Class-action lawyer Stan Chesley dies in Ohio

CINCINNATI (AP) — Stanley Chesley, a class-action lawsuit pioneer who took on cigarette companies and the makers of faulty breast implants until his legal career ended amid accusations of unethical conduct, has died at age 89.

Chesley died Sunday at a long-term care facility in Cincinnati, according to his son, Richard Chesley. He did not provide the cause of death.

Chesley came into prominence after winning $50 million for victims of an electrical fire in 1975 at the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Kentucky that killed 165 people. Aside from suing the nightclub, he also took on the aluminum electrical wire industry, an unprecedented approach at the time.

Once among the nation’s most powerful trial attorneys, he helped hammer out the $206 billion national tobacco settlement in 1998 and also won settlements against the Catholic Church over alleged sexual abuse.

Chesley, who was based in Cincinnati, gained the nickname “master of disaster” for his aggressive style and success in cases involving plane crashes, fires and other tragedies.

Over his five-decade career, he represented families of victims of the 1988 terrorist attack of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland; workers at a Cold War nuclear plant; and women who got Dow Corning silicone breast implants.

“The bigger they are, the harder they fall,” Chesley said in a 2010 interview with the University of Cincinnati’s magazine. “I don’t deal from a position of fear.”

Chesley also was a prominent philanthropist and activist for civic causes, education and Jewish organizations. He was a prolific fundraiser for politicians including Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

His career began unraveling during ethics investigations in Kentucky over a 2001 settlement of a $200 million lawsuit involving makers of the diet pill combination fen-phen.

The Kentucky Supreme Court in March 2013 disbarred him, concluding that Chesley crossed the ethical line in the case. A judge later ordered Chesley to pay $42 million to settle allegations that he charged too much — $20 million in fees instead of the required $14 million.

Chesley was never criminally charged and he repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

“While the good reputation he has enjoyed and his generosity services to exacerbate the tragedy of his fall, they cannot atone for the serious misconduct he has committed in connection with this matter,” Kentucky Chief Justice John D. Minton wrote during the 2013 disbarment.

Chesley headed off possible disbarment in his home state by retiring. His affidavit that he was ending his legal practice was sworn before his wife, U.S. District Judge Susan J. Dlott.

“The idea that Stan Chesley has had such a distinguished legal career, that it should end this way, I just find appalling,” said Kenneth Feinberg, a Washington D.C. attorney and friend. “It’s a personal tragedy.”

The son of Jewish Ukrainian immigrants, Chesley grew up in Cincinnati. He worked as a shoe salesperson to pay his way through law school, beginning practice in 1960. He slowly built up his practice before pulling together a group of plaintiffs to sue manufacturers of aluminum wiring and other products involved in the aftermath of the supper club fire.

Years later, Chesley said he looked back with satisfaction at how he had helped the victims and their families in a case that also led to safety reforms.

“Because of Beverly Hills, we have safer standards,” Chesley said in 2010. “I feel good about that.”

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Retired Associated Press journalist Dan Sewell was the principal writer of this obituary.