About

Alex McLaughlin works primarily in the areas of environmental law, toxic torts, and products liability at Calwell Luce diTrapano PLLC. He has represented clients in a variety of complex, multi-party civil litigation settings, including state and federal class-actions, consolidated mass actions before the West Virginia Mass Litigation Panel, and federal court multi-district litigation. He has also represented numerous individual clients in toxic tort, pharmaceutical, and other cases involving complex medical causation and scientific issues. Alex was one of the lead attorneys in the class-action case arising from the Freedom chemical spill and subsequent water contamination in West Virginia in January 2014, which resulted in a class-wide settlement of approximately $150 million. In 2005, Alex and Stuart Calwell successfully petitioned the Supreme Court of the United States to grant certiorari and vacate the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on an issue of federal preemption of state law in Oken v. Monsanto, 419 F.3d 1312 (11th Cir. 2005). Additionally, Alex has represented clients in a variety of civil litigation settings, including general personal injury cases, employment cases, and surface owner disputes with gas companies. When not practicing law, you'll find Alex shuttling his two children, a boy and a girl, to soccer and gymnastics practices, tournaments, and meets.

Bar Admissions

• West Virginia
• Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
• U.S. District Court, Southern District of West Virginia
• U.S. District Court, Northern District of West Virginia

Education

• J.D., Columbia Law School, 2001
  • James Kent Scholar
  • Recipient of the Paul R. Hays Prize, Civil Procedure
  • Recipient of the James A. Elkins Prize, Criminal Law
  • Senior Editor, Columbia Law Review
  • Teaching Assistant—Civil Procedure
• B.A., history, summa cum laude, University of New Mexico, 1998
  • Phi Beta Kappa

Areas of Practice

• Personal Injury
• Environmental Contamination
• Toxic Torts
• Products Liability

Memberships

• American Institute of Personal Injury Attorneys
• Injury Board
• West Virginia Association for Justice

Honors

• American Institute of Personal Injury Attorneys, 10 Best Law Firm for Client Satisfaction in Personal Injury (2019-2020)