Richard “Rick” Meadow is the National Mass Tort Leader as well as the Director of Business Development for The Lanier Law Firm. His responsibilities include overseeing all the firm’s pharmaceutical mass tort litigation in addition to promoting, recruiting and maintaining associated outside relationships at a national level.
Mr. Meadow has represented the rights of individuals who have been injured by pharmaceuticals, medical devices, asbestos, medical malpractice, defective products, construction defects, lead poisoning, and motor vehicles, as well as the negligence of premises owners and municipalities for over 30 years. He further has extensive experience in the representation of large national insurance companies as an insurance defense attorney. This experience provides a 360-degree perspective of the practice of tort law in the United States. In addition, Mr. Meadow has served and continues to serve on the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committees for several national litigations.
Mr. Meadow has successfully tried over 25 cases to verdict. He was an integral part of the winning Lanier team that obtained record-setting plaintiffs’ verdicts in the Vioxx litigation. While at his former firm, he helped win two significant jury awards recognized by The National Law Journal among the nation’s largest verdicts in 2002 and 2003. He has settled claims for clients in the tens of millions. He has also argued appeals before the New York and New Jersey Appellate Divisions.
Mr. Meadow is often called on as a featured lecturer at legal forums and conferences. In 2008, Mr. Meadow was given the high honor to testify before the United States Congress. His testimony was based on his expertise regarding the Sunshine in Litigation Bill, which would have effectively amended the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure regarding the use of protective orders in discovery and the use of confidentiality provisions in settlement agreements. He has been appointed to many committees that explore issues germane to the medical and legal communities and he is a distinguished member of The Sedona Conference.
In 2004, prior to relocating to the firm’s Houston office, Mr. Meadow opened, managed and grew the New York office of the Lanier Law Firm to what is now three floors and 17 attorneys. Mr. Meadow has been recognized on the annual New York Super Lawyers list for six years straight as one of the top attorneys and further received the Super Lawyer distinction for the State of Texas, after his relocation there. He was also honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award in New York. He has earned a Martindale-Hubbell® AV Preeminent™ Rating and is a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum. Mr. Meadow was recently recognized by Law Dragon as one of the Top 500 Lawyers in the Country.
A graduate of California Western School of Law (J.D. 1984) and Rutgers University (B.A. 1979), Mr. Meadow is licensed to practice law in New York, New Jersey, Texas and Pennsylvania, in addition to numerous Federal Courts. He also is admitted to the Bar of the United States Supreme Court. Born in New York, he currently resides in Houston, Texas, and is the proud father of Ruby and Joshua.
