Podcast appearances and mentions of Kenneth Feinberg

Welcome to Original Jurisdiction, the latest legal publication by me, David Lat. You can learn more about Original Jurisdiction by reading its About page, and you can email me at davidlat@substack.com. This is a reader-supported publication; you can subscribe by clicking here.Yesterday, Southern California Edison (SCE), the utility whose power lines may have started the devastating Eaton Fire, announced its Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program. Under the program, people affected by the fire can receive hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in compensation, in a matter of months rather than years—but in exchange, they must give up their right to sue.It should come as no surprise that SCE, in designing the program, sought the help of Kenneth Feinberg. For more than 40 years, often in the wake of tragedy or disaster, Feinberg has helped mediate and resolve seemingly intractable crises. He's most well-known for how he and his colleague Camille Biros designed and administered the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. But he has worked on many other headline-making matters over the years, including the Agent Orange product liability litigation, the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Trust, the multidistrict litigation involving Monsanto's Roundup weed killer—and now, of course, the Eaton Fire.How did Ken develop such a fascinating and unique practice? What is the most difficult aspect of administering these giant compensation funds? Do these funds represent the wave of the future, as an alternative to (increasingly expensive) litigation? Having just turned 80, does he have any plans to retire?Last week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ken—the day after his 80th birthday—and we covered all these topics. The result is what I found to be one of the most moving conversations I've ever had on this podcast.Thanks to Ken Feinberg for joining me—and, of course, for his many years of service as America's go-to mediator in times of crisis.Show Notes:* Kenneth Feinberg bio, Wikipedia* Kenneth Feinberg profile, Chambers and Partners* L.A. Fire Victims Face a Choice, by Jill Cowan for The New York TimesPrefer reading to listening? For paid subscribers, a transcript of the entire episode appears below.Sponsored by:NexFirm helps Biglaw attorneys become founding partners. To learn more about how NexFirm can help you launch your firm, call 212-292-1000 or email careerdevelopment@nexfirm.com.Three quick notes about this transcript. First, it has been cleaned up from the audio in ways that don't alter substance—e.g., by deleting verbal filler or adding a word here or there to clarify meaning. Second, my interviewee has not reviewed this transcript, and any errors are mine. Third, because of length constraints, this newsletter may be truncated in email; to view the entire post, simply click on “View entire message” in your email app.David Lat: Welcome to the Original Jurisdiction podcast. I'm your host, David Lat, author of a Substack newsletter about law and the legal profession also named Original Jurisdiction, which you can read and subscribe to at davidlat.substack.com. You're listening to the eighty-fourth episode of this podcast, recorded on Friday, October 24.Thanks to this podcast's sponsor, NexFirm. NexFirm helps Biglaw attorneys become founding partners. To learn more about how NexFirm can help you launch your firm, call 212-292-1000 or email careerdevelopment@nexfirm.com. Want to know who the guest will be for the next Original Jurisdiction podcast? Follow NexFirm on LinkedIn for a preview.I like to think that I've produced some good podcast episodes over the past three-plus years, but I feel that this latest one is a standout. I'm hard-pressed to think of an interview that was more emotionally affecting to me than what you're about to hear.Kenneth Feinberg is a leading figure in the world of mediation and alternative dispute resolution. He is most well-known for having served as special master of the U.S. government's September 11th Victim Compensation Fund—and for me, as someone who was in New York City on September 11, I found his discussion of that work profoundly moving. But he has handled many major matters over the years, such as the Agent Orange product liability litigation to the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster Victim Compensation Fund. And he's working right now on a matter that's in the headlines: the California wildfires. Ken has been hired by Southern California Edison to help design a compensation program for victims of the 2025 Eaton fire. Ken has written about his fascinating work in two books: What Is Life Worth?: The Unprecedented Effort to Compensate the Victims of 9/11 and Who Gets What: Fair Compensation after Tragedy and Financial Upheaval. Without further ado, here's my conversation with Ken Feinberg.Ken, thank you so much for joining me.Ken Feinberg: Thank you very much; it's an honor to be here.DL: We are recording this shortly after your 80th birthday, so happy birthday!KF: Thank you very much.DL: Let's go back to your birth; let's start at the beginning. You grew up in Massachusetts, I believe.KF: That's right: Brockton, Massachusetts, about 20 miles south of Boston.DL: Your parents weren't lawyers. Tell us about what they did.KF: My parents were blue-collar workers from Massachusetts, second-generation immigrants. My father ran a wholesale tire distributorship, my mother was a bookkeeper, and we grew up in the 1940s and ‘50s, even the early ‘60s, in a town where there was great optimism, a very vibrant Jewish community, three different synagogues, a very optimistic time in American history—post-World War II, pre-Vietnam, and a time when communitarianism, working together to advance the collective good, was a prominent characteristic of Brockton, and most of the country, during the time that I was in elementary school and high school in Brockton.DL: Did the time in which you grow up shape or influence your decision to go into law?KF: Yes. More than law—the time growing up had a great impact on my decision to give back to the community from which I came. You've got to remember, when I was a teenager, the president of the United States was John F. Kennedy, and I'll never forget because it had a tremendous impact on me—President Kennedy reminding everybody that public service is a noble undertaking, government is not a dirty word, and especially his famous quote (or one of his many quotes), “Every individual can make a difference.” I never forgot that, and it had a personal impact on me and has had an impact on me throughout my life. [Ed. note: The quotation generally attributed to JFK is, “One person can make a difference, and everyone should try.” Whether he actually said these exact words is unclear, but it's certainly consistent with many other sentiments he expressed throughout his life.]DL: When you went to college at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, what did you study?KF: I studied history and political science. I was very interested in how individuals over the centuries change history, the theory of historians that great individuals articulate history and drive it in a certain direction—for good, like President Kennedy or Abraham Lincoln or George Washington, or for ill, like Adolf Hitler or Mussolini. And so it was history that I really delved into in my undergraduate years.DL: What led you then to turn to law school?KF: I always enjoyed acting on the stage—theater, comedies, musicals, dramas—and at the University of Massachusetts, I did quite a bit of that. In my senior year, I anticipated going to drama school at Yale, or some other academic master's program in theater. My father gave me very good advice. He said, “Ken, most actors end up waiting on restaurant tables in Manhattan, waiting for a big break that never comes. Why don't you turn your skills on the stage to a career in the courtroom, in litigation, talking to juries and convincing judges?” That was very sound advice from my father, and I ended up attending NYU Law School and having a career in the law.DL: Yes—and you recount that story in your book, and I just love that. It's really interesting to hear what parents think of our careers. But anyway, you did very well in law school, you were on the law review, and then your first job out of law school was something that we might expect out of someone who did well in law school.KF: Yes. I was a law clerk to the chief judge of New York State, Stanley Fuld, a very famous state jurist, and he had his chambers in New York City. For one week, every six or seven weeks, we would go to the state capitol in Albany to hear cases, and it was Judge Fuld who was my transition from law school to the practice of law.DL: I view clerking as a form of government service—and then you continued in service after that.KF: That's right. Remembering what my father had suggested, I then turned my attention to the courtroom and became an assistant United States attorney, a federal prosecutor, in New York City. I served as a prosecutor and as a trial lawyer for a little over three years. And then I had a wonderful opportunity to