Notable Verdicts
Opioid Epidemic
Napoli Shkolnik was first retained as lead counsel by Nassau County to assist in opioid litigation in 2017. Beginning in 2019, Mr. Shkolnik represented Nassau County in Attorney General Letitia James’s massive statewide lawsuit to hold accountable the various manufacturers and distributors responsible for the opioid epidemic. At its close in December 2021, the lawsuit yielded up to $1.7 billion from the defendants, including: a $263 million settlement with Johnson & Johnson; a $200 million settlement with former opioid manufacturer Allergan; a $50 million settlement with opioid manufacturers Endo and Par ($13.85 million of which will be awarded to Nassau County); and a $1.1 billion settlement agreement with McKesson, Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergen, the three most prominent pharmaceutical distributors responsible for distributing and selling opioid painkillers. As part of the McKesson settlement, Nassau County has been named a member of the National Enforcement Committee, which will oversee negotiations, outreach, and implementation of a potential National Global Settlement.
In December 2021, a jury also found Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. and five other companies responsible for causing a public nuisance in Nassau County by minimizing the addictiveness of opioids with misleading marketing, resulting in the deaths and grief of hundreds of thousands of Americans. A damages trial is forthcoming.
In 2018, Mr. Shkolnik was named to the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee in Re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation (NPOL) by United Stated District Judge Dan Aaron Polster of the Northern District of Ohio. The NPOL consolidates thousands of pending opioid lawsuits from the U.S. As a member of the committee, Mr. Shkolnik provides oversight, accountability and coordination over various sub-committees as the litigation progresses.
This past November, Mr. Shkolnik’s clients Lake and Trumbull Counties secured a jury verdict against CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart in Ohio. This historic verdict confirms that the defendants fueled the opioid epidemic by flooding communities with opioids. Damages are to be determined. Two years prior, Mr. Shkolnik’s client, Cuyahoga County, reached a landmark $320 million settlement against McKesson, Cardinal and AmerisourceBergen Corp, and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. He and his legal team designated $15 million of the settlement for pregnant women in hospitals whose babies would be born suffering from neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS).
Flint Water Crisis
In 2017, Mr. Shkolnik was named Co-Liaison Counsel in the Flint, Michigan Water Crisis litigation by United Stated District Judge Judith E. Levy of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. He oversaw all currently pending individual personal injury, property damage, and wrongful death cases arising out of the water contamination in Flint.
In 2020, a landmark settlement of more than $626 million on behalf of the citizens of Flint was reached. While the government case has settled, litigation against several other responsible parties remains, including Veolia North America, Lockwood Andrews & Newnam, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Mr. Shkolnik has been appointed as Co-Liaison Counsel for the individual plaintiffs.
Aviation Accidents
Mr. Shkolnik led the Napoli Shkolnik legal team in securing a $17 million settlement for the families of six service members killed and five wounded in aviation accidents stemming from negligence by private military contractor. He also led the trial team in obtaining a $24.1 million-dollar verdict against Uniflight LLC in a case concerning a 2011 helicopter crash that left the plaintiff, Jeffrey Boatman, paralyzed.
Pharmaceutical Litigation
In 2014, was a member of the Court appointed negotiating committee that reached a $650 million Products Liability settlement to resolve the claims of approximately 4,000 users of the blood thinner Pradaxa® who claimed to have been injured by the drug. That same year, Mr. Shkolnik and partner Paul Napoli reached a $100 million settlement on behalf of the injured women who used the birth control device, NuvaRing®.