Insights & Events

Hollingsworth LLP is delighted to announce that our longtime client and good friend Thomas N. Kendris, President, Novartis Corporation and Global Head, Litigation, Novartis Corporation, was Atlantic Legal Foundation’s 2018 Annual Award Honoree.  Each year Atlantic Legal Foundation honors a great American for his or her distinguished service to the private or public sector.  Previous honorees of the past thirty years include H. Lawrence Culp Jr., President and CEO of Danaher Corp. (now CEO of Firm client, General Electric), W. James McNerney Jr., Chairman and CEO of Boeing, William C. Weldon, Chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson, Henry A. McKinnell Jr., Chairman and CEO of Pfizer, Rudy Giuliani, Donald Rumsfeld, Malcom S. Forbes, and William E. Simon.  See the full list of Atlantic Legal’s Annual Award recipients.

The gala dinner event was held March 2019 at the Metropolitan Club of New York.  Firm founder Joe Hollingsworth served as Chairman of the event and introduced Mr. Kendris.

Atlantic Legal Foundation is the preeminent organization fostering sound science in American jurisprudence.  Established in 1977, it is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, public interest law firm with a history of advocating for individual liberty, free enterprise, property rights, limited and efficient government, and school choice, as well as for sound science in the courtroom.

Atlantic Legal frequently files amicus briefs in high-profile cases before state supreme courts, federal circuit courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court.  It advocates for real scientists and for the admissibility of sound medical and expert testimony in toxic tort, product liability, and other types of litigation, and challenges the admissibility of “junk science” in the courtroom.  By exposing questionable scientific methods, Atlantic Legal has successfully challenged bogus theories of medical causation in toxic tort cases involving asbestos and other hazardous substances.  In Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, the landmark decision that set the evidentiary standards for expert witness testimony, the Supreme Court’s majority opinion specifically cited Atlantic Legal’s amicus curiae brief as part of its analysis.  Other important Supreme Court cases where Atlantic Legal’s briefs have affected the outcome include Joiner v. General Electric and Kumho Tire Co. v. Carmichael (in which the Foundation’s amicus brief was also cited), which, in conjunction with Daubert, comprise the Daubert trilogy of cases that lay out the Daubert standard for expert witness testimony in federal courts.  The Foundation’s amicus briefs have been cited not only by the U.S. Supreme Court, but by other federal appellate courts involved in the analysis of the admissibilty of mostly plaintiff expert witness opinions.

Atlantic Legal Foundation is overseen by a Board of Directors composed of corporate executives, partners of major law firms, and current and retired corporate chief legal officers.  The Board reviews and decides the cases in which Atlantic Legal will participate.  It also has an Advisory Council, which consists of attorneys, scientists, medical doctors, and educators.  Mr. Hollingsworth has served on Atlantic Legal’s Board of Directors since 2008 and is also a member of the Executive Committee.