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Douglas & London: The New York Firm Whose DuPont Trial Wins Became the Movie “Dark Waters”

Gary Douglas tried three C-8 water contamination cases against DuPont to verdict — $1.6 million, $5.6 million, and $12.5 million — the historic first verdicts in the PFAS litigation whose story became the motion picture Dark Waters, the book Exposure, and the documentary The Devil We Know. His partner Michael London then lead-negotiated the $670.6 million settlement that resolved the litigation.

Origin and Background

Douglas & London, P.C. practices in Manhattan, confirmed through the firm’s own site and independent listings. Founded in 2002 by trial lawyers Gary J. Douglas and Michael A. London, the firm has grown into one of the country’s top-ranked mass tort practices while continuing to handle individual New York personal injury cases, with many of its attorneys at the firm for more than a decade.

Practice Concentration

The practice spans mass torts — defective drugs and medical devices, environmental and toxic exposure including PFAS — alongside individual personal injury, construction accidents, motor vehicle accidents, premises liability, and medical malpractice for New York clients. See this New York Personal Injury directory for how this trial-and-mass-tort hybrid compares to single-docket firms serving the five boroughs.

Notable Work / Track Record

Beyond the DuPont verdicts and $670.6 million C-8 settlement, the firm’s leadership roles include Michael London as court-appointed co-lead counsel in the Yaz/Yasmin litigation, in which Bayer paid over $2 billion to roughly 20,000 claimants, and co-lead roles in the Pradaxa litigation resolving approximately 4,400 claims. The firm announced preliminary approval of historic PFAS public-water-system settlements totaling $13.6 billion, and reports over $20 billion in cumulative verdicts and settlements — with earlier firm materials citing $18 billion, a progression consistent with ongoing mass resolutions. Individual New York results include a $20 million recovery for a boy whose skull was fractured in a train accident. Founders Douglas, London, and senior associate Rebecca Newman were national finalists for Trial Team of the Year. Past results do not guarantee similar outcomes, and mass tort totals are distributed across very large client populations.

Client Voice

As a nationally advertised mass tort practice with an individual-injury docket, the firm carries a substantial public review footprint; Awesome Attorneys did not identify a pattern of negative reviews warranting disclosure.

Beyond the Courtroom

The firm supports charities including the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, and its PFAS litigation has directly shaped national drinking-water policy — a public-impact dimension few injury firms can claim.

Recognition for This New York Personal Injury Firm

Court appointments as co-lead counsel in multiple national multidistrict litigations, and a National Trial Lawyers Trial Team of the Year finalist selection, are judicially conferred and peer-selected recognitions distinct from paid marketing placements. New York State does not operate a state-run attorney specialization certification program, so Awesome Attorneys does not apply “specialist” language to any New York profile on a state-certification basis.

New York Legal Backdrop

Toxic exposure claims in New York run under CPLR 214-c’s discovery rule, which starts the three-year clock when the injury is discovered rather than when exposure occurred — the framework underlying PFAS and contamination litigation. Most other injury claims carry three years under CPLR 214(5) with pure comparative negligence under CPLR 1411. None of this is legal advice; a specific exposure or injury claim should be evaluated by a licensed New York attorney based on the actual facts involved.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Douglas & London’s clearest differentiator is trial-made history: the first PFAS verdicts in the country, tried personally by a name partner, converted by the other name partner into a $670.6 million settlement — a combination of courtroom and negotiation leadership that most mass tort firms split across different organizations. The honest trade-off is that its headline cumulative figures aggregate national mass resolutions across enormous claimant populations, so an individual New York injury client should calibrate expectations to their own case rather than the firm’s totals. For a toxic exposure, defective drug, or serious New York injury claim, this firm’s litigation pedigree is among the most distinctive in the state.

Methodology and Sourcing

This profile was researched from Douglas & London’s own site and published results, its business-wire announcements of the PFAS settlements, and independent coverage of the DuPont C-8 litigation.

Publisher Disclosure and Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal directory and editorial publication. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by Douglas & London, P.C. prior to publication. Awesome Attorneys may in the future offer sponsored placement products to attorneys and firms, including this one, but sponsorship has no bearing on the editorial content, inclusion, or findings of this profile.