go to work for Senator Ted Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington and stayed with him for about five years.DL: You talk about this also in your books—you worked on a pretty diverse range of issues for the senator, right?KF: That's right. For the first three years I worked on his staff on the Senate Judiciary Committee, with some excellent colleagues—soon-to-be Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer was with me, noted litigator David Boies was in the office—and for the first three years, it was law-related issues. Then in 1978, Senator Kennedy asked me to be his chief of staff, and once I went over and became his chief of staff, the issues of course mushroomed. He was running for president, so there were issues of education, health, international relations—a wide diversity of issues, very broad-based.DL: I recall that you didn't love the chief of staff's duties.KF: No. Operations or administration was not my priority. I loved substance, issues—whatever the issues were, trying to work out legislative compromises, trying to give back something in the way of legislation to the people. And internal operations and administration, I quickly discovered, was not my forte. It was not something that excited me.DL: Although it's interesting: what you are most well-known for is overseeing and administering these large funds and compensating victims of these horrific tragedies, and there's a huge amount of administration involved in that.KF: Yes, but I'm a very good delegator. In fact, if you look at the track record of my career in designing and administering these programs—9/11 or the Deepwater Horizon oil spill or the Patriots' Day Marathon bombings in Boston—I was indeed fortunate in all of those matters to have at my side, for over 40 years, Camille Biros. She's not a lawyer, but she's the nation's expert on designing, administering, and operating these programs, and as you delve into what I've done and haven't done, her expertise has been invaluable.DL: I would call Camille your secret weapon, except she's not secret. She's been profiled in The New York Times, and she's a well-known figure in her own right.KF: That is correct. She was just in the last few months named one of the 50 Women Over 50 that have had such an impact in the country—that list by Forbes that comes out every year. She's prominently featured in that magazine.DL: Shifting back to your career, where did you go after your time in the Senate?KF: I opened up a Washington office for a prominent New York law firm, and for the next decade or more, that was the center of my professional activity.DL: So that was Kaye Scholer, now Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer. What led you to go from your career in the public sector, where you spent a number of your years right out of law school, into so-called Biglaw?KF: Practicality and financial considerations. I had worked for over a decade in public service. I now had a wife, I had three young children, and it was time to give them financial security. And “Biglaw,” as you put it—Biglaw in Washington was lucrative, and it was something that gave me a financial base from which I could try and expand my different interests professionally. And that was the reason that for about 12 years I was in private practice for a major firm, Kaye Scholer.DL: And then tell us what happened next.KF: A great lesson in not planning too far ahead. In 1984, I got a call from a former clerk of Judge Fuld whom I knew from the clerk network: Judge Jack Weinstein, a nationally recognized jurist from Brooklyn, the Eastern District, and a federal judge. He had on his docket the Vietnam veterans' Agent Orange class action.You may recall that there were about 250,000 Vietnam veterans who came home claiming illness or injury or death due to the herbicide Agent Orange, which had been dropped by the U.S. Air Force in Vietnam to burn the foliage and vegetation where the Viet Cong enemy might be hiding. Those Vietnam veterans came home suffering terrible diseases, including cancer and chloracne (a sort of acne on the skin), and they brought a lawsuit. Judge Weinstein had the case. Weinstein realized that if that case went to trial, it could be 10 years before there'd be a result, with appeals and all of that.So he appointed me as mediator, called the “special master,” whose job it was to try and settle the case, all as a mediator. Well, after eight weeks of trying, we were successful. There was a master settlement totaling about $250 million—at the time, one of the largest tort verdicts in history. And that one case, front-page news around the nation, set me on a different track. Instead of remaining a Washington lawyer involved in regulatory and legislative matters, I became a mediator, an individual retained by the courts or by the parties to help resolve a case. And that was the beginning. That one Agent Orange case transformed my entire professional career and moved me in a different direction completely.DL: So you knew the late Judge Weinstein through Fuld alumni circles. What background did you have in mediation already, before you handled this gigantic case?KF: None. I told Judge Weinstein, “Judge, I never took a course in mediation at law school (there wasn't one then), and I don't know anything about bringing the parties together, trying to get them to settle.” He said, “I know you. I know your background. I've followed your career. You worked for Senator Kennedy. You are the perfect person.” And until the day I die, I'm beholden to Judge Weinstein for having faith in me to take this on.DL: And over the years, you actually worked on a number of matters at the request of Judge Weinstein.KF: A dozen. I worked on tobacco cases, on asbestos cases, on drug and medical device cases. I even worked for Judge Weinstein mediating the closing of the Shoreham nuclear plant on Long Island. I handled a wide range of cases where he called on me to act as his court-appointed mediator to resolve cases on his docket.DL: You've carved out a very unique and fascinating niche within the law, and I'm guessing that most people who meet you nowadays know who you are. But say you're in a foreign country or something, and some total stranger is chatting with you and asks what you do for a living. What would you say?KF: I would say I'm a lawyer, and I specialize in dispute resolution. It might be mediation, it might be arbitration, or it might even be negotiation, where somebody asks me to negotiate on their behalf. So I just tell people there is a growing field of law in the United States called ADR—alternative dispute resolution—and that it is, as you say, David, my niche, my focus when called upon.DL: And I think it's fair to say that you're one of the founding people in this field or early pioneers—or I don't know how you would describe it.KF: I think that's right. When I began with Agent Orange, there was no mediation to speak of. It certainly wasn't institutionalized; it wasn't streamlined. Today, in 2025, the American Bar Association has a special section on alternative dispute resolution, it's taught in every law school in the United States, there are thousands of mediators and arbitrators, and it's become a major leg in law school of different disciplines and specialties.DL: One question I often ask my guests is, “What is the matter you are most proud of?” Another question I often ask my guests is, “What is the hardest matter you've ever had to deal with?” Another question I often ask my guests is, “What is the matter that you're most well-known for?” And I feel in your case, the same matter is responsive to all three of those questions.KF: That's correct. The most difficult, the most challenging, the most rewarding matter, the one that's given me the most exposure, was the federal September 11 Victim Compensation Fund of 2001, when I was appointed by President George W. Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft to implement, design, and administer a very unique federal law that had been enacted right after 9/11.DL: I got chills as you were just even stating that, very factually, because I was in New York on 9/11, and a lot of us remember the trauma and difficulty of that time. And you basically had to live with that and talk to hundreds, even thousands, of people—survivors, family members—for almost three years. And you did it pro bono. So let me ask you this: what were you thinking?KF: What triggered my interest was the law itself. Thirteen days after the attacks, Congress passed this law, unique in American history, setting up a no-fault administrator compensation system. Don't go to court. Those who volunteer—families of the dead, those who were physically injured at the World Trade Center or the Pentagon—you can voluntarily seek compensation from a taxpayer-funded law. Now, if you don't want it, you don't have to go. It's a voluntary program.The key will be whether the special master or the administrator will be able to convince people that it is a better avenue to pursue than a long, delayed, uncertain lawsuit. And based on my previous experience for the last 15 years, starting with Agent Orange and asbestos and these other tragedies, I volunteered. I went to Senator Kennedy and said, “What about this?” He said, “Leave it to me.” He called President Bush. He knew Attorney General John Ashcroft, who was his former colleague in the U.S. Senate, and he had great admiration for Senator Ashcroft. And so I was invited by the attorney general for an interview, and I told him I was interested. I told him I would only do it pro bono. You can't get paid for a job like this; it's patriotism. And he said, “Go for it.” And he turned out to be my biggest, strongest ally during the 33 months of the program.DL: Are you the managing partner of a boutique or midsize firm? If so, you know that your most important job is attracting and retaining top talent. It's not easy, especially if your benefits don't match up well with those of Biglaw firms or if your HR process feels “small time.” NexFirm has created an onboarding and benefits experience that rivals an Am Law 100 firm, so you can compete for the best talent at a price your firm can afford. Want to learn more? Contact NexFirm at 212-292-1002 or email betterbenefits@nexfirm.com.You talk about this in your books: you were recommended by a very prominent Democratic politician, and the administration at the time was Republican. George W. Bush was president, and John Ashcroft was the attorney general. Why wouldn't they have picked a Republican for this project?KF: Very good question. Senator Kennedy told both of them, “You better be careful here. This is a very, very uncertain program, with taxpayer money used to pay only certain victims. This could be a disaster. And you would be well-advised to pick someone who is not a prominent friend of yours, who is not perceived as just a Republican arm of the Justice Department or the White House. And I've got the perfect person. You couldn't pick a more opposite politician than my former chief of staff, Ken Feinberg. But look at what he's done.” And I think to Senator Kennedy's credit, and certainly to President Bush and to John Ashcroft's, they selected me.DL: As you would expect with a program of this size and complexity, there was controversy and certainly criticism over the years. But overall, looking back, I think people regard it widely as a huge success. Do you have a sense or an estimate of what percentage of people in the position to accept settlements through the program did that, rather than litigate? Because in accepting funds from the program, they did waive their right to bring all sorts of lawsuits.KF: That's correct. If you look at the statistics, if the statistics are a barometer of success, 5,300 applicants were eligible, because of death—about 2,950, somewhere in there—and the remaining claims were for physical injury. Of the 5,300, 97 percent voluntarily accepted the compensation. Only 94 people, 3 percent, opted out, and they all settled their cases five years later. There was never a trial on who was responsible in the law for 9/11. So if statistics are an indication—and I think they are a good indication—the program was a stunning success in accomplishing Congress's objective, which was diverting people voluntarily out of the court system.DL: Absolutely. And that's just a striking statistic. It was really successful in getting funds to families that needed it. They had lost breadwinners; they had lost loved ones. It was hugely successful, and it did not take a decade, as some of these cases involving just thousands of victims often do.I was struck by one thing you just said. You mentioned there was really no trial. And in reading your accounts of your work on this, it seemed almost like people viewed talking to you and your colleagues, Camille and others on this—I think they almost viewed that as their opportunity to be heard, since there wasn't a trial where they would get to testify.KF: That's correct. The primary reason for the success of the 9/11 Fund, and a valuable lesson for me thereafter, was this: give victims the opportunity to be heard, not only in public town-hall meetings where collectively people can vent, but in private, with doors closed. It's just the victim and Feinberg or his designee, Camille. We were the face of the government here. You can't get a meeting with the secretary of defense or the attorney general, the head of the Department of Justice. What you can get is an opportunity behind closed doors to express your anger, your frustration, your disappointment, your sense of uncertainty, with the government official responsible for cutting the checks. And that had an enormous difference in assuring the success of the program.DL: What would you say was the hardest aspect of your work on the Fund?KF: The hardest part of the 9/11 Fund, which I'll never recover from, was not calculating the value of a life. Judges and juries do that every day, David, in every court, in New Jersey and 49 other states. That is not a difficult assignment. What would the victim have earned over a work life? Add something for pain and suffering and emotional distress, and there's your check.The hardest part in any of these funds, starting with 9/11—the most difficult aspect, the challenge—is empathy, and your willingness to sit for over 900 separate hearings, me alone with family members or victims, to hear what they want to tell you, and to make that meeting, from their perspective, worthwhile and constructive. That's the hard part.DL: Did you find it sometimes difficult to remain emotionally composed? Or did you, after a while, develop a sort of thick skin?KF: You remain composed. You are a professional. You have a job to do, for the president of the United States. You can't start wailing and crying in the presence of somebody who was also wailing and crying, so you have to compose yourself. But I tell people who say, “Could I do what you did?” I say, “Sure. There are plenty of people in this country that can do what I did—if you can brace yourself for the emotional trauma that comes with meeting with victim after victim after victim and hearing their stories, which are...” You can't make them up. They're so heart-wrenching and so tragic.I'll give you one example. A lady came to see me, 26 years old, sobbing—one of hundreds of people I met with. “Mr. Feinberg, I lost my husband. He was a fireman at the World Trade Center. He died on 9/11. And he left me with our two children, six and four. Now, Mr. Feinberg, you've calculated and told me I'm going to receive $2.4 million, tax-free, from this 9/11 Fund. I want it in 30 days.”I said to Mrs. Jones, “This is public, taxpayer money. We have to go down to the U.S. Treasury. They've got to cut the checks; they've got to dot all the i's and cross all the t's. It may be 60 days or 90 days, but you'll get your money.”“No. Thirty days.”I said, “Mrs. Jones, why do you need the money in 30 days?”She said, “Why? I'll tell you why, Mr. Feinberg. I have terminal cancer. I have 10 weeks to live. My husband was going to survive me and take care of our two children. Now they're going to be orphans. I have got to get this money, find a guardian, make sure the money's safe, prepare for the kids' schooling. I don't have a lot of time. I need your help.”Well, we ran down to the U.S. Treasury and helped process the check in record time. We got her the money in 30 days—and eight weeks later, she died. Now when you hear story after story like this, you get some indication of the emotional pressure that builds and is debilitating, frankly. And we managed to get through it.DL: Wow. I got a little choked up just even hearing you tell that. Wow—I really don't know what to say.When you were working on the 9/11 Fund, did you have time for any other matters, or was this pretty much exclusively what you were working on for the 33 months?KF: Professionally, it was exclusive. Now what I did was, I stayed in my law firm, so I had a living. Other people in the firm were generating income for the firm; I wasn't on the dole. But it was exclusive. During the day, you are swamped with these individual requests, decisions that have to be made, checks that have to be cut. At night, I escaped: opera, orchestral concerts, chamber music, art museums—the height of civilization. During the day, in the depths of horror of civilization; at night, an escape, an opportunity to just enjoy the benefits of civilization. You better have a loving family, as I did, that stands behind you—because you never get over it, really.DL: That's such an important lesson, to actually have that time—because if you wanted to, you could have worked on this 24/7. But it is important to have some time to just clear your head or spend time with your family, especially just given what you were dealing with day-to-day.KF: That's right. And of course, during the day, we made a point of that as well. If we were holding hearings like the one I just explained, we'd take a one-hour break, go for a walk, go into Central Park or into downtown Washington, buy an ice cream cone, see the kids playing in playgrounds and laughing. You've got to let the steam out of the pressure cooker, or it'll kill you. And that was the most difficult part of the whole program. In all of these programs, that's the common denominator: emotional stress and unhappiness on the part of the victims.DL: One last question, before we turn to some other matters. There was