Minnesota Lawyer
In 2022, Ciresi Conlin partner Michael Sacchet and associate Megan Odom secured the largest consolidated-plaintiff verdict ($110 million), and the largest single-plaintiff verdict ($77.5 million) in the 3M Earplugs Multidistrict Litigation (MDL).
It was the largest mass tort in American history, totaling nearly $200 million in verdicts for veterans in one year.
The case began in 2016, when a United States whistleblower lawsuit brought against 3M alleged that the company manufactured and knowingly sold the defective earplugs to service members. Sacchet, a partner in Ceresi Conlin’s mass tort group, was appointed to the plaintiffs’ leadership committee to help run the case on behalf of more than 200,000 plaintiffs.
After three bellwether trial wins in 2021, the plaintiffs’ leadership nominated Sacchet to serve as co-lead trial counsel in Sloan/Wayman v. 3M Co., the most important MDL trial.
During the four-week trial, Sacchet conducted key direct and cross examinations of case-dispositive witnesses, and Odom handled oral argument and defeated 3M’s defenses on directed verdict. The jury awarded the two veterans $110 million in damages for hearing loss and tinnitus.
A few months after that verdict, plaintiffs’ leadership again nominated Sacchet to serve as co-lead trial counsel in Beal v. 3M Co., the final MDL bellwether trial. The jury found for plaintiff on all claims, awarding $5 million in compensatory damages and $72.5 million in punitive damages.
This $77.5 million verdict was included in the National Law Journal’s Top 100 Verdicts of 2022, along with Sacchet and Odom’s $110 million verdict.
“More important than the amount of the verdict was the opportunity to represent some of the most upstanding people I’ve met, in or outside of the courtroom,” Sacchet said. “We were honored to be able to do that for them.”
Sacchet said the case outcome represented a team effort. “Megan supported all aspects of the trial, as the lead attorney for briefing and oral arguments in a number of them. She successfully defeated 3M’s defenses in at least two of them, and was critical in supporting all of the direct and cross examination.”
Read more about Minnesota Lawyer’s superb class of Attorneys of the Year for 2022 here.
