Judith L Hancock

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This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation.

Judith L Hancock (known as 'Judy') was an attorney-partner with Shook Hardy & Bacon, the Kansas City law firm which grew very rich by helping sustain the tobacco industry (and other industries and companies with poisoning and polluting problems) in many underhand ways. They were lawyer-lobbyists who specialised in confusing the science, running pseudo-research projects to throw doubt on medical claims, evading legislation and defending against product liability. As a result of their often-illegal (and rarely ethical) activities, this law firm helped the tobacco companies escape the consequences of their promotions, bribes, and surreptitious practices, and so contributed to the death and disability of millions of smokers.

She was given the job of over-sighting the international litigation operations of SH&B with Charles R Wall, but when 'Chuck' moved over to become a Philip Morris executive in mid-1990 she had this role to herself.

The main tobacco law firms

  • Arnold & Porter (AP) worked at a Board level for Philip Morris, as well as doing work for the Tobacco Institute.
  • Covington & Burling (C&B) worked for all the US tobacco companies but mainly for the Tobacco Institute. They also ran many of their operations in Europe and Latin America. C&B was seen as more respectable law firm than SHB, and it operated fairly openly for tobacco in Washington DC and elsewhere. They also ran the European Whitecoats programs and did a lot of underhand work.
  • Shook Hardy & Bacon (SHB and SH&B) specialised in all the wealth of dirty tricks and anti-science corruption employed by the industry. They were given the job of setting up secret societies of academic helpers, running think-tanks, bribing political parties and politicians, etc.
  • Jacob Medinger the firm of Edwin Jacob which handled secret payments for the Council for Tobacco Research (CTR). It was later merged with Shook Hardy & Bacon.


Documents & Timeline

1990 June 6 Following a London UK meeting James T Newsom has written to the primary [[Shook Hardy & Bacon (SH&B) Tobacco Team in Kansas, covering many issues. THIS IS A LONG DOCUMENT WELL WORTH READING. HOWEVER NOTE THE PAGES ARE OCCSIONALLY OUT OF ORDER. (Order rearranged and grouped to simplify) [2]
Don Hoel, Bob Northrip, Steve Parrish and himself met in London to discuss a number of issues to do with tobacco.

  • Things had changed: Chuck Wall and Steve Parrish, were no longer with the SH&B tobacco team. Steve Parrish had been seconded b SH&B ito PM in Switzerland as "Coordinator of International product liability litigation for Philip Morris." Both Chuck and Steve have announced that they will be joining Philip Morris. They see a problem since most of the work of the London office is on tobacco for Philip Morris. Chuck Wall with Judy Hancock had been given the job of looking after International tobacco affairs. Now only Judy.
  • Don Hoel was returning to Kansas City in late June or early August and James Newsom was taking over. Don Hoel intended to take a six month sabbatical beginning Oct 1990 "During that six month period we will not have any lawyer in Kansas City who has had any experience handling international matters."
  • Anthony J Andrade would remain another year in London, but then they will need someone to take over.
  • Marty Warren (woman) is designated the "international associate" in Kansas City,
  • Donald Hoel's hourly rate for tobacco work is $225, and they are planning to push it up to $275 or $285

The Philip Morris Projects in Europe involve:

  • Witness development -- a euphemism for recruiting WhiteCoats (scientist who work for them in secret)
Steve would have a role at PM looking after ETS issues worldwide
Chuck would look after worldwide litigation for PM Tobacco, Millers Beer, and Kraft General Foods (all owned by PM)
Therefore Steve Parrish will now look after WhiteCoats recruitment in-house. The original intention was that Tony Andrade would devote 75% of his time to this recruitment in Europe, and that Don Hoel would devote only 25% if his time to this project. In fact Andrade had devoted time to Australia, and only 50% of his time to European WhiteCoats recruitment.
  • There is some overlap with the recruitment of non-medical witnesses with work done by Allen R Purvis and Gene Peck (both SH&B).
  • Tony(Andrade) estimated that they had ...

    evaluated perhaps 200 potential witnesses and have determined that approximately 90 of them are worth visiting and have visited approximately 40. Of these 30 are worth continuing to see. (The rest will be checked later.)
    The general success rate in finding witnesses willing to consult with the tobacco industry has been higher than witness development efforts in the US. We told Steve that we could continue to see witnesses at approximately the same level during the forthcoming year if Tony devoted approximately 75% of his time to witness development. Of course, we will not see as many new witnesses because we will be revising witnesses previously seen.