also a very large logistical apparatus associated with this, right? For example, PricewaterhouseCoopers. It wasn't just you and Camille trying to deal with these thousands of survivors and claimants; you did have support.KF: That's right. Pricewaterhouse won the bid at the Justice Department. This is public: Pricewaterhouse, for something like around $100 million, put 450 people to work with us to help us process claims, appraise values, do the research. Pricewaterhouse was a tremendous ally and has gone on, since 9/11, to handle claims design and claims administration, as one of its many specialties. Emily Kent, Chuck Hacker, people like that we worked with for years, very much experts in these areas.DL: So after your work on the 9/11 Fund, you've worked on a number of these types of matters. Is there one that you would say ranks second in terms of complexity or difficulty or meaningfulness to you?KF: Yes. Deepwater Horizon in 2011, 2012—that oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico blew up and killed about, I don't know, 15 to 20 people in the explosion. But the real challenge in that program was how we received, in 16 months, about 1,250,000 claims for business interruption, business losses, property damage. We received over a million claims from 50 states. I think we got probably a dozen claims from New Jersey; I didn't know the oil had gotten to New Jersey. We received claims from 35 foreign countries. And the sheer volume of the disaster overwhelmed us. We had, at one point, something like 40,000 people—vendors—working for us. We had 35 offices throughout the Gulf of Mexico, from Galveston, Texas, all the way to Mobile Bay, Alabama. Nevertheless, in 16 months, on behalf of BP, Deepwater Horizon, we paid out all BP money, a little over $7 billion, to 550,000 eligible claimants. And that, I would say, other than 9/11, had the greatest impact and was the most satisfying.DL: You mentioned some claims coming from some pretty far-flung jurisdictions. In these programs, how much of a problem is fraud?KF: Not much. First of all, with death claims like 9/11 or the Boston Marathon bombings or the 20 first-graders who died in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, at the hands of a deranged gunmen—most of the time, in traumatic death and injury, you've got records. No one can beat the system; you have to have a death certificate. In 9/11, where are your military records, if you were at the Pentagon? Where are the airplane manifests? You've got to be on the manifest if you were flying on that plane.Now, the problem becomes more pronounced in something like BP, where you've got over a million claims, and you wonder, how many people can claim injury from this explosion? There we had an anti-fraud unit—Guidepost, Bart Schwartz's company—and they did a tremendous job of spot-checking claims. I think that out of over a million claims, there may have been 25,000 that were suspicious. And we sent those claims to the Justice Department, and they prosecuted a fair number of people. But it wasn't a huge problem. I think the fraud rate was something like 3 percent; that's nothing. So overall, we haven't found—and we have to be ever-vigilant, you're right—but we haven't found much in the way of fraud.DL: I'm glad to hear that, because it would really be very depressing to think that there were people trying to profiteer off these terrible disasters and tragedies. Speaking of continuing disasters and tragedies, turning to current events, you are now working with Southern California Edison in dealing with claims related to the Eaton Fire. And this is a pending matter, so of course you may have some limits in terms of what you can discuss, but what can you say in a general sense about this undertaking?KF: This is the Los Angeles wildfires that everybody knows about, from the last nine or ten months—the tremendous fire damage in Los Angeles. One of the fires, or one of the selected hubs of the fire, was the Eaton Fire. Southern California Edison, the utility involved in the litigation and finger-pointing, decided to set up, à la 9/11, a voluntary claims program. Not so much to deal with death—there were about 19 deaths, and a handful of physical injuries—but terrible fire damage, destroyed homes, damaged businesses, smoke and ash and soot, for miles in every direction. And the utility decided, its executive decided, “We want to do the right thing here. We may be held liable or we may not be held liable for the fire, but we think the right thing to do is nip in the bud this idea of extended litigation. Look at 9/11: only 94 people ended up suing. We want to set up a program.”They came to Camille and me. Over the last eight weeks, we've designed the program, and I think in the last week of October or the first week of November, you will see publicly, “Here is the protocol; here is the claim form. Please submit your claims, and we'll get them paid within 90 days.” And if history is an indicator, Camille and I think that the Eaton Fire Protocol will be a success, and the great bulk of the thousands of victims will voluntarily decide to come into the program. We'll see. [Ed. note: On Wednesday, a few days after Ken and I recorded this episode, Southern California Edison announced its Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program.]DL: That raises a question that I'm curious about. How would you describe the relationship between the work that you and Camille and your colleagues do and the traditional work of the courts, in terms of in-the-trenches litigation? Because I do wonder whether the growth in your field is perhaps related to some developments in litigation, in terms of litigation becoming more expensive over the decades (in a way that far outstrips inflation), more complicated, or more protracted. How would you characterize that relationship?KF: I would say that the programs that we design and administer—like 9/11, like BP, plus the Eaton wildfires—are an exception to the rule. Nobody should think that these programs that we have worked on are the wave of the future. They are not the wave of the future; they are isolated, unique examples, where a company—or in 9/11, the U.S. government—decides, “We ought to set up a special program where the courts aren't involved, certainly not directly.” In 9/11, they were prohibited to be involved, by statute; in some of these other programs, like BP, the courts have a relationship, but they don't interfere with the day-to-day administration of the program.And I think the American people have a lot of faith in the litigation system that you correctly point out can be uncertain, very inefficient, and very costly. But the American people, since the founding of the country, think, “You pick your lawyer, I'll pick my lawyer, and we'll have a judge and jury decide.” That's the American rule of law; I don't think it's going to change. But occasionally there is a groundswell of public pressure to come up with a program, or there'll be a company—like the utility, like BP—that decides to have a program.And I'll give you one other example: the Catholic Church confronted thousands of claims of sexual abuse by priests. It came to us, and we set up a program—just like 9/11, just like BP—where we invited, voluntarily, any minor—any minor from decades ago, now an adult—who had been abused by the church to come into this voluntary program. We paid out, I think, $700 million to $800 million, to victims in dioceses around the country. So there's another example—Camille did most of that—but these programs are all relatively rare. There are thousands of litigations every day, and nothing's going to change that.DL: I had a guest on a few weeks ago, Chris Seeger of Seeger Weiss, who does a lot of work in the mass-tort space. It's interesting: I feel that that space has evolved, and maybe in some ways it's more efficient than it used to be. They have these multi-district litigation panels, they have these bellwether trials, and then things often get settled, once people have a sense of the values. That system and your approach seem to have some similarities, in the sense that you're not individually trying each one of these cases, and you're having somebody with liability come forward and voluntarily pay out money, after some kind of negotiation.KF: Well, there's certainly negotiation in what Chris Seeger does; I'm not sure we have much negotiation. We say, “Here's the amount under the administrative scheme.” It's like in workers' compensation: here's the amount. You don't have to take it. There's nothing to really talk about, unless you have new evidence that we're not aware of. And those programs, when we do design them, seem to work very efficiently.Again, if you ask Camille Biros what was the toughest part of valuing individual claims of sexual-abuse directed at minors, she would say, “These hearings: we gave every person who wanted an opportunity to be heard.” And when they come to see Camille, they don't come to talk about money; they want validation for what they went through. “Believe me, will you? Ken, Camille, believe me.” And when Camille says, “We do believe you,” they immediately, or almost immediately, accept the compensation and sign a release: “I will not sue the