kraus & Paul represents victims of birth defects, developmental delays, and childhood cancers that have been caused by toxic chemical exposure. Industries and companies working with toxic substances have a responsibility to protect their workers from harm — and the birth defects attorneys of Waters Kraus & Paul are committed to holding corporations responsible for exposing people to dangerous chemicals.
GALIHER DEROBERTIS & WAXMAN
Galiher DeRobertis & Waxman, a limited liability law partnership, is a Hawai’i personal injury law firm. We are the only locally-based firm in the islands representing victims of mesothelioma and other asbestos diseases. The firm also litigates claims involving birth defects resulting from exposures to pesticides, opioids, and chemicals used in the semiconductor and high-tech industries, as well as other catastrophic injuries, and qui tam matters. Our lawyers are proud of their local roots and our strong national standing. The firm has tried hundreds of cases throughout the United States for over 35 years.