    They then told him that some witness contacts had come through US witnesses with whom we have worked such as Drs Domingo M Aviado, Edward M Skolnik and Professor Julius Gould, and a UK Consultant named Dr David Wescott (Imperial Tobacco/CORESTA) and other existing contacts. They are consulting with Peter W Brown and Michael Wilson of Rothmans and Ray Thornton and Sharon Boyse of BAT.
  • In the past, Covington & Burling have done ETS witness development in the US principally under the direction of the Tobacco Institute... "although they are lawyers, they are being used as corporate affairs consultants."
    In Europe, Scandinavia and the UK C&B's activities are mainly for Philip Morris at the direction of PMI Corporate Affairs department
  • They also discussed SH&B joint ETS witness development efforts in the US for Philip Morris, Lorillard, and Brown & Williamson (both ETS and 'Primaries Issues witnesses). Newsom and Don Hoel would meet with the Swiss TR/PM group of Helmut Gaisch, Helmut Reif and Iancou Marcovich to discuss research projects ; and a meeting will also be set up with Alex Holtzman
  • The Copenhagen Conference was being set up by Dr Tage Voss and Helmut Gaisch to counter Richard Peto's statements at the Perth, Australia World Conference on Tobacco and Health. Tobacco would be supported by Drs Tage Voss, Peter Atteslander, Bertoldt Schneider, Petr Skrabanek and Hans J Eysenck. Theodor D Sterling would also be invited together with some members of the Nordic smokers rights organisations (ie Hen-Ry) They were coordinating this with John Dollisson (Philip Morris corporate affairs) and the conference would send a letter to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
  • They also discussed the problem of Pesticides; the Aho case in Finland (being handled by Edwin Jacob of Jacob Meninger& Finnegan (uncooperative); Ingredients; the promotion of Moderation of smoking; Mild/Light cigarettes; and lawyer's meetings in UK, Netherlands, Switzerland
  • Australian AFCO v Tobacco Institute of Australia case (They may also have another case in Perth) (Don Hoel charged at $390 per hour which they thought too low.) This was on-going and a potential source of trouble. "

    Despite the difficulties in Australia, we feel that Gary L Huber continues to be useful. He will take his statements in Australia, refine them slight and they will be published by the Uni of Texas press.

  • With INFOTAB- they attended Board and Global Issues Working Party (GIWP) meetings [3]
    BAT has now withdrawn from INFOTAB, but they don't know whether B&W would also.
  • Guinness: Don Hoel has opened discussions with Guinness to do some alcohol-related witness development work in Europe, New Zealand and Australia ... "a natural fit with tobacco work".
  • Four other projects: They had feelers out for work in Philippines, Japan, Argentina, Canada, Hong Kong. Latin America (Francisco Moreno -4 projects)
  • Theodor Sterling was possibly going to New Zealand as a witness.
* Elia Sterling (TDS Ltd Canada), Iancou Marcovitch {PM Switzerland) and Claude Bieva (toxicologist, Free Uni of Brussels & lobbyist) are discussing a conference on air quality, sponsored by an European equivalent of ASHRAE in Brussels in 1991. They will also discuss a Madrid conference with Elia Sterling et al. Sterling (TDS Ltd) also doing work in Brazil with local consultants, and possibly Venezuela and/or Guetamala.

Steve Parrish's possible changes.

[4]

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