DENYSE CLANCY, Partner

Denyse F. Clancy is a nationally recognized appellate and trial lawyer with prominent experience in asbestos and talc litigation and other toxic torts. She is a partner in the Oakland, CA law firm of Kazan, McClain, Satterley & Greenwood. Prior to joining Kazan Law as a partner in 2016, Ms. Clancy was a shareholder and lead appellate and trial counsel at Baron & Budd, P.C.

Ms. Clancy is one of only a handful of lawyers in the entire nation who has both (i) been lead trial lawyer in cases resulting in National Law Journal Top 100 verdicts in the nation, and (ii) protected the law as an appellate attorney in numerous state Supreme and Appellate Courts. She was selected by San Francisco Magazine as one of the top women attorneys in Northern California.

Ms. Clancy is a recipient of the Pound Civil Justice Institute Award for her work on Air & Liquid Systems Corp. et al v. DeVries (2019), a United States Supreme Court opinion holding that manufacturers of equipment incorporating asbestos component parts are liable for the foreseeable harm caused by these asbestos parts. Her recent victories as lead appellate attorney include Hart v. Keenan (2020), a California Supreme Court case holding that names and logos are non-hearsay identification evidence; Bader v. Avon (2020), a California Court of Appeal case holding that Plaintiffs do not have to prove that talc products contain asbestos at the jurisdictional phase of the case; and Booker v. Imerys Talc America, Inc. (2020), a California Court of Appeal case holding that Plaintiffs were not required to provide testimony from an expert geologist in order to prove that there is asbestos in talc. She was also lead appellate attorney in Izell v. Union Carbide and Mahoney v. Georgia-Pacific, which affirmed large punitive and compensatory damages verdicts, respectively.

Ms. Clancy was co-first chair in Schmitz v. Johnson & Johnson and Colgate (2019), in which the jury awarded $12 million to a lifelong school teacher whose mesothelioma was caused by her exposure to cosmetic talc. She was part of the trial team in Lanzo v. Johnson & Johnson (2018), in which the jury awarded $117 million to a forty-four old man whose mesothelioma was caused by lifelong use of Johnson’s Baby Powder. She was co-first chair in Tyler v. American Optical (2016), in which the jury awarded $32.8 million to a machinist whose respirator was defective.

Ms. Clancy graduated magna cum laude from Yale University, and was valedictorian, summa cum laude of her law school, Southern Methodist University.
 
Publications

• “Fraud Claims Under Sections 11 and 12(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933: Should Pleading with Particularity be Required?,” 27 SEC. REG. L.J. 411 (2000).
• “The Deductibility of the Costs of Aircraft Maintenance,” 64 J. AIR. L. & Com. 539 (1999).

 
Education

• Southern Methodist University School of Law, Dallas, Texas (J.D., Valedictorian, 1999)
• Columbia University (M.A. 1992)
• Yale University (B.A., magna cum laude, 1989)

 
Bar and Court Admissions 

• State Bar of Texas (1999)
• State Bar of California (2008)
• State Bar of Louisiana (2010)
• State Bar Pennsylvania (2010)
• S. District Court Eastern District of Texas
• S. District Court Southern District of Texas
• S. District Court Middle District of Louisiana
• S. District Court Eastern District of Pennsylvania
• S. District Court Central District of California
• S. Court of Appeals 3rd Circuit
• S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit