Biographical Statements

January 19, 2006

Lester Brickman has been a professor of law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law since 1976. His areas of expertise include administrative alternatives to mass tort litigation and the history of asbestos litigation, and he has testified about these and other subjects at congressional hearings. His writings have been influential in changing policy with regard to nonrefundable retainers and in setting the tone for national debate over tort reform. Professor Brickman has been a consultant for the U.S. Office of Education, Ford Foundation, National Science Foundation, Council on Legal Education for Professional Responsibility, American Bar Association, and others, as well as serving on numerous distinguished ethics committees.

Kevin A. Hassett is the director of economic policy studies and a resident scholar at AEI. Before joining AEI, Mr. Hassett was a senior economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and an associate professor of economics and finance at the Graduate School of Business of Columbia University. He was an economic adviser to the Bush campaign in the 2004 presidential election and was the chief economic adviser to Senator John McCain during the 2000 primaries. He has also served as a policy consultant to the U.S. Department of the Treasury during both the former Bush and Clinton administrations. Mr. Hassett is a member of the Joint Committee on Taxation’s Dynamic Scoring Advisory Panel. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of six books on economics and economic policy, including Toward Fundamental Tax Reform (AEI Press, 2005), as well as many scholarly articles.

Patrick M. Hanlon is a partner in the litigation department of Goodwin Procter, LLP, where he has extensive experience in complex litigation and class actions, with a special emphasis on toxic tort, environmental, and product liability litigation and governmental affairs and legislative counseling in those areas. He has represented industry interests in energy and environmental litigation and has done extensive work on federal and state legislation involving asbestos litigation and health-care issues. Mr. Hanlon has also been active in civic affairs. In 1988, he organized the United States Association for the UN High Commissioner on Refugees and currently serves on the Board of Directors of that organization. Mr. Hanlon frequently appears at continuing legal education conferences on asbestos and silica litigation in the U.S. and in Europe, and has also published numerous articles on the subject.

Ted Frank is a resident fellow at AEI and director of the AEI Liability Project, managing the Institute's research about liability reform proposals, tort law, class actions and civil procedure, and other related issues. Before joining AEI, Mr. Frank worked at law firms in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and clerked for Judge Frank H. Easterbrook. His litigation work included Vioxx and automobile product liability cases, class action defense, and antitrust and patent cases.