“I believe if there was no stigma attached to the opioid epidemic that everyone in Northeast Ohio would realize it is present somewhere in their circle of people.”
CSU Cleveland-Marshall College of Law alumnus and Plevin & Gallucci Company, L.P.A. Principal Frank L. Gallucci III ’00 came to this realization several years ago. The facts surrounding the nationwide opioid crisis are startling. According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, 1.6 million people in the United States had an opioid use disorder in 2019 and nearly 50,000 people died from opioid-involved overdoses. Ohio, and specifically Northeast Ohio, are experiencing overdose rates above the national average with Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is 50-100 times stronger than morphine, accounting for the majority of overdoses.
Gallucci, who has earned a national reputation for expertise in wrongful death, industrial accidents, personal injury, product liability, class action, and medical malpractice litigation, began examining the opioid crisis in 2017 after seeing a constant stream of news stories of deaths due to opioid overdose. His firm met with local government officials to understand how the epidemic was impacting their cities and counties on a number of levels and eventually took on approximately 20 cities and counties as clients.
Recently, Gallucci was a key member of the trial team representing Lake and Trumbull Counties in a seven-week trial in U.S. District Court in Cleveland before Judge Dan Polster ( a member of the C|M|LAW Hall of Fame) in the nation’s first trial attempting to hold pharmacies responsible for their role in the deadly crisis. Gallucci served on the trial team with other leading plaintiff’s lawyers (including C|M|LAW alumna and Napoli Shkolnik attorney Maria Fleming ’16) in the bellwether case that resulted in the first national verdict by a jury in the opioid litigation against pharmaceutical companies that allowed millions of opioid pills to be distributed in Ohio counties. Previously, Gallucci represented Cuyahoga and Summit Counties in settlements with drug manufacturers and distributors.
“This decision allows communities that are fighting from coast-to-coast to see that this is the right course to pursue, and that we are heading in the right direction with support on the way,” Gallucci explained about the jury decision. “This allows the defendants that bear responsibility to see that their actions are not going to go unchecked and that their behavior is going to have consequences.”
The abatement phase of the pharmacies trial will take place in May 2022, during which Gallucci and the trial team will have experts put forth what needs to be done over a 15-year period in Lake and Trumbull Counties to combat the opioid crisis and cost those resources out before asking for an award. In this award and with the past settlements, the counties are not seeking past damages but awards that can be used in their communities to help eradicate and lessen the burden of this ongoing crisis.
“We are looking for money to be put forth for communities to utilize to address the epidemic, keep more people from dying, more from becoming addicted, more from developing opioid use disorder and to prevent more families from experiencing hardship while lessening the burden on these communities,” explained Gallucci. “This also helps society see that the struggles we are seeing today that we weren’t seeing 10, 15, even 20 years ago are the direct responsibility of corporate behavior. This is not the result of bad individuals doing bad things, it is the result of bad corporations plaguing our community.”
Gallucci further details the implications of this landmark trial in a Law360 interview
The opioid epidemic’s presence hit close to home for Gallucci when a close personal friend who he respects immensely became addicted while dealing with an ankle injury. The friend was given a prescription for opioids that was more than needed. He took only what he needed originally, but a year later with his ankle pain returning, he took the additional opioids and eventually became addicted. The addiction ultimately dominated his life and led to his arrest.
“I learned of him struggling right under my nose without even being aware,” said Gallucci. “He said it had absolutely taken over and was destroying his life and he did not know what to do. He wasn’t a bad person doing a bad thing, he was a good person in a bad situation.”
Gallucci never imagined he would be working on something of such national consequence when he graduated from CSU Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 2000. Early in his legal career, Gallucci was part of the trial team for the State of Ohio in the Sam Sheppard case, one of the most sensational trials of the 20th century and the story that gave rise to the movie The Fugitive. But the majority of Gallucci’s work has been and continues to be plaintiff workers’ compensation, personal injury and wrongful death cases and he continues to be motivated by helping individuals in their time of greatest need.
“I have always loved the idea of helping someone in a situation when life presents them one of the single most difficult obstacles they would face,” explained Gallucci. “It is rewarding when someone comes to you after something worse than they could have even imagined has occurred and they are able to trust you and your firm to get them through it.”
Gallucci saw firsthand the importance of this work from his idol and father, Frank L. Gallucci Jr. ‘70, a solo practitioner who worked primarily on worker’s compensation cases along with personal injury work. Gallucci Jr. passed away at the age of 51 and Gallucci III took over leadership of his father’s solo practice at the age of 20.
“The impact my father had on people resonated with me more than I ever realized,” said Gallucci. “The amount of people that came out of the woodwork to talk about what my father had done for them and where their family was then as a result of it made it so that I never questioned what I wanted to do.”
Taking over his father’s practice at a young age, Gallucci’s philosophy on how to run the practice was shaped by clients and staff already in place as well as attorneys and professors who were generous with their time and taking him under their wing while passing along insights on how to run a law firm, how to run a business, and the importance of focusing on the individual client. After several years of successful practice, Gallucci partnered with his longtime friend and mentor, CSU C|M|LAW Hall of Fame member Leon Plevin ’57, to form Plevin & Gallucci. Plevin & Gallucci is now one of the largest plaintiff firms in Ohio with offices across the state, but Frank still ensures the firm focuses on the individual and believes his dad would be proud of its work.
Frank is also carrying on his father’s legacy as a Cleveland-Marshall graduate and works alongside graduates of the law school every day in his practice. He believes the comradery among Cleveland-Marshall graduates is second-to-none and unique among law schools. Running a legal practice at a young age, Gallucci relied heavily on the generosity and advice of CSU C|M|LAW graduates and that continues to this day. He is now also one of the prominent attorneys offering assistance to CSU C|M|LAW students and alumni, in part as a participant in the Cleveland-Marshall Law Alumni Association Mentor Program.
“Some of the absolute best lawyers I’ve encountered in my practice throughout the country are Cleveland-Marshall graduates,” said Gallucci. “My feelings toward Cleveland-Marshall today are a reinforced understanding of what I believed it to be when I was a student. I continue to see Cleveland-Marshall as a place that prepared you with a law degree and also prepared you to practice law and understand what it means to go from the classroom to the courtroom or from the classroom to the community.”
Frank believes it is important for lawyers to be active within the legal community and the community-at-large throughout their careers. He has served as President of the Council of Presidents of the American Association for Justice and is Past President of the Ohio Association for Justice, where he was the youngest president in the organization’s history. He also serves on the Board of the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission and on the Board of Make-A-Wish, Ohio Kentucky & Indiana.