Anne Kearse brings a passion for justice to each case, working for her clients and seeking to bring those responsible to account.
A former president of the Public Justice Foundation, Anne litigates mass torts, class actions and individual cases to pursue the implementation of better safety practices and corporate governance measures for corporations. She also seeks to achieve just compensation for victims of toxic exposure, extreme and life-altering injuries, workplace injuries and diseases, severe burns, brain damage, loss of limb and paralysis, and wrongful death resulting from negligence and defective products.
Anne is a leader on the Motley Rice litigation team that currently represents dozens of governmental entities, including states, cities, towns, counties and townships targeting the alleged misrepresentation of highly addictive opioids by manufacturers and distributors, a suspected cause of the opioid epidemic plaguing communities nationwide.
Anne also represents workers and families diagnosed with the devastating disease mesothelioma caused by asbestos exposure in the chemical, electric power generation, steel or construction industries. She has tried several noteworthy asbestos cases, including Cox vs. A&I Company, West Virginia’s first household asbestos exposure case, and the 2002 West Virginia Consolidated Asbestos Trial against Union Carbide in which unsafe working conditions were found at its plants throughout the state. In addition to maintaining an active trial schedule, Anne represents Canadian Workers’ Compensation Boards in U.S. courts to recoup benefits they paid Canadian asbestos victims.
Devoted to worker safety and health in all forms, Anne represents and has secured settlements for flavoring workers who suffered respiratory ailments and other diseases caused by toxic chemical exposure. She also secured a jury verdict against SAR Automation, L.P. for $8.8 million* for the wrongful death of a worker who fell at a Boeing facility and left behind a widow and two small children.
As a law clerk, Anne supported the team representing the State Attorneys General in the historic lawsuit against Big Tobacco, which resulted in the largest civil settlement in U.S. history. Shortly after, she was a member of the trial team that litigated Falise v. American Tobacco Company.
Anne has written several articles of interest to the plaintiffs’ bar and frequently speaks on asbestos litigation, general product liability, legal ethics and tort reform at seminars across the country. She has been published on major legal issues, including forum non conveniens and defective products abroad, corporate misconduct, medicolegal aspects of asbestos litigation and mass tort litigation.
Anne has been on the Board of Directors for the Public Justice Foundation since 2010, and also served on the Executive Board for a local chapter of Safe Kids USA, advocating for childhood injury prevention. She also serves as a Section Councilor in the Law Section of the American Public Health Association.
Updated July 2022
