Jeffrey Fegan

Full Profile

Jeffrey (Jeff) Fegan has been a litigator and trial lawyer for more than fifteen years. He has experience in various types of high-exposure cases in state and federal courts and has significant first-chair jury trial experience. Jeff has handled multiple types of high-value cases from inception through jury trial, post-trial motions and appeals.

Jeff's experience includes the handling of catastrophic injury and death cases involving traumatic brain injuries, spine surgeries, terminal cancers, debilitating multi-system injuries brought on by occupational exposure to toxicants such as asbestos, benzene, carbon monoxide, cosmetic talc, diacetyl, and lead paint, traumatic injuries and death from explosions, fires, electric contact, products liability, and construction site accidents, as well as multi-million dollar property damage and subrogation cases resulting from explosions, fires, street collapses and other complex events. He has also monitored and litigated complex commercial and class-action claims involving hundreds of millions of dollars of claimed damages, as well as business tort and consumer fraud claims. Jeff has also acted as national coordinating counsel for companies in multi-state litigation involving products liability, and in that capacity has developed lay and expert witnesses to be used in his clients' defenses nationwide.

Admissions

• New York
• New Jersey
• Pennsylvania
• US District Court for the Southern District of New York

Education

• J.D., St. John’s University School of Law, 2004
• B.A., Fordham University, 2001

Experience

• First-chair trial counsel in a jury trial involving a plaintiff who had died of lung cancer. Plaintiff's estate claimed that the lung cancer was caused by his exposure to asbestos-containing spray-on fireproofing used during the original construction of the World Trade Center. Used expert medical witnesses who had reviewed tissue from plaintiff's lung to argue that the only cause of his lung cancer was his significant smoking history. Following an eight-week trial, obtained a unanimous defense verdict from the jury on the issue of medical causation. 
• Co-trial counsel on a joint trial of two deceased mesothelioma cases in which plaintiffs were claiming exposure to asbestos-containing spray-on fireproofing during the original construction of the World Trade Center. Following a four and a half month trial, obtained defense verdict on medical causation in one case (following two motions to bar expert witnesses under Frye v. United States and one full Frye hearing), and proved 75% liability against other defendants and non-parties in the other, reducing plaintiff’s award to the point that the verdict was completely set off by other defendants’ settlements. As a result, the client paid no damages.
• First-chair trial counsel in multiple mesothelioma and lung cancer cases involving the application of spray-on fireproofing during the initial construction of the World Trade Center and other large-scale construction projects.
• Won summary judgment motion on behalf of a utility company in a personal injury case stemming from a massive street collapse occurring underneath plaintiff’s moving car. In connection with the accident, plaintiff claimed to have sustained a traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder and spine injuries that required fusion surgery.
• Won summary judgment motion on behalf of a construction company in a personal injury case relating from a fall from a scaffold. Plaintiff had claimed to have sustained a traumatic brain injury, multiple skull fractures, severely disfiguring facial scarring, a broken neck, and post-traumatic stress disorder in connection with the accident.
• Won summary judgment on behalf of a construction company in a personal injury case relating to alleged bystander exposure to asbestos-containing spray-on fireproofing during the original construction of the World Trade Center. Overcame plaintiff’s opposition to the motion by using forty-year-old construction site records to conclusively show that plaintiff’s employer only worked in an area of the buildings where no asbestos was used. Plaintiff had claimed to have developed lung cancer as a result of his asbestos exposure and had undergone a surgical procedure which removed nearly all of one of his lungs.
• Defended a utility company in a wrongful death and property damage case stemming from massive gas explosion that killed three people and completely destroyed two buildings, one of which purportedly contained a USD 10 million art collection.
• Defended a gasoline distributor in a negligent property design case where plaintiff was pinned against a gas station kiosk by a stolen car which was fleeing police. Plaintiff claimed to have sustained severe leg fractures with de-gloving, severe nerve damage and post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the incident.
• Defended a communications company in a 20 plaintiff personal injury case relating to an accidental chemical mixture. Plaintiffs’ claimed injuries included brain damage, nerve damage, cancer, spontaneous abortion, reactive airways disorder syndrome, gastro-esophageal reflux disease, connective tissue disease, post-traumatic stress disorder and more.
• Defended a utility company in a motor vehicle accident involving a head-on collision. Plaintiff claimed to have sustained a traumatic brain injury, multiple skull fractures and a broken neck as a result of the accident.
• Defended a utility company in a carbon monoxide exposure case in which plaintiff was allegedly killed as a result of a defective gas connection in her co-op complex’s basement.
• Defended a utility company in an electric contact case in which plaintiff claimed to have sustained burns and nerve damage after walking over an electrified manhole cover.
• Defended a utility company in a construction site accident in which plaintiff was crushed by multiple gas mains that had fallen off of a flatbed truck. Plaintiff claimed to have sustained multiple traumatic crush injuries to the pelvis, shoulders and spine as a result of the accident.
• Defended a flavoring distributor in multiple New York and New Jersey cases where plaintiffs claimed to have developed bronchiolitis obliterans as a result of occupational and consumer exposure to diacetyl.
• Defended a building owner in multiple cases relating to lung and other internal injuries allegedly sustained during post 9/11 cleanup work in lower Manhattan.
• Defended utility companies and municipalities in property damage and subrogation cases relating to gas explosions, fires and street collapses.
• Obtained millions of pages of historical records relating to the construction of nuclear and fossil power plants through non-party subpoenas in connection with defense of clients in asbestos-related wrongful death and personal injury cases.

Presentations

• "Special Session: The Experience of Recent Asbestos Trial Lawyers," Defense Research Institute Asbestos Medicine Conference, October 2017
• "The Use of Historical Industry and Construction Documents in Support of Causation and Apportionment Arguments at Trial," Defense Asbestos Litigation Seminar, June 2017

Publications

• “OSHA's asbestos regulations and litigation: What insurers should know,” Claims Magazine, February 2018