CASE STUDY
MEDIA RELATIONS & THOUGHT LEADERSHIP: ASBESTOS
The Challenge
Johnson & Johnson, Koch brothers-owned Georgia-Pacific and other Fortune 500 companies have been employing a controversial legal maneuver called the “Texas Two-Step” — a scheme that allows them to avoid paying billions of dollars in liabilities to hundreds of thousands of victims who developed terminal mesothelioma and ovarian cancer from exposure to the companies’ asbestos-laden talc powder and drywall products.
The Texas Two-Step allows profitable corporations to take advantage of bankruptcy protections, stripping Americans of their constitutional right to due process and a fair trial in the process. Through this manipulation of bankruptcy laws, companies shield themselves from billions of dollars of liabilities owed to present and future victims. Georgia-Pacific was the first to employ the Texas Two-Step, and most of its victims have passed away from mesothelioma without restitution while their cases have been stalled in bankruptcy court. Johnson & Johnson, after its first two attempts at a fraudulent bankruptcy were dismissed, filed a third bankruptcy to shirk responsibility towards its ovarian cancer victims while continuing to pay its shareholders $1 billion a month in dividends.
If the Texas Two-Step corporate scheme is confirmed in the courts, all victims of dangerous and poisonous products could be deprived of their constitutional right to trial and financial compensation. Twenty plaintiff law firms representing over 100,000 victims of these companies hired The TASC Group to create a public relations and communications campaign to put public pressure on corporations to do the right thing and pay their victims what they are rightfully owed.
The Challenge
Johnson & Johnson, Koch brothers-owned Georgia-Pacific and other Fortune 500 companies have been employing a controversial legal maneuver called the “Texas Two-Step” — a scheme that allows them to avoid paying billions of dollars in liabilities to hundreds of thousands of victims who developed terminal mesothelioma and ovarian cancer from exposure to the companies’ asbestos-laden talc powder and drywall products.
The Texas Two-Step allows profitable corporations to take advantage of bankruptcy protections, stripping Americans of their constitutional right to due process and a fair trial in the process. Through this manipulation of bankruptcy laws, companies shield themselves from billions of dollars of liabilities owed to present and future victims. Georgia-Pacific was the first to employ the Texas Two-Step, and most of its victims have passed away from mesothelioma without restitution while their cases have been stalled in bankruptcy court. Johnson & Johnson, after its first two attempts at a fraudulent bankruptcy were dismissed, filed a third bankruptcy to shirk responsibility towards its ovarian cancer victims while continuing to pay its shareholders $1 billion a month in dividends.
If the Texas Two-Step corporate scheme is confirmed in the courts, all victims of dangerous and poisonous products could be deprived of their constitutional right to trial and financial compensation. Twenty plaintiff law firms representing over 100,000 victims of these companies hired The TASC Group to create a public relations and communications campaign to put public pressure on corporations to do the right thing and pay their victims what they are rightfully owed.
The Strategy
The TASC Group’s campaign has broadly communicated the immoral and unethical nature of the Texas Two-Step, brought public pressure to bear on the courts and shed light on the issue for political leaders and members of Congress to act to change the laws.
The strategy has involved:
- Building trusting relationships with reporters at high-profile media outlets who routinely report on legal cases and providing them with the necessary legal documents.
- Highlighting the voices and stories of victims through on- and off-the-record interviews, press statements and published op-eds.
- Consistently relaying the legal team’s statements, messaging and talking points to the media and ensuring that they are published in stories.
- Developing the legal team’s expertise and thought leadership and cementing them as ongoing on- and off-the-record sources for reporters.
- Placing proactive storylines in high-visibility media outlets such as The New York Times, 60 Minutes, NPR, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Charlotte Observer and Forbes.
- Consistently and rapidly responding to pro-Texas Two-Step coverage and corporate defense lawyers with the legal team’s point of view.
The Results
The TASC Group’s efforts have methodically and systematically shifted media sentiment against the use of the Texas Two-Step and other corporate abuses of the bankruptcy system. TASC’s campaign has dramatically increased the volume of articles condemning the Texas Two-Step, deriving from strong relationships TASC has built with key journalists who cover legal updates regularly, and
who have subsequently affected policy outcomes in Congress.
REPORTER RELATIONSHIPS
Established ongoing relationships with reporters at over a dozen major outlets, who, as a result, closely follow Texas Two-Step cases and rely on The TASC Group’s client’s expertise.
POLICY
Educated hearings held on the Texas Two-Step by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
EARNED MEDIA
TASC secured more than 448 media placements in national outlets including Bloomberg, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, The New York Times, The New Yorker, CNBC, The Guardian, U.S. News & World Report, NPR and Law.com.
Reuters published a 3,300-word investigative piece, resulting in J&J asking a bankruptcy judge to prevent major outlets, like Reuters, from covering opponents of the Texas Two-Step. The judge denied their request swiftly and thoroughly.
The New York Times covered the decision of J&J’s board to not end talc-based baby powder sales worldwide.
Financial Times published a piece condemning law firm Jones Day, the legal architects of the Texas Two-Step.
The Wall Street Journal, a notoriously hostile outlet to tort attorneys, published a piece focusing on deceased victims who were never compensated due to the Texas Two-Step.
The Philadelphia Inquirer, the main newspaper in the Federal District Court where the J&J case was heard at the time, published an op-ed by a single mother and victim who was dying from cancer caused by J&J’s talc powder.
The Charlotte Observer published an investigative report about the Texas Two-Step in North Carolina, where courts have historically been favorable for bankruptcy abuse.
MEDIA COVERAGE
