Publication Archive: Opioids Litigation

“They have made money hand over fist while people  in our community have died,” Hunter Shkolnik, who is representing Nassau County, told jurors. DownloadRead the article

Law360 quoted Hunter Shkolnik after Walmart, CVS and Rite Aid were been severed from New York state and two Long Island counties’ swiftly approaching opioid trial. “Judgment day is coming,” Hunter Shkolnik of Napoli Shkolnik PLLC, counsel for Nassau County, told Law360. DownloadRead the article

“Everybody has lost a family member or a friend or a friend’s family members,” said Hunter Shkolnik, an attorney representing Nassau County. “It has been described as a crime of the century, what has happened with the opioid epidemic. We are going to lay it out in this courtroom and this will be the first…Read the article

A monumental opioid trial pitting New York state and two local governments against a dozen drug companies is being pushed back nearly one week because jury selection is taking longer than expected, sources said Wednesday. Napoli Shkolnik PLLC partner Hunter Shkolnik, counsel for Nassau County, one of the trial’s three government plaintiffs, also confirmed the…Read the article

The West Virginia Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the state and cities’ claims in consolidated litigation that drug companies’ marketing of opioids created a public nuisance can proceed to trial before a jury. “We are extremely pleased the West Virginia Supreme Court has stepped in and made clear our counties are entitled to go…Read the article

Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Jerry Garguilo on Monday denied Allergan’s motion to be removed from the upcoming NYC Opioid Trial scheduled for June 22nd. “Allergan’s last-minute ‘Hail Mary’ attempt at avoiding a showdown before a New York jury failed, judgment day is here,” Hunter Shkolnik of Napoli Shkolnik, a lawyer for Nassau County. DownloadRead the article

In response to Walmart’s “intentional” failures to produce discovery documents in the multidistrict opioid litigation, MDL special master David R. Cohen handed down sanctions against the company. Partner Hunter Shkolnik, a top lawyer for MDL plaintiffs, told Law360 that Cohen’s order “was a long time coming and well deserved.” “Walmart has been the worst of…Read the article

The global consulting firm asked the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to transfer all the lawsuits in New York, where it has headquarters. Dozens of plaintiffs opposed that request this week. “This case is unlike the other cases filed against McKinsey and should not be transferred — at least not until the New York…Read the article

A New York judge has approved a $32 million agreement between McKinsey & Co. and the state’s attorney general over its alleged role in the opioid epidemic, over the objections of counties and municipalities that challenged the deal because it could potentially block them from pursuing their own claims against the consulting firm. DownloadRead the article

However, the Sacklers are widely seen as the public face of the addiction crisis, and Hunter Shkolnik of Napoli Shkolnik PLLC, who represents local governments in litigation over the opioid crisis, told Law360 that he wasn’t surprised by the instant outcry from attorneys general. “There are some AGs that want a deal at all costs.…Read the article