Before there was an asbestos litigation practice at 1500 Walnut Street, there were hearing-loss cases. Gene Locks was representing Philadelphia Naval Shipyard workers in hearing loss federal compensation claims when he noticed they kept telling him that they had an unusual lung disease that he learned was called asbestosis. That front-row seat to the pattern is where Gene’s curiosity took hold. Soon, Gene saw the potential for third-party product liability claims against the companies that had manufactured and supplied the asbestos products. It’s a sequence that, in hindsight, looks like the modern playbook for building a mass tort practice: prove the model with a few strong results, then use that capital to scale the practice. Asbestos litigation is now known as the father of mass torts.
This is where Marc came on board as the fourth lawyer hired in 1978 at what was then a small firm looking for attorneys interested in learning to litigate. Gene took Marc as his mentee, teaching him the complex area of mass tort asbestos litigation, an area only a handful of attorneys had a strong grasp on at that time (the mid- 1970’s). The duo grew the practice, soon becoming the most educated and leading asbestos practice in the US.
As the firm’s reputation grew, so did the opportunities. In 1990, prominent New York attorney Paul Rheingold approached Marc with a large volume of high-value UK asbestos cases. Marc took the lead, expanding Locks Law’s expertise into Europe. Marc went on to file a large number of UK cases against U.S. asbestos bankruptcy trusts and spent the next decade building a referral network across the UK and Europe, one he still works cases through today, more than 30 years later.
As the firm grew, Marc expanded his areas of practice into product liability, Legionnaires’ disease litigation, CRPS, lawn mower rollover, pharmaceutical mass torts, and class actions, each its own specialty, requiring the same underlying skill of spotting patterns where a class action or mass tort might exist, often in complex areas requiring medical research and expertise.
Forty-plus years later, Marc is a historian of sorts for Locks Law Firm. A seasoned attorney with great skill and perspective, Marc mentors young attorneys, teaches, writes – each skill supporting his credo to “plant seeds and watch what grows”. He still practices, but “I leave the litigating in the courtroom to younger attorneys.” It is clear that Marc has built a career on a love and passion for the law. As he nears his 50-year mark from passing the bar, Marc notes, “You can’t go 100 miles an hour and then immediately cut down to zero. You need to phase out over time.”