Catholic diocese.”DL: So you mentioned there isn't really much negotiation, but you did talk in the book about these sort of “appeals.” You had these two tracks, “Appeals A” and “Appeals B.” Can you talk about that? Did you ever revisit what you had set as the award for a particular victim's family, after hearing from them in person?KF: Sure. Now, remember, those appeals came back to us, not to a court; there's no court involvement. But in 9/11, in BP, if somebody said, “You made a mistake—you didn't account for these profits or this revenue, or you didn't take into account this contract that my dead firefighter husband had that would've given him a lot more money”—of course, we'll revisit that. We invited that. But that's an internal appeals process. The people who calculated the value of the claim are the same people that are going to be looking at revisiting the claim. But again, that's due process, and that's something that we thought was important.DL: You and Camille have been doing this really important work for decades. Since this is, of course, shortly after your 80th birthday, I should ask: do you have future plans? You're tackling some of the most complicated matters, headline-making matters. Would you ever want to retire at some point?KF: I have no intention of retiring. I do agree that when you reach a certain pinnacle in what you've done, you do slow down. We are much more selective in what we do. I used to have maybe 15 mediations going on at once; now, we have one or two matters, like the Los Angeles wildfires. As long as I'm capable, as long as Camille's willing, we'll continue to do it, but we'll be very careful about what we select to do. We don't travel much. The Los Angeles wildfires was largely Zooms, going back and forth. And we're not going to administer that program. We had administered 9/11 and BP; we're trying to move away from that. It's very time-consuming and stressful. So we've accomplished a great deal over the last 50 years—but as long as we can do it, we'll continue to do it.DL: Do you have any junior colleagues who would take over what you and Camille have built?KF: We don't have junior colleagues. There's just the two of us and Cindy Sanzotta, our receptionist. But it's an interesting question: “Who's after Feinberg? Who's next in doing this?” I think there are thousands of people in this country who could do what we do. It is not rocket science. It really isn't. I'll tell you what's difficult: the emotion. If somebody wants to do what we do, you better brace yourself for the emotion, the anger, the frustration, the finger pointing. It goes with the territory. And if you don't have the psychological ability to handle this type of stress, stay away. But I'm sure somebody will be there, and no one's irreplaceable.DL: Well, I know I personally could not handle it. I worked when I was at a law firm on civil litigation over insurance proceeds related to the World Trade Center, and that was a very draining case, and I was very glad to no longer be on it. So I could not do what you and Camille do. But let me ask you, to end this section on a positive note: what would you say is the most rewarding or meaningful or satisfying aspect of the work that you do on these programs?KF: Giving back to the community. Public service. Helping the community heal. Not so much the individuals; the individuals are part of the community. “Every individual can make a difference.” I remember that every day, what John F. Kennedy said: government service is a noble undertaking. So what's most rewarding for me is that although I'm a private practitioner—I am no longer in government service, since my days with Senator Kennedy—I'd like to think that I performed a valuable service for the community, the resilience of the community, the charity exhibited by the community. And that gives me a great sense of self-satisfaction.DL: You absolutely have. It's been amazing, and I'm so grateful for you taking the time to join me.So now, onto our speed round. These are four questions that are standardized. My first question is, what do you like the least about the law? And this can either be the practice of law or law in a more abstract sense.KF: Uncertainty. What I don't like about the law is—and I guess maybe it's the flip side of the best way to get to a result—I don't like the uncertainty of the law. I don't like the fact that until the very end of the process, you don't know if your view and opinion will prevail. And I think losing control over your destiny in that regard is problematic.DL: My second question—and maybe we touched on this a little bit, when we talked about your father's opinions—what would you be if you were not a lawyer?KF: Probably an actor. As I say, I almost became an actor. And I still love theater and the movies and Broadway shows. If my father hadn't given me that advice, I was on the cusp of pursuing a career in the theater.DL: Have you dabbled in anything in your (probably limited) spare time—community theater, anything like that?KF: No, but I certainly have prioritized in my spare time classical music and the peace and optimism it brings to the listener. It's been an important part of my life.DL: My third question is, how much sleep do you get each night?KF: Well, it varies from program to program. I'd like to get seven hours. That's what my doctors tell me: “Ken, very important—more important than pills and exercise and diet—is sleep. Your body needs a minimum of seven hours.” Well, for me, seven hours is rare—it's more like six or even five, and during 9/11 or during Eaton wildfires, it might be more like four or five. And that's not enough, and that is a problem.DL: My last question is, any final words of wisdom, such as career advice or life advice, for my listeners?KF: Yes, I'll give you some career and life advice. It's very simple: don't plan too far ahead. People have this view—you may think you know what you want to do with your career. You may think you know what life holds for you. You don't know. If I've learned anything over the last decades, life has a way of changing the best-laid plans. These 9/11 husbands and wives said goodbye to their children, “we'll see you for dinner,” a perfunctory wave—and they never saw them again. Dust, not even a body. And the idea I tell law students—who say, ”I'm going to be a corporate lawyer,” or “I'm going to be a litigator”—I tell them, “You have no idea what your legal career will look like. Look at Feinberg; he never planned on this. He never thought, in his wildest dreams, that this would be his chosen avenue of the law.”My advice: enjoy the moment. Do what you like now. Don't worry too much about what you'll be doing two years, five years, 10 years, a lifetime ahead of you. It doesn't work that way. Everybody gets thrown curveballs, and that's advice I give to everybody.DL: Well, you did not plan out your career, but it has turned out wonderfully, and the country is better for it. Thank you, Ken, both for your work on all these matters over the years and for joining me today.KF: A privilege and an honor. Thanks, David.DL: Thanks so much to Ken for joining me—and, of course, for his decades of work resolving some of the thorniest disputes in the country, which is truly a form of public service.Thanks to NexFirm for sponsoring the Original Jurisdiction podcast. NexFirm has helped many attorneys to leave Biglaw and launch firms of their own. To explore this opportunity, please contact NexFirm at 212-292-1000 or email careerdevelopment@nexfirm.com to learn more.Thanks to Tommy Harron, my sound engineer here at Original Jurisdiction, and thanks to you, my listeners and readers. To connect with me, please email me at davidlat@substack.com, or find me on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, at davidlat, and on Instagram and Threads at davidbenjaminlat.If you enjoyed today's episode, please rate, review, and subscribe. Please subscribe to the Original Jurisdiction newsletter if you don't already, over at davidlat.substack.com. This podcast is free, but it's made possible by paid subscriptions to the newsletter.The next episode should appear on or about Wednesday, November 12. Until then, may your thinking be original and your jurisdiction free of defects.Thanks for reading Original Jurisdiction, and thanks to my paid subscribers for making this publication possible. Subscribers get (1) access to Judicial Notice, my time-saving weekly roundup of the most notable news in the legal world; (2) additional stories reserved for paid subscribers; (3) transcripts of podcast interviews; and (4) the ability to comment on posts. You can email me at davidlat@substack.com with questions or comments, and you can share this post or subscribe using the buttons below. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit davidlat.substack.com/subscribe

