Chris Meisenkothen
Attorney Meisenkothen graduated from the University of Connecticut in 1996 with a bachelor of arts in history and sociology with distinction in history. He graduated from the University of Connecticut School of Law in 1999 and joined ELSM in August of that year. Attorney Meisenkothen has focused his efforts on representing people who have been diagnosed with mesothelioma. He has personally handled hundreds of mesothelioma cases in the Connecticut court system. Attorney Meisenkothen co-chaired a trial in 2023 involving a maintenance worker who died from mesothelioma and won a verdict of $20,000,000, the largest asbestos jury verdict in Connecticut history.
In 2011, Attorney Meisenkothen became a named partner in Early, Lucarelli, Sweeney & Meisenkothen. The highly regarded Super Lawyers rating service identified him as a "Rising Star" (2008-2012 — Products Plaintiff; click here for selection criteria). He then went on to be named “Super Lawyer” by the Super Lawyers rating service in recognition of the professional achievements that he has attained thus far in his career (2013-2022 — Products Plaintiff; click here for selection criteria). No more than 5% of the lawyers in any given state are awarded this prestigious designation. Attorney Meisenkothen has also been selected for inclusion in the oldest rating publication, Best Lawyers, which is widely recognized for accuracy and integrity (Since 2017 — Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs and Workers' Compensation Law – Claimants; 2022 & 2024 — “Lawyer of the Year” Workers' Compensation Law – Claimants, New Haven; click here for selection criteria). In recognition of his record of success in asbestos litigation in Connecticut, Chris was chosen as one of the Connecticut Law Tribune's "Dozen Who Made a Difference" in 2012.
Attorney Meisenkothen has published several papers and has spoken at several seminars on mesothelioma (see below). He has also been working pro bono for many years as U.S. counsel for AFeVA, an association of Italian asbestos victims and family members from Casale Monferrato, Italy. AFeVA has been working to have honors stripped from a Swiss asbestos billionaire arising from his asbestos-cement company’s old factory in Casale Monferrato, which left behind an epidemic of mesothelioma among the residents and workers as well as an environmental disaster.
Attorney Meisenkothen is admitted to practice in Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, Maine, and Georgia, and in the U.S. District Courts for the District of Connecticut and the Northern District of Texas, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He is a member of several professional organizations, including the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association, the American Association for Justice, the American Bar Association, and the Connecticut Bar Association.
A Letter from Janette Gray
Dear Chris,
My family and I want to say a very heartfelt THANK YOU to you and the staff at Early, Lucarelli, Sweeney & Meisenkothen, for all you've done thus far on behalf of our father, Walter H. Gray.
We have peace in knowing how proud our father would be that you and the lawyers have fought on his behalf. All the hard work and long hours he endured has not been in vain. Even though our father was a regular man, whom had worked all his life, you have treated him the same as some of the others who lead a much different path than he did in life. The individuals who have had to battle this fierce disease, the mesothelioma make all workers the same. This disease took him in the golden age of life, it's coming up on a year the 11th day of April, seems as if it were yesterday.
The financial support has been a blessing to our family also. To help finish our father's affairs has meant a lot to us. He left us with the peace of knowing that his children would not have to bear a burden of trying to make ends meet because of him.
Form our hearts, again we say THANK YOU and may God bless everyone at the firm who fights for those who have lost to mesothelioma. But most of all for those who continue to fight and fight until the end.
Chris, there aren't words to write that can express our gratitude. We do hope and pray blessings and favor be bestowed on you and your family for all you've done for the late Walter H. Gray. My family and I are truly blessed and grateful for you.
Sincerely yours,
Janette Gray
Daughter of Walter
Relevant Publications
- To Bar or Not to Bar, That is the Question: Does the Exclusivity Provision of the Connecticut Products Liability Act Bar Any and All Claims Under the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act?, 22 QUINNIPIAC L. REV. 671 (2004).
- When Three’s a Crowd: Kyrtatas, Malerba and the Connecticut Products Liability Act. The Confusing Interplay of Cross-Claims, Third-Party Impleader, Contribution and Indemnification in Product Liability Claims, 27 QUINNIPIAC L. REV. 881 (2009).
- Lien On Me: When Do Employers’ Liens Survive Under § 31-293(a)?, 19 COMPENSATION QUARTERLY 1 (2009).
- Murray M. Finkelstein & Christopher Meisenkothen, Malignant Mesothelioma Among Employees of a Connecticut Factory that Manufactured Friction Materials Using Chrysotile Asbestos, ANN. OCCUP. HYG. (2010) 54(6): 692-696.
