ALLAN KANNER
Founding member of Kanner & Whiteley, LLC
Mr. Kanner has enjoyed a distinguished forty-one-year career representing individuals, businesses, and governmental entities in hundreds of complex, multi district, and high profile cases in both state and federal courts. Starting with In re: Three Mile Island Litig. (M.D. Pa.) and In re: Louisville Sewer Explosions Litig. (E.D. Ky.), he has played a leading role nationally in shaping the field of environmental and toxic tort litigation. Mr. Kanner published a leading treatise in the field, ENVIRONMENTAL AND TOXIC TORT TRIALS (Lexis Nexis 1991), as well as numerous law review articles relied upon by courts and practitioners.1 Today his work and writings continue to influence the field of environmental and natural resource law and damages. See, e.g., Kanner, Tortious Interference with The Public Trust, 36 J. ENV’T LAW AND LITIGATION, p 101 (2021); Kanner, Natural Resource Restoration, 28 TUL. ENVT. L. J. 335 (Summer 2015); Kanner, Expertise and Discretion: New Jersey’s Approach to Natural Resource Damages, 50 ELR 10030 (Jan. 2020); Kanner, Environmental Gatekeepers: Natural Resource Trustee Assessments and Frivolous Daubert Challenges, 49 ELR 10420 (May 2019); Kanner, The Public Trust Doctrine, Parens Patriae, and the Attorney General As the Guardian of the State’s Natural Resources, 16 DUKE ENVT’L. L & POLICY F., 57 (Fall 2005); Kanner, Emerging Trends in Perflourinated Chemical Regulation and Litigation, ABA ENVTL. & ENERGY LITIG. NEWSL. (Aug. 28, 2017); Kanner & Morrison, Environmental Forensics and Natural Resource Damages in ENVIRONMENTAL FORENSICS (2012). Mr. Kanner regularly lectures on natural resource damage claims and trial practice.
Mr. Kanner is highly regarded nationally in multiple fields as a trial lawyer and legal strategist. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute and Lawdragon 500 Hall of Fame. In 2014, Law360 recognized Mr. Kanner as a “Titan of the Plaintiffs’ Bar.” According to Chambers USA, “Allan Kanner is a leading plaintiff litigator with an outstanding reputation in major environmental and consumer fraud disputes. He offers considerable expertise [in] class action claims and acting for public sector institutions in natural resource damage disputes.” In 2020, The National Law Journal recognized the firm as “Environmental Law Firm of the Year. In 2021 U.S. News & World Report, recognized the firm as a Best Law Firm.
He is best known for handling novel case claims in a diverse range of fields, especially those arising from mass disasters, mass torts, and consumer fraud. Many of Mr. Kanner’s landmark victories have established important precedents for other litigants or spurred transformative legislative and regulatory action. See, e.g., N.J. Dep’t of Envtl. Prot. v. Exxon Mobil Corp., 393 N.J. Super. 388, 923 A.2d 345 (App. Div. 2007) (recognizing loss of use injury in natural resource damage litigation); Glass Molders, Pottery, Plastics & Allied Workers Int’l Uncons AFL-CIO v. Wickes Companies, 243 N.J. Super 44, 578 A2d 402 (1990) (serving as lead counsel in successful class action for workers who lost their jobs as a result of a hostile takeover attempt, using novel theory of tortious interference with prospective economic advantage); Roeder v. Atlantic Richfield (serving as class counsel and obtaining a $18 million settlement property owner pollution case spurring EPA action); Coleman v. Block, No. A1-83-47 (D.N.D.) (serving as co-lead counsel in case that enjoined all farm foreclosures nationwide on constitutional due process grounds and led to new FMHA regulatory guidelines); Local 7-515 OCAW v. Am.
Home Prods., Civ. No. 92-1238 (D.PR.) (serving as lead counsel in Civil RICO class action obtaining compensation for workers who lost their jobs because of tax motivated corporation restructuring, leading to new federal laws barring abusive corporate tax and relocation practices); Hanson v. Acceleration Life Ins. Co., Civ. No. A3:97-152 (D.N.D.) (serving as lead counsel in national consumer fraud class action obtaining a $14.7 million settlement for elderly purchasers of long term care insurance, leading to new federal and state laws eliminating bad policies and untoward actuarial practices).
Mr. Kanner has represented State governments in environmental, pharmaceutical, and consumer protection matters. For example, in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill litigation, working for the State of Louisiana, the firm recovered nearly $10 billion in damages for the State, which was the largest payment from a single defendant and the largest natural resource damages recovery for any state in history. Mr. Kanner currently represents the State of New Mexico nt in PFAS-related litigation, as well as the State of New Jersey in several natural resource damage cases.
In addition, Mr. Kanner and his firm have partnered with the Conservation Law foundation in a series of landmark climate change suits. Conservation Law Foundation v. Exxon Mobil Corporation et. al., No. 1:16-cv-11950-MLW (D. Mass.); Conservation Law Foundation v. Shell Oil Products et. al., 1:17-cv-00396-WED-LDA (D.R.I.), which has already led to favorable opinions. Conservation Law Foundation v. Exxon Mobil Corp., 3 F.4th 61 (1st Cir. 2021); Conservation Law Foundation v. Shell Oil Products US, et al., C.A. No. 17-396, 2020 WL 5775874 (D.R.I. Sept. 28, 2020).
Mr. Kanner has won numerous jury verdicts, has reached multi-million- and billion-dollar settlements, and has been asked by courts and/or co-counsel to serve in various litigation leadership roles. See, e.g., In re: Oil Spill by the Oil Rig “Deepwater Horizon” in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, MDL No. 2179 (representing the State of Louisiana and serving as Co-Coordinating Counsel for the State Interests); N.J. Dep’t of Envtl. Prot. v. ExxonMobil Corp., No. UNN-L-3026-04 c/w UNN-L-1650-05 (N.J. Sup. Ct.) (serving as Special Counsel for the State of New Jersey and obtaining a $225 million settlement); Bonilla v. Trebol Motors Corp. (co-lead counsel in RICO class action trial and obtaining a $129.5 million verdict at trial); In re Dollar General Corp., Motor Oil Mktg. & Sales Practices Litig., MDL No. 2709 (W.D. Mo.) (serving as Lead Counsel in consumer class action litigation); Guste v. Shell Oil Co., No. 95-0601-D (E.D. LA) (reaching a multi-million dollar settlement after six days of trial); Samples v. Conoco, Inc., No. 01-631 (Fla. 1 JDCC) (reaching a settlement that provided for client payments of $65 million plus additional monies for attorney fees and costs); Petrovic v. Amoco Oil Co., No. 98-3816, 99-1334 (8th Cir.). He has also litigated as co-lead counsel for class of purchasers of a prescription drug where misrepresentations by the manufacturer inflated purchase prices. In re: Synthroid Marketing Litigation, MDL No. 1182, 264 F.3d 712 (7th Cir. 2001) (reaching a settlement of $98 million, affirmed on appeal).
Limited tickets available
The Global Class Actions and Mass Torts Conference is a prestigious international event that focuses on the concept of collective redress, which refers to legal mechanisms that allow a large group of individuals who have suffered similar harm or injury to pursue their claims together as a single entity.
popular links
event detail
- 24 - 25 April 2025
- Park Plaza Westminster Bridge
- 200 Westminster Bridge Rd, Lambeth London SE1 7UT United Kingdom