It's not you, the Workers' Compensation system has changed over time, and not always for the best. Guest Christopher Godfrey, with a long career in Workers' Comp, including his current role as research director at the Workers'​ Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILAG) and a lengthy stint running the office of Compensation Programs at the U.S. Department of Labor, offers some insights.  Where a non-adversarial atmosphere used to prevail within Workers' Comp, Godfrey worries it has been driven toward a confrontational system with a struggle for unilateral control. That isn't how a program aimed at making injured workers whole and getting them back to work started out.  Also concerning Godfrey is a lack of funding for the Federal Employees' Compensation Program, making it difficult for injured federal workers to even find a doctor willing to accept them as patients.  In both state and federal systems, Workers' Comp is being buffeted by politics. Godfrey notes the government shutdown, a slowing employment environment, and even the potential for a stock market bubble threaten the system. Economics and politics can build hurdles that trickle down to how insurance companies and Workers' Comp plans operate. Godfrey shares his personal concerns and describes what WILAG is doing today to protect the rights of injured workers. If you have thoughts on Workers' Comp law or an idea for a topic or guest you'd like to hear, contact us at JPierce@ppnlaw.com or APierce@ppnlaw.com.  Mentioned in This Episode: Previously on Workers' Comp Matters, guest Kenneth Feinberg, “'A Patriotic Obligation;” Kenneth Feinberg and the 9/11 Fund” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's not you, the Workers' Compensation system has changed over time, and not always for the best. Guest Christopher Godfrey, with a long career in Workers' Comp, including his current role as research director at the Workers'​ Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILAG) and a lengthy stint running the office of Compensation Programs at the U.S. Department of Labor, offers some insights.  Where a non-adversarial atmosphere used to prevail within Workers' Comp, Godfrey worries it has been driven toward a confrontational system with a struggle for unilateral control. That isn't how a program aimed at making injured workers whole and getting them back to work started out.  Also concerning Godfrey is a lack of funding for the Federal Employees' Compensation Program, making it difficult for injured federal workers to even find a doctor willing to accept them as patients.  In both state and federal systems, Workers' Comp is being buffeted by politics. Godfrey notes the government shutdown, a slowing employment environment, and even the potential for a stock market bubble threaten the system. Economics and politics can build hurdles that trickle down to how insurance companies and Workers' Comp plans operate. Godfrey shares his personal concerns and describes what WILAG is doing today to protect the rights of injured workers. If you have thoughts on Workers' Comp law or an idea for a topic or guest you'd like to hear, contact us at JPierce@ppnlaw.com or APierce@ppnlaw.com.  Mentioned in This Episode: Previously on Workers' Comp Matters, guest Kenneth Feinberg, “'A Patriotic Obligation;” Kenneth Feinberg and the 9/11 Fund” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Want free negotiation coaching? Text John here.In this special episode of Negotiation Made Simple, host John Lowry sits down with renowned attorney and mediator Ken Feinberg, whose expertise has helped shape the outcomes of some of America's most tragic and high-profile cases, from the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund to the Boston Marathon bombing and Deepwater Horizon spill. Over the course of an insightful conversation, Feinberg shares the lessons he's learned from decades of negotiating for victims and their families, the importance of empathy in the negotiation process, and how to manage complex emotions in high-stakes situations.Feinberg offers a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to navigate sensitive, high-profile disputes, emphasizing the power of patience, transparency, and active listening. He reflects on how his early inspirations from President Kennedy have guided his commitment to public service and why he believes that, even amid tragedy, the role of the mediator is ultimately about creating paths for healing. This episode dives deep into the essence of peacemaking, the value of empathy, and the unifying power of community, leaving listeners with practical strategies for negotiating in any arena.Join us for a powerful exploration of negotiation that goes beyond tactics and strategies, illustrating the profound impact of compassion and humanity at the negotiation table.Kenneth R. Feinberg, one of the nation's leading lawyers, specializes in mediation and alternative dispute resolution and has helped to administer the response to some of the most complex public crises in recent American history, including Agent Orange, executive compensation following the 2008 financial crisis, the BP Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill, the Boston Marathon bombings, and, notably, the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund.  A former prosecutor and member of two Presidential Commissions, he is also adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, and New York University. He lives in Washington D.C.Get My Newest Book: Negotiation Made SimpleSchedule a Live WorkshopSchedule a Private WorkshopGet Private Coaching from MeGain Access to My Online CourseFollow Me on LinkedIn

There are few men politically or intellectually smarter than President Lyndon Johnson and his defense secretary Robert McNamara. So how did LBJ and McNamara screw up America's involvement in Vietnam so tragically? According to Peter Osnos, the author of LBJ and McNamara: The Vietnam Partnership Destined to Fail, it might have been because the two men were, in their own quite different ways, too smart. For Osnos - a legendary figure in American publishing who, amongst many other things, edited Donald Trump's Art of the Deal - the catastrophe of America's war in Vietnam is a parable about imperial hubris and overreach. According to Osnos, who has access to much previously unpublished material from McNamara, The Best and the Brightest orchestrated the worst and dumbest episode in American foreign policy. Peter Osnos began his journalism career in 1965 as an assistant to I. F. .Stone on his weekly newsletter. Between 1966–1984 Osnos was a reporter and foreign correspondent for The Washington Post and served as the newspaper's foreign and national editor. From 1984-1996 he was Vice President, Associate Publisher, and Senior Editor at Random House and Publisher of Random House's Times Books division. In 1997, he founded PublicAffairs. He served as Publisher and CEO until 2005, and was a consulting editor until 2020 when he and his wife, Susan Sherer Osnos, launched Platform Books LLC. Among the authors he has published and/or edited are — former President Jimmy Carter, Rosalyn Carter, Gen. Wesley Clark, Clark Clifford, former President Bill Clinton, Paul Farmer, Earvin (Magic) Johnson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Sam Donaldson, Kenneth Feinberg, Annette Gordon Reed, Meg Greenfield, Dorothy Height, Don Hewitt, Molly Ivins, Vernon Jordan, Ward Just, Stanley Karnow, Wendy Kopp, Charles Krauthammer, Brian Lamb, Jim Lehrer, Scott McClellan, Robert McNamara, Charles Morris, Peggy Noonan, William Novak, Roger Mudd. Former President Barack Obama, Speaker of the House Thomas P. (Tip) O'Neill, Nancy Reagan, Andy Rooney, Morley Safer, Natan Sharansky, George Soros, Susan Swain, President Donald Trump, Paul Volcker, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, and Nobel peace prize Winner Muhammad Yunus, as well as journalists from America's leading publications and prominent scholars. Osnos has also been a commentator and host for National Public Radio and a contributor to publications including Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic, and The New Republic. He wrote the Platform column for the Century Foundation, the Daily Beast and The Atlantic.com from 2006-2014. He has also served as Chair of the Trade Division of the Association of American Publishers and on the board of Human Rights Watch. From 2005-2009, he was executive director of The Caravan Project, funded by the MacArthur and Carnegie Foundations, which developed a plan for multi-platform publishing of books. He was the Vice-Chairman of the Columbia Journalism Review from  2007-2012. He is a member of The Council on Foreign Relations. He is a graduate of Brandeis and Columbia Universities. He lives in New York City, with his wife Susan, a consultant to human rights and philanthropic organizations. His children are Evan L.R. Osnos and Katherine Sanford. There are five grandchildren.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

Boyd reflects on a conversation he had a while back with Kenneth Feinberg, the man who was entrusted with the monumental task of administering the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. Initially met with skepticism and anger, Feinberg's compassionate approach and tireless efforts over three years transformed the Fund into a resounding success with over 97% of eligible families participating. Through this extraordinary experience, Feinberg gained profound insights into the complexities of human grief, resilience, and the limits of monetary compensation in healing deep emotional wounds.  

