Cleveland-Marshall College of Law recently published an alumni profile on our firm’s very own Frank Gallucci. Find a preview below, followed by a link to read the article in full.
“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.
