Lee B.Ziffer

Lee B.Ziffer

Lee is a Partner in the firm’s New Orleans office.

Lee Ziffer

Lee is a Partner in the firm’s New Orleans office.  Lee holds the highest rating available, AV Preeminent+, from Martindale-Hubbell and has been recognized by Louisiana Super Lawyers as a Rising Star.  He is admitted to practice in all state and federal courts in Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Lee joined the firm as an associate in 2009 after graduating magna cum laude from Tulane University Law School, receiving a J.D. and an Environmental Law certification.  Upon graduation, he was inducted in the Order of the Barristers National Honor Society for excellence and achievement in oral and written advocacy.  In law school, Lee was an active member of the Moot Court board.  He was a member of three moot court trial teams and served as the Administrative Justice for Intraschool Competitions.  Lee was also a student attorney for the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic, specializing in environmental law and litigation.  In his free time, he volunteered for the New Orleans Legal Assistance Corporation providing legal representation to victims of domestic violence.  He competed his undergraduate education in 2005 at the University of Florida, graduating cum laude with a B.A. in the History of Art.  In 2007, he studied international mediation and commercial arbitration at Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany.

In addition to belonging to the Louisiana federal and state bar associations, Lee is a member of the International Association of Defense Counsel and the American Bar Association’s Products Liability Committee, in which he holds a leadership position.

Lee directs legal strategy for Fortune 50 clients in complex litigation matters nationwide, including litigation planning, case management, formal and informal case resolution, trial, and appeal.  Lee’s experience is varied, but he has focused his practice on product liability defense involving automobiles, heavy trucks and machinery, and agricultural equipment.  Lee also serves as national coordinating counsel for one of the firm’s clients in silica exposure claims, oversees implementation of a global mass tort settlement arising out of community toxic exposure claims, and defends premises liability, warranty, and redhibition matters.  He also practices in the areas of environmental law, toxic tort litigation, franchise litigation, and state and federal regulatory and administrative law.

A fast learner with an innate ability to quickly understand complex engineering, scientific, and medical issues, Lee is regularly tapped to depose expert witnesses and join trial teams nationwide late in the pre-trial process.  He focuses on delivering efficient results for his clients with a collaborative approach, and he believes success comes from hard work, preparation, and attention to detail.

Lee lives in uptown New Orleans with his wife, Thalia, two sons and a daughter.

EXPERIENCE

In 2021, as lead trial counsel, Lee secured a directed verdict at the close of the evidence on behalf of a heavy truck manufacturer in a products liability case after ten trial days.  Lee successfully argued that the plaintiff’s evidence was insufficient to establish that the manufacturer was legally responsible for the plaintiff’s injuries.  The jury ultimately returned an $8.1 million verdict against the remaining defendants.

In 2017, Lee served as co-trial counsel in an asbestos exposure premises liability case tried in the Louisiana 19th Judicial District Court for the Parish of East Baton Rouge.

In 2016, Lee obtained summary judgment in Orleans Parish state court in a chemical exposure matter arising out of the Exxon Valdez oil spill originally filed in 1992.  Lee successfully argued that despite having nearly twenty-five years of active litigation to prove his case, Plaintiff’s expert evidence was insufficient to establish medical causation.

In 2016, Janika Polk and Lee Ziffer obtained summary judgment in Mississippi federal court in favor of a heavy truck manufacturer against one of its dealerships in a franchise dispute involving an attempted an unauthorized sale of the dealership.  The dealer attempted sell the dealership to a third party bundled with several unrelated businesses, which circumvented the firm’s client’s contractual right of first refusal to purchase the dealership. The dispute involved novel legal issues regarding the contractual right of first refusal and interpretation of provisions of the Motor Vehicle Code under Mississippi law.  Lee and Janika successfully obtained a declaratory judgment and injunction recognizing the dealership’s breach of contract, enforcing the client’s contractual rights, and preventing the sale.

In 2013, after more than two years of discovery and pre-trial practice, Lee obtained summary judgment on behalf of two clients, an automobile manufacturer and a dealership, in a product liability wrongful death action.  After extensive briefing and argument, the state district court found that the claimants could not prove that a defect in the manufacturer’s and dealership’s products caused the decedent’s personal injuries and death.

In 2012, Lee secured the reversal of an Orleans Parish district court ruling, which quashed their client’s subpoena to the Johns Manville Asbestos Settlement Trust.  In what was the first Louisiana appellate opinion on the issue, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal found that the defendants were entitled to discovery a plaintiff’s submissions to an asbestos bankruptcy trust and that such submission are not protected by any recognized state-law privilege.

In 2010, Lee secured the dismissal of their client via a motion for summary judgment, which argued that their client was not the successor-in-interest of a manufacture alleged to have caused the plaintiff’s mesothelioma.  Because the case presented novel legal and factual issues, Janika Polk and Lee Ziffer defended the judgment in the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal and Louisiana Supreme Court, ultimately obtaining an appellate opinion that has become the seminal case on corporate successor liability in Louisiana.

PUBLICATIONS, PRESENTATIONS, PANELS

Lee B. Ziffer, Bankruptcy Trusts and Asbestos Litigation, American Bar Association Section of Litigation’s Products Liability Newsletter, Spring 2012.

Lee B. Ziffer et al., Louisiana in Toxic Exposure Claims (ABA Book Publishing 2016).

Lee Ziffer et al., Products Year in Review, American Bar Association’s Section of Litigation Joint CLE (2016) (panel moderator).

Lee B. Ziffer, et al., Products Year in Review, American Bar Association’s Section of Litigation Joint CLE (2019) (Presenter)

CONTACT

lziffer@kuchlerpolk.com
(504) 378-7285

BAR ADMISSIONS

  • Louisiana
  • U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana
  • U.S. District Court, Middle District of Louisiana
  • U.S. District Court, Western District of Louisiana
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
  • Mississippi
  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of Mississippi
  • U.S. District Court, Southern District of Mississippi

PRACTICE AREAS

  • Civil Litigation
  • Environmental
  • Franchise Litigation
  • Premises Liability
  • Product Liability
  • Toxic Tort

EDUCATION

  • Tulane University Law School, J.D., 2009, magna cum laude
  • University of Florida, B.A. in Art History, 2005, cum laude

INVOLVEMENT

  • American Bar Association, Products Liability Committee, Web Content Editor
  • International Association of Defense Counsel
  • Louisiana Bar Association
  • The Mississippi Bar

RECOGNITION

  • AV Preeminent, Martindale-Hubbell
  • Louisiana Super Lawyers, Rising Star, 2014–2018
NOLA

1615 Poydras St, Ste 1300
New Orleans, LA 70112
tel: (504) 592-0691
fax: 1-844-731-2302

HOUSTON

1201 Louisiana St, Ste 2720
Houston, TX 77002
tel: (713) 936-4707
fax: (713) 470-9768

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