What happens when a competitive MMA fighter and classical pianist who studied peace and conflict studies at UC Berkeley decides that defending people is her deepest calling, goes to law school, starts in family law, discovers her true home is toxic tort litigation, and ends up as a partner at Foley defending cosmetic manufacturers in some of the most complex talcum powder lawsuits in the country — while also raising her first child and preparing to walk into a conference room full of personal care product executives who have never seen the inside of a courtroom?

In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Laila Rahimi-Keshari, toxic tort litigation partner at Foley, about the single most important misunderstanding in talc litigation — that talc is not asbestos — and why every case she handles turns on proving that distinction to a judge who may or may not have litigated in this space before. Laila explains how mesothelioma develops as a cumulative dose exposure disease over decades, why most of her plaintiffs were born in the 1940s and 1950s, and why cases where the plaintiff is in their twenties require a completely different approach to alternative causation — including the BAP1 genetic mutation, fathers who came home from pipe fitting jobs with asbestos on their coveralls, and exposure through construction and abatement in older homes. She walks through what it takes to win a summary judgment motion in Los Angeles on a talc case — show the court that the plaintiff's discovery is devoid of any evidence that the product was contaminated with asbestos — and why she did it in a jurisdiction that had not granted that relief to talc defendants in recent memory.

They also discuss what it means to practice in California when both the $966 million verdict and the $1.5 billion verdict landed in the same state and how those numbers change the risk conversation with every client, why a case with 45 co-defendants is standard and how she positions her client among them, what the first 48 hours look like when a manufacturer gets served, why the cage taught her more about staying calm under pressure than the piano ever did, and why she will not stop fighting — a lesson she learned long before she ever walked into a courtroom.

Laila Rahimi-Keshari is a toxic tort litigation partner at Foley, based in California, defending cosmetic manufacturers in talcum powder and asbestos litigation.

Connect with Laila Rahimi-Keshari:

LinkedIn: Laila Rahimi-Keshari

foley.com

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Laila Rahimi-Keshari

00:46 MMA competitor and classical pianist — what fighting in competition taught her about defending people

01:24 From UC Berkeley peace and conflict studies to toxic tort litigation partner — the turning point

02:33 Defense only — never plaintiff side, always manufacturers

03:08 A claim just got filed against a manufacturer client in California — what happens in the first 48 hours

03:30 Mesothelioma cases get preferential trial dates — a four-month case lifecycle and what that demands

04:25 The practice specialty — cosmetic manufacturers and talcum powder litigation

04:51 California as a plaintiff-friendly state — what that means day to day for a manufacturer

05:29 Talc is not asbestos — the most important distinction in the entire litigation

06:45 Where the asbestos contamination allegation actually comes from — mine deposits and the purification process

08:26 The purification process post-1970s and why modern products go through increasingly strict testing

09:35 First major strategic decision when a company gets named in a mass tort — assessing the complaint and setting up for summary judgment

10:52 General counsel calls and says do we fight or settle — how Laila thinks through that question

12:00 The Los Angeles summary judgment motion no one expected to win — and how they won it

13:12 Over 67,000 pending talc claims in federal MDL — why these lawsuits keep coming decades later

14:45 Mesothelioma as a cumulative dose exposure disease — why plaintiffs are typically 70 and older

15:30 Younger plaintiffs in their 20s and 50s — what that means for the case

16:03 How to defend a manufacturer when the plaintiff says your product caused their cancer

17:20 Forty-five co-defendants in a typical case — how exposure gets distributed across multiple products

19:43 What deposing a plaintiff's expert actually looks like when you are on your game

21:17 What you are looking for when you depose the plaintiff's expert — locking in opinions before trial

21:31 Walking through the Los Angeles summary judgment win in detail — burden shifting, lack of evidence, and the right judge

24:02 How burden shifting works in a summary judgment motion and what plaintiff has to do to survive it

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