After more than 30 trips and five years of hard work, two Freehills lawyers have played a pivotal role in the introduction of a new law in the US which provides compensation for thousands of workers involved the post 9/11 clean-up. The new law, which provides for the allocation of US$4.3bn of aid to 9/11 survivors and emergency and recovery personnel, was passed after nearly 10,000 compensation claims were made by workers who assisted in the debris removal operations following the terrorist attacks. Previously, those workers could only recover compensation for their alleged injuries by suing the contractors and the City of New York.

Partners Michelle Fox and Michael Mills, along with two associates, and their client Bovis Lend Lease (the US subsidiary of Lend Lease) were involved in both the litigation and the negotiation process for the new Act. “The first thing we did when we began was appoint Weil, Gotshal & Manges as lawyers for Bovis Lend Lease,” said Fox. “The US lawyers involved in this case are leading lawyers in their field and the amount of work they (US lawyers) did around every aspect of the case was huge,” added Mills.

Fox and Mills were pivotal in bringing a resolution focus to the case. “Michelle and I fairly early on became proactive in pushing for consideration of an alternative resolution strategy and, with Weil Gotshal, the strategy resulted in the successful and amended passage of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act (signed by President Obama on January 2) so that it included our client and the other contractors,” said Mills. “The passage of the Act into law was a real highlight for me; it represented four years of effort and it is an historic piece of legislation.”

Mills said that as Australian companies earn more of their revenue offshore, they are going to have to deal with more disputes and litigation off-shore, which creates a new imperative for creative resolution strategies and solutions, “rather than just treating the litigation process as paramount”.