Douglas & London, P.C. Announces Release of Historic $13.6 Billion PFAS Settlement Allocation Estimates

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Douglas & London is a member of the Court-appointed Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee and has been instrumental in the negotiations that led to the largest drinking water settlement in history.

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Business Wire, Inc.Business Wire, Inc.
Retrieved on: 
Thursday, August 24, 2023
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Class Action Lawsuit, Professional Services, Legal, 3M, P.C, AFFF, Table, Drinking water, PFAS, DuPont, The Honourable, History, United States Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, District court, Water, Court, Pharmaceutical industry, Bottled water
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UNITED STATES, NORTH AMERICA, NEW YORK, LONDON, SOUTH CAROLINA
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Summary
Key Points: 
  • Douglas & London is a member of the Court-appointed Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee and has been instrumental in the negotiations that led to the largest drinking water settlement in history.
  • Michael London and Gary Douglas, founding partners of the firm, were appointed to several key leadership roles and have spearheaded efforts to resolve these cases favorably for those harmed by PFAS.
  • Douglas was selected as lead trial counsel for what would have been the first public water provider case ever tried.
  • “Our public water systems need financial assistance now to protect our nation’s drinking water, which is being threatened by PFAS, or ‘forever chemicals’,” said Douglas.


Douglas & London, P.C., in collaboration with other members of the AFFF MDL Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee, published allocation estimates yesterday that detail funding that will be made available to public water systems as part of the combined $13.6 billion settlement from litigation against PFAS manufacturers 3M and DuPont.

Douglas & London is a member of the Court-appointed Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee and has been instrumental in the negotiations that led to the largest drinking water settlement in history. Michael London and Gary Douglas, founding partners of the firm, were appointed to several key leadership roles and have spearheaded efforts to resolve these cases favorably for those harmed by PFAS.

London was appointed co-lead counsel, and more recently, class counsel. Douglas was selected as lead trial counsel for what would have been the first public water provider case ever tried. The settlement was announced the day that trial was scheduled to open before the Honorable Richard Gergel in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina.

The estimates released yesterday, found at www.pfaswaterprovidersettlement.com, provide guidance on the amount of funding public water systems may receive based on a formula that factors in the water source’s flow rate and the level of PFAS contamination for each impacted water source. These estimates are subject to change as more data is collected, but the tables give public water systems the ability to better plan for necessary remediation efforts.

“Our public water systems need financial assistance now to protect our nation’s drinking water, which is being threatened by PFAS, or ‘forever chemicals’,” said Douglas. “Through the release of these allocation estimates, public water systems can have a clearer understanding of what they should be expecting from the settlements and can strategize accordingly.”

Public water systems that have detected PFAS in water sources that serve more than 25 individuals, as well as those who have not yet detected PFAS but are required -- or soon will be required -- to test for them, are members of the settlement class and eligible to benefit from the agreements once the Court grants approval. Distributed funds can be used for testing, as well as for installing and operating filtration systems to meet forthcoming standards from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

“These settlements create a substantial funding source that will be essential to addressing the public health crisis created by PFAS in untreated drinking water,” said London. “But they’re only part of the solution. Federal government funding will also be available to help ensure that our communities have access to safe, clean drinking water.”

The settlement agreement with 3M, totaling up to $12.5 billion or approximately 22 percent of the company’s total market capitalization, is pending approval by the governing federal court, while the agreement with DuPont was provisionally approved on August 22, 2023. The agreements were reached just prior to trial after a five-year legal battle that involved 7.4 million pages of discovery documents and more than 160 depositions.

More information on each of the settlements can be found here.

About Douglas & London, P.C.

Douglas & London is among the most distinguished and accomplished plaintiffs' law firms in the country. Since opening our practice in 2002, our indefatigable attorneys and legal support staff have earned us the distinction of being among the top mass tort and trial firms in the country. We have won trailblazing verdicts, securing millions of dollars in verdicts and billions of dollars in settlements for our clients and helping them put their lives and communities back together. We specialize in complex litigation, including pharmaceutical, medical device, and general products liability cases, as well as environmental and toxic tort litigation and medical malpractice. The firm members are often appointed lead counsel in the largest multi-district cases and often designated as trial counsel in some of the largest cases in the civil justice system.

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