Marcia Franklin talks with attorney Kenneth Feinberg, the special master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund and the administrator of the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Trust and the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund at Virginia Tech. Mr. Feinberg also has served as special master in the Agent Orange, TARP executive compensation, asbestos personal injury, Dalkon shield, and DES (pregnancy medication) cases. The two discuss how Feinberg found himself developing the field of mass tort compensation, what factors he took into account when designing the programs he administered, how the nature of his assignments has affected him, whether there is a role for government in compensating victims of disasters and whether he thinks the funds he's administered are appropriate models for the future. Feinberg has written two books about his experiences, "What is Life Worth?" and "Who Gets What," and has served as adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, New York University, and the University of Virginia. He was in Idaho in October to present the annual Bellwood Memorial Lecture at the University of Idaho College of Law. Originally aired: 11/16/2012

Amid mounting claims for reparations for slavery and colonialism, historian Zoe Strimpel asks how far reparative justice should go. Should we limit reparations to the living survivors of state atrocities, such as the Holocaust, or should we re-write the rulebook to include the ancestors of victims who suffered historical injustices centuries ago? Alongside testimony from a Holocaust survivor and interviews with lawyers, historians and reparations advocates, Zoe hears about the long shadow cast by slavery - lumbering Caribbean states and societies with a legacy that they are still struggling with today. Are demands for slavery reparations just another front in the culture war designed to leverage white guilt? Will they inevitably validate countless other claims to rectify historical grievances? Or are they a necessary step for diverse societies to draw in the extremes of a polarised debate so we can write a common history that we can all live with? Presenter: Zoe Strimpel Producer: David Reid Editor: Clare Fordham Contributors Mala Tribich, Holocaust survivor. Michael Newman, Chief Executive, Association of Jewish Refugees. Albrecht Ritschtl, Professor of Economic History, London School of Economics Dr. Opal Palmer Adisa, former director, University of West Indies. Kenneth Feinberg, Master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. Tomiwa Owolade, journalist and author of "This is not America". Alex Renton, journalist, author and co-founder of Heirs of Slavery. Dr Hardeep Dhillon, historian, University of Pennsylvania. James Koranyi, Associate Professor of modern European History at the University of Durham.

A bonus podcast where we look into the untimely deaths of Beverly Eckert, whose husband was killed on 9/11, and then she died in a plane crash just days after meeting Obama. She was one of the first in the 9/11 truth movement. She turned down $1.8 million to fight for the truth. We compare her plight to Senator Wellstone's. We also look at Kenneth Feinberg, who was in charge of the Spetember 11th Victim Compensation Fund. He also had ties to Sandy hook, Aurora, Virginia tech, BP Oil Spill, the United Methodist Church split, and much more.Show notes:https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11718755/Seat-seat-scientists-reveal-risk-dying-airplane-crashes.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9/11_Family_Steering_Committeehttp://falsificationofhistory.co.uk/geopolitics/the-murder-of-beverly-eckert/https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/06/joachim-hagopian/tribute-to-the-last-honorable-us-senator-the-story-of-paul-wellstones-suspected-assassination/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Feinberg

The former special master for the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund and Deepwater Horizon disaster made clear in an interview that he saw no need for a similar process to take place with respect to the highly classified documents found in former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago property."I think that this is judicial overreach, especially in a case involving highly sensitive classified documents," prominent attorney Kenneth Feinberg, who has served as a special master in high-profile litigation and government appointments, says on the podcast. "The court should not be intervening in such a executive branch function, traditionally and historically."A little more than a week ago, Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon did just that, finding judicial oversight justified by the "undeniably unprecedented" nature of an investigation of a former president. The government has appealed the order to the 11th Circuit, warning that the disclosure of the documents with "TOP SECRET" markings alone would cause "exceptionally grave damage" to U.S. national security. Prosecutors did not seek a stay of the ruling as to the more than 11,000 government documents without classification markings that the FBI found inside Mar-a-Lago.With a special master review imminent in at least some form, Feinberg answers questions about the process going ahead — starting with, what is a "special master," anyway? Though he disagrees with the judge's ruling and Trump's legal team, he also articulates what he believes their strongest arguments are.SUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieSidebarThey Walk Among AmericaCoptales and CocktailsThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What is the value of a life? In the days following the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center... Kenneth Feinberg was tasked with assigning a monetary value to the life of each life lost that day. Boyd looks back at what Kenneth told him about his experience administering the federal 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund and lessons learned about the value of human life. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's been a tragic week for Saskatchewan's Cree Nation, following the stabbing spree that killed 10 and injured another 18 on Sunday. Both suspects are deceased. Tribal Chief Mark Arcand is the head of the Saskatoon's Tribal Council, and also a mourner who lost a sister and nephew in the attacks. Arcand joins us. And, the Netflix film "Worth" tells the story of attorney Kenneth Feinberg who administered the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. The film is based on Feinberg's book "What is Life Worth." We revisit our 2021 conversation with Feinberg and his office administrator, Camille Biros.

The 2020 movie Worth shows how Kenneth Feinberg (played by Michael Keaton) and Camille Biros (played by Amy Ryan) tackled the impossible task of determining the worth of life to help families affected by the September 11th attacks. Kenneth and Camille join us today to chat about what the movie got right, what it got wrong and a peek into the true story. Dig deeper into the true story Read Kenneth's book that the movie was based on called What Is Life Worth?: The Unprecedented Effort to Compensate the Victims of 9/11 Get it here: https://bookshop.org/a/9789/9781586484514 Did you enjoy this episode? You can find the transcript and show notes for this episode at: https://www.basedonatruestorypodcast.com/200/ Support our sponsors: https://www.basedonatruestorypodcast.com/advertisers Or get ad-free content and exclusive bonus content by supporting the show directly: https://basedonatruestorypodcast.com/support/ Get a peek at upcoming episodes with the email newsletter.https://www.basedonatruestorypodcast.com/newsletter/ Want a chance to be heard on the show? Leave a voicemail at +1 (405) 334-4672.

Chris Jones is the author “The Eye Test: A Case for Human Creativity in the Age of Analytics.” Jones describes the book as the distillation of everything he has learned from creative people over his journalism career. He says he's trying to make the case that analytics are useful, but they have their limitations. “The Eye Test” digs into seven different areas where there are a lot of analytical inputs, but stories of those analytics coming up short. Those chapters include Entertainment, Sports, Weather, Politics, Crime, Money, and Medicine. This is Jones's third book. His most recent book was “Too Far from Home,” which was retitled “Out of Orbit” in paperback. It first came out in 2007. Jones has been on the podcast twice before. He was featured on Episode 17 in January of 2014. At the time, we talked about his Kenneth Feinberg profile that ran in Esquire, as well as his 50th anniversary story on the JFK assassination. In April of 2020, when the pandemic was just getting started, Episode 82 included an interview with Jones focused on the different types of writing he had been doing since leaving Esquire, including screenwriting. Jones was a longtime reporter for Esquire, where he won a National Magazine Award twice, including in 2009 for “The Things That Carried Him.” He was a writer and producer on the Netflix series “Away.” He has written for The New York Times, ESPN: The Magazine, and many other publications.

