AALA Webinar: Nuts & Bolts of the Syngenta Corn Settlement - A Discussion with Co-Lead Counsel

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The American Agricultural Law Association is pleased to present a free webinar to AALA members and nonmembers, “Nuts and Bolts of the Syngenta Corn Settlement: A Discussion with Co-Lead Counsel.” 
 
Don Downing and AALA member William Chaney are two of the four court-appointed co-lead and litigation class counsel in the In re Syngenta AG MIR 162 MDL proceedings pending in Kansas Federal Court.  In this webinar, they will review the history of the case and summarize the key points of the recently announced, historic $1.51 billion class action settlement reached on behalf of producers, grain elevators and ethanol plants.  In particular, they will discuss the allocations of the settlement amount, identify the key claims, objection and opt-out deadlines and explain the easy and simple procedures for practitioners, producers and industry participants to complete the claims forms in order to participate in the settlement.
 
In this webinar, practitioners, producers and other industry participants will learn:

  • The claims asserted in the Syngenta corn litigation
  • How those claims were resolved in the settlement, who may benefit from the settlement and how the settlement funds will be allocated
  • The deadlines and procedures for class members to make claims, object or opt-out of the settlement
  • The information which will be needed for a practitioner, producer or other industry member to make a claim

AALA Members and nonmembers are welcome to participate.

There is no CLE credit offered for this FREE webinar.

This webinar is the result of the work of the AALA Distance Education Committee, which is comprised of members of the AALA.

AALA thanks its cosponsor, the Center for Agricultural Law & Taxation at Iowa State University, for providing the technology platform for this webinar.
Agenda: 

Monday, June 4, 2018 

12 noon – 1 pm central time

Continuing Education: 

There is no continuing education credit for this free webinar.

Speakers: 

Our speakers and moderator are nationally recognized experts in agricultural class action litigation:

Bill Chaney is an AALA member and partner at Gray Reed & McGraw in Dallas, Texas, has successfully prosecuted and defended numerous complex commercial disputes with millions of dollars at stake, multiple parties and parallel litigation across several courts. Recently, Bill has played a key role in pioneering nationwide litigation involving genetically-modified crops. He served as a court-appointed member of the federal plaintiffs’ executive committee that helped farmers, mills and exporters recover substantial financial losses due to contamination of U.S. rice supplies with a genetically-modified variety developed by an international chemical and agricultural company. He is currently serving in a similar leadership role in the ongoing Syngenta corn class action, focused on helping farmers and others hold GMO seed developers accountable for introducing unapproved genetically-modified seeds to U.S. corn supplies.

Don M. Downing, Vice President of the St. Louis law firm of Gray, Ritter & Graham, P.C., has represented farmers in numerous high stakes cases. As national co-lead plaintiff counsel he helped obtain a preliminarily approved $1.51 billion settlement for U.S. corn producers in multidistrict litigation involving Switzerland-based Syngenta. He was appointed national co-lead plaintiffs’ counsel in multidistrict litigation involving contamination of the U.S. rice supply by genetically modified rice that resulted in total settlement payments of over $1 billion. Don has represented hundreds of farmers in several states and recovered millions of dollars in cases involving defective cotton seed and crop damage caused by herbicide drift. Most recently, he was appointed Chair of the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee in the dicamba multidistrict litigation pending in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Missouri.

Registration: 

To register, click here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5377545735975172866

Date and Time: 
Monday, June 4, 2018 - 12:00pm
Location: 
Online