- C. Meisenkothen. A Shifting Paradigm? Deschenes v. Transco and the Precarious New Landscape of Concurrently Developing Disease in Connecticut’s Workers’ Compensation Jurisprudence, 84 CONN. BAR J. 339 (2010).
- Meisenkothen C, Finkelstein MM. Asbestos exposure and malignant mesothelioma of the tunica vaginalis testis: Case series and review of the literature. OA CASE REPORTS 2013 Feb 28;2(2):17.
- C. Meisenkothen. Malignant mesothelioma, airborne asbestos, and the need for accuracy in chrysotile risk assessments. NEW SOLUTIONS 23(2) (2013): 389-405.
- C. Meisenkothen. The four most pernicious myths in asbestos litigation: Part I: Safe chrysotile and idiopathic mesothelioma. NEW SOLUTIONS 24(1) (2014): 1-26.
- C. Meisenkothen. The four most pernicious myths in asbestos litigation: Part II: Safe thresholds for exposure and Tyndall lighting as junk science. NEW SOLUTIONS 24(1) (2014): 27-55.
- C. Meisenkothen. Malignant mesothelioma in a motor vehicle mechanic: Case report and review of the literature. NEW SOLUTIONS 2016 Jun 20: 1-19 (epub ahead of print).
- Finkelstein MM, Meisenkothen C. Malignant Mesothelioma Among Employees of a Connecticut Factory That Manufacturered Friction Materials Using Chrysotile Asbestos: An Update. ANN WORK EXP HEALTH (2019): 1-4
Presentations
- February 22, 2005 – Sterling Education Services, Inc., FUNDAMENTALS OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION SEMINAR – Occupational Disease Claims
- November 10, 2009 – Sterling Education Services, Inc., ADVANCED WORKERS’ COMPENSATION SEMINAR, Hartford, CT, – Occupational Disease and the Standard of Causation
- May 2010 – PLAINTIFFS ASBESTOS LITIGATION SEMINAR, Las Vegas, NV – Peritoneal Mesothelioma: An Update
- April 2011 – Sterling Education Services, Inc., ADVANCED WORKERS’ COMPENSATION SEMINAR, Bridgeport, CT – Occupational Disease and the Standard of Causation
- December 20, 2011 – Sterling Education Services, Inc., ADVANCED WORKERS’ COMPENSATION SEMINAR, Hartford, CT - Occupational Disease/Standard of Causation and Third-Party Liens
- April 2012 – Sterling Education Services, Inc., ADVANCED WORKERS’ COMPENSATION SEMINAR, Hartford, CT – Occupational Disease/Standard of Causation and Third-Party Liens
- June 2012 – HB Litigation Conferences, NORTHEAST ASBESTOS LITIGATORS & JUDGES FORUM, New York, NY – Update On Conneticut Asbestos Litigation
- September 2012 – Sterling Education Services, Inc., ADVANCED WORKERS’ COMPENSATION – Occupational Disease/Standard of Causation and Third-Party Issues
- December 2012 – Perrin Conferences, LITIGATING ASBESTOS CASES IN TODAY’S ENVIRONMENT, New York, NY – Tri-State Litigation: An Update on Emerging Trends in the New Jersey, Connecticut and Upstate New York Asbestos Dockets
- December 2012 – Sterling Education Services, Inc., ADVANCED WORKERS’ COMPENSATION SEMINAR, Hartford, CT – Handling an Occupational Disease Claim from Start to Finish
- March 2014 – Sterling Education Services, Inc., ADVANCED WORKERS’ COMPENSATION SEMINAR, New Haven CT – Occupational Disease Claims
- September 2014 – Massachusetts General Hospital, CURRENT CONCEPTS AND CONTROVERSIES IN ASBESTOS-RELATED DISEASES, Boston, MA – Litigating asbestos-related lung cancer (for plaintiffs)
- June 2015 – Sterling Education Services, Inc., WORKERS’ COMPENSATION LAW & PRACTICE, Bridgeport, CT – Handling Occupational Disease Claims
- January 2016 – American Bar Association Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section’s Product Liability Committee, WEBINAR – CURRENT ISSUES IN ASBESTOS LITIGATION-MESOTHELIOMA: A CAUSATION DEBATE – “Low Dose” Exposures as a Cause of Mesothelioma
- May 2016 – PLAINTIFFS ASBESTOS LITIGATION SEMINAR, Las Vegas, NV – Neighborhood/Environmental Exposure Cases
- June 2016 – Sterling Education Services, Inc., FUNDAMENTALS OF WORKERS’ COMPENSATION, Bridgeport, CT – Occupational Disease Claims
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