Episode #2.6: Stephen M. Reck and Jose Rojas in The Heart of Law

Written By Caryl Veloso

Stephen Reck and Jose Rojas roll in The Heart of Law to chat with Mirena Umizaj about one of the biggest, polemical cases sweeping the country. They are pioneers in the baby formula lawsuits: the Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC) litigation against Mead Johnson and Abbott Laboratories. Hoping to build awareness and reverse the careless tradition of offering cow-based formula to premature infants in hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) across the U.S., the two attorneys partner with Scott D. Camassar and Paul Levin (along with firms around America), to protect preemies from mortifying disease and death.

Stephen and Jose open the show by sharing their humble beginnings. Stephen reminisces about his genteel Italian grandmother, Rosa Maria Cornaglia, who raised him through high school; he fondly recalls an idyllic childhood full of incredible food, friendships, and love. After graduating from the University of Vermont, Stephen pursued a legal career and enjoyed the affluence it had to offer—for a short while. He left Wall Street and decided against the lifestyle of a well-paid defense attorney. He bravely took a sizable pay cut to live the simple life of a litigator who fought for the underdog. Stephen’s plight for justice stemmed from Attorney Matthew Shafner’s principled career influence. His late mentor—and legendary Legal Champion of the Working People—left an indelible imprint on his life. Stephen said, “[By helping people,] he turned my life around; although I was poor, [Matthew] taught me something very valuable … he changed my career.”

Meanwhile, Jose fondly talks about how his parents fell in love and his dactylic childhood in Madrid, Spain. Raised with a strong sense of equity and fairness, Jose heads off to Boston for college. At 17, he began his life in America with a law degree firmly in mind, subsequently starting a bustling career in the Army JAG Corps. A few years later, he pivots to mass torts; after working for “big entities like the government or big corporations,” Jose discovered the deep satisfaction and joy in “representing people with real problems and having an opportunity to … effectuate change when helping people.” 

No wonder these two lion-hearted attorneys cross paths and fight for the weakest of the weak. Stephen and Jose recount the first two heartbreaking cases—detailing NEC’s effect on preemies' bodies. We understand why, one appalling account after another, the movement began. Stephen describes NEC’s confounding injury spectrum: death, surgery, medical NEC. Next, Jose outlines the complex, multi-pronged dilemma the movement has to overcome: (1) the aggressive marketing campaigns for Similac and Enfamil, (2) the cutthroat lobbying to physicians and hospitals, (3) the enormous expense and rarity of donor milk, and (4) the “institutional laziness” within NICUs. Their plight appears insurmountable. But is it? As Jose affirms, “the solution is out there, but it's expensive, and it requires people to put their heads together and find a solution.” Let’s tune in and consider how to help them in our small way.

EPISODE SURVEY:

  • [00:19:03:08 - 00:26:50:23] First NEC Case

  • [00:28:15:08 - 00:35:47:03] Science & Temporal Causation

  • [00:36:42:23 - 00:40:33:24] Prongs & Complexities of a Multifactorial Problem

  • [00:40:35:00 - 00:45:36:06] NEC & its Evolution to Mass Tort 

  • [00:53:19:00 - 00:56:48:07] Litigation Strategy & Two Tracts

  • [00:56:50:07 - 01:00:58:00] The Extent of Infants' Injuries from NEC


QUOTABLE QUOTES:

Stephen M. Reck

  • “Juries can appreciate sincerity and honesty when you're fighting for the right cause.”

  • “[The parents] send us pictures of their children and the children are happy … Although they can't talk, they express themselves, and in many ways, it's truly a beautiful story.”

  • “[Abbott and Meade] wanted to destroy us to end this whole litigation and that was their tactic. But it really made us stronger. I mean, they picked the wrong people to deal with.”

  • I think together, the moms and the lawyers are going to change the practice of feeding preemies, and we are going to save lives. … I can't think of a more important case that I've ever read about anywhere in the history of the law.”

Jose' Rojas

  • “My passion is really not with representing big entities like the government or big corporations, but rather with representing people with real problems and having an opportunity to really solve those problems.”

  • “One of the things that completely brings me passion in the field of mass torts is the ability to really effectuate change when you help people; it's satisfying. You're bringing a solution to people with real problems.”

  • We're really hoping to make the planet safer for babies. And that's something that gets me up every morning. It drives me. It helps me work. It brings passion to the work that I do. And I really think I'm doing exactly what I should be doing right now.

  • “There has to be an awareness, and when that awareness happens, then you'll see the solutions come very easily because the solutions are out there, and they're scientifically feasible.”

  • “One of the things that has really amazed me about the mass tort industry (which I didn't expect, but I found), is the level of teamwork that occurs by law firms and lawyers in really trying to collaborate and cooperate to make sure we're all marching in the same direction.”

  • “When you're touted as the guy who's going to do great things … I think I'm doing great things right now. We know our cause is righteous and we will never stop fighting.”

ABOUT OUR GUESTS:

Stephen M. Reck

Jose' Rojas

LINKS FROM THE SHOW:

Caryl Veloso
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Episode #2.7: Mark Lanier in the Heart of Law
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Episode #2.5: Willie D. Powell III in The Heart of Law