Tim Howard (attorney)

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For other persons named Tim Howard, see Tim Howard (disambiguation).

P. Tim Howard is the director of and a faculty member for Northeastern University's Executive Doctorate Program in Law & Policy. In 2005, he received his Ph.D., from Northeastern University in Law, Policy & Society, after defending his thesis "We've Been Framed!: Progressive Cause Lawyer Leadership in Florida Tobacco Liability Litigation". He received his Juris Doctor from Florida State University in 1986, with English Legal History coursework at Oxford. He is a former Health Law Scholar and Instructor in Constitutional Law, Civil Liberties, Judicial Process, and Media & Politics at Boston University.

Howard also has a private law practice where he represents those injured and crushed in the civil and criminal justice legal systems. He was leading national counsel in five states and the District of Columbia, attempting to remove ingredients that could possibly form benzene under heat exposure from soft drinks nationally.^{[citation needed]} National companies, such a Coke, Kraft, Pepsi Co., Sunny Delight agreed to remove the benzene causing ingredients and provide refunds and replacements to consumers. He was also counsel for Tufts University's and Northeastern University's Public Health Advocacy Institute's efforts to remove soft drinks from schools nationally. He is currently co-counsel on litigating 4,000 Florida tobacco actions, national DMV privacy violations in numerous states, and Vytorin national class action counsel.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Florida tobacco litigation

A former Assistant Attorney General of Florida and nominee for United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, Howard (then Senior Florida Health Care Attorney) was one of the five original creators (Florida attorney Fred Levin, Dean of the Florida Senate W. D. Childers, Florida Agency for Health Care Administration General Counsel Harold Lewis, and Florida Governor Lawton Chiles) of Florida's Medicaid Third Party Liability Law, that created the foundation for the largest civil case settlement in the nation's history. Florida alone received approximately $27 billion from his work and those of co-counsel and state employees. Howard offered $16 million of his fees as bonus funds for state employees that received nothing from their efforts. Howard was the only private tobacco attorney to offer anything to any state employee, much less such a significant amount as $16 million.^{[citation needed]}

Howard's law firm expended approximately 8,000 hours of time in writing motions, legal briefs, legislative advocacy for 3 legislative sessions, media presentations, grass roots work, national and international (United Kingdom in 1997) public speaking, preparing experts, creating the Medicaid damages methodology, and more.^[who?] Co-counsel attempted to use Harold Lewis' (Florida Inspector General) request for limited loans from over 30 other government and legal associates, including the Florida Attorney General, Governor's Cabinet Aide, Governor's General Counsel, and tobacco litigation co-counsel Bob Montgomery, Shelly Schlesinger, Fred Levin, and David Fonnvielle, as well as Howard, to avoid paying Howard attorneys fees on his contract with the state of Florida. After litigating in two states, state and federal courts, and six jurisdictions, and being attacked in the press, Howard won.

[edit] Current activities

Howard has several academic articles on cause lawyers, culture, and social movements and has made annual presentations before the Law & Society Association. His most recent article, "Cause Lawyers at the Constructive Edge: 'A Band of Brothers Defeats Big Tobacco'" is being published by Cambridge University Press, in "The Cultural Lives of Cause Lawyers", Chapter 3. He receives the highest marks in his teaching evaluations.^{[citation needed]} Howard also works with state and national polical leaders and campaigns, including Iowa and New Hampshire Caucuses, state Governor races, and Presential Campaign fundraising.