My next guest, Kenneth Feinberg, literally stopped me in my tracks.  Ken is a prominent attorney, a world-renowned MEDIATOR and the one time chief of staff of the late U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy.  But when we all stood still on 9/11 after one of the most horrific terrorist attacks the world has ever seen, Ken stood up and wanted – indeed asked - to be counted.Ken was appointed as the Special Master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund just a few weeks after the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.  In this role, Ken met with nearly every family who was a victim of 9/11 at the absolute height of their grief.  He listened.  He empathised.  He held space for their sorrow.  He travelled the length and breadth of the country to make it easier for families to meet with him.  He enlisted the support of others, including clergy, when victims' families were simply too broken to apply for their share of the Fund.  He even offered to fill in the forms on behalf of the victims.  Whilst Ken could never return a father to a grieving child, or a son to an inconsolable mother, or a husband to a pregnant wife, what he could do was ensure that some of victims' dreams would continue in their absence and that financial hardship would not be another challenge for these all, but shattered, families.  Ken presided over this unprecedented Fund that ultimately awarded over $7.1 billion DOLLARS of public taxpayer money to the families of 2,983 killed and approximately 2,400 physically injured and maimed, in the most devastating of ways on 9/11.The administration of this Fund took 33 months.  Ken Feinberg was never paid a cent for his efforts, insisting he take on the role on a pro bono basis.  His epic story, now memorialised in his memoir – WHAT IS LIFE WORTH – has inspired the extraordinary Netflix film WORTH starring Michael Keaton and Stanley Tucci.On a more personal note, from the first instance I had the pleasure of coming across Ken, I have been overwhelmed by his warmth, generosity and his impeccable character.  His Solomonic efforts in fighting for fair for every single claimant is just incredible.So it is with immense humility and gratitude that I welcome Kenneth R Feinberg to the BRAVE JOURNEYS family.This is Ken's story…. BUT BEFORE YOU GO…Find out more about Ken hereFind Ken's books hereFind out more about Tam hereFollow Tam on InstaDefinition of "mensch" -a person of integrity and honour.Follow BRAVE JOURNEYS on InstaJoin the conversation and chat about the episode hereNEED MORE INSPIRATION?Find other BRAVE JOURNEYS episodes hereCREDITS: Creator, Host & Executive Producer: Tammi Faraday With thanks to my special guest: Kenneth R FeinbergAudio Editor: Zoltan FecsoWith very special thanks to George Weinberg and Ursula FergusonBRAVE JOURNEYS acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we record this podcast on, the Yaluk-ut Weelam Clan of the Boon Wurrung who are part of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respect to their Elders, both past, present and

"You have to exhibit empathy, but you have to exhibit empathy in other ways than mouthing cliche or something like that." - Kenneth Feinberg What was the emotional impact of administering the 9/11 Compensation Fund? What are the main responsibilities of a mediator? How do great leaders deal with pushback? Why does the American legal system approach tort law differently with certain individuals? Man in the Middle: Origins of a Mediator Kenneth Feinberg has been described as an attorney who "has appeared at nearly every scene of tragedy and disaster in the US in the past two decades" by the Financial Times. From 9/11 to the BP oil spill, Kenneth has been at the heart of some of the biggest social catastrophes in modern history. He has faced an abundance of loss and sadness, yet has balanced the course of justice through financial reparations. While he claims to have fallen into mediation by accident, once asked to mediate the agent orange situation over in Vietnam, he soon found his feet and what followed has been a storied career. Through his many bittersweet successes, Kenneth has written two books, one of which has been adapted into a film. Featured on Netflix in 2020, the motion picture “Worth” unpacks the processes Kenneth had to face when supporting the victims of 9/11. The film features high-profile figures such as Michael Keaton and Stanley Tucci. Even with the recognition brought on through media prominence, Feinberg never views his successes as “justice,” but rather “mercy” — and while situational factors are irreversible, Kenneth does everything in his power to hopefully bring long-awaited relief. A Shoulder to Cry On: Approaching Empathy Dealing with the bereaved is never an easy endeavor. Nothing you say can be up to the task. Early in his career, Feinberg attempted to console a grieving father by saying, "I know how you feel" which was met with the response, "Don't ever tell someone like me you know how I feel." By attempting to empathize through shared emotion, Kenneth realized he had to find another way to relate to clients dealing with loss. Offering financial certainty can bring a glimmer of hope to those who struggle, and providing support can make a world of difference. Through resilience and willingness to succeed, he's managed to win settlements exceeding billions of dollars throughout his career. Not Just a Suit: Heart Behind the Job Kenneth states that “there's a lot of personality involved in being an effective mediator.” It takes a huge emotional investment to work in proximity to so much grief. Many involved in the 9/11 Compensation Fund were left angry and unsatisfied with the process. In an interview with Damien Carrick, Feinberg says those involved often asked, "Why did the government let us down?" But even when dealt a difficult hand, Kenneth has produced magnificent results across an illustrious career. In our discussion, Kenneth draws on the overriding emotional element of his job, the success stories, the heartbreaking details, and the limitations that the legal system often presents. Key takeaways: Empathize: Understanding and appreciating the emotions of those around you goes a long way. Structured Approach: Resolving conflict comes in many forms. Equality: Equality comes from placing everyone on the same pedestal. Links and Resources The Game Changing Attorney Podcast Michael Mogill Facebook Michael Mogill Twitter Michael Mogill Instagram Michael Mogill LinkedIn Crisp Website Crisp Facebook Crisp Twitter Crisp Instagram Crisp LinkedIn What is Life Worth? - Book Website Who Gets What - Book Website

Kenneth Feinberg served as the Special Master of the U.S. government's September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. He has also been responsible for compensation programs for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, the Virginia Tech massacre, and other tragedies. He is also the subject of the documentary "Playing God" as well as the new Netflix film “Worth”. Ken Feinberg reflects on how he navigates the pressures and difficulties of deciding the literal financial value and material worth of a person's life. He also shares his thoughts on negotiating and the fine art of listening and being a better communicator. And Ken Feinberg offers some life wisdom about the importance of family, what is means to be “working class”, mistakes people make when deciding to become a lawyer, and how his upbringing shaped his values and the man he would become. Chauncey DeVega reflects on why so many people hate Hillary Clinton even though she was correct in warning about the damage to American society and democracy that is being caused by Donald Trump's “deplorables” and other neofascist cult members. And Chauncey continues to warn that mass denial (especially by the corporate news media) about Trump's coup, Jan. 6, and escalating political violence by the Jim Crow Republican fascists and their movement will not save the American people. SELECTED LINKS OF INTEREST FOR THIS EPISODE OF THE CHAUNCEY DEVEGA SHOW CNN Poll: Most Americans feel democracy is under attack in the US White terror: Millions of Americans say they'd support violence to restore Trump to power Robert Pape on insurrectionist movement in U.S. - "Intelligence Matters" The Entire United States Is Now the Reichstag Building Will the mainstream media ever face its failure to tell the truth about Jan. 6? WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME? On Twitter: https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega My email: chaunceydevega@gmail.com HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE CHAUNCEY DEVEGA SHOW? Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thechaunceydevegashow Music at the end of this week's episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show is by JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound. You can listen to some of their great music on Spotify.

In the first portion of part 2 of our thoughts and recollections about the 20th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, we discuss a couple of relevant and current events related to 9/11. First we discuss the new Spike Lee HBO documentary series which omitted an entire segment about the world trade center, including an interview with Richard Gage, formerly of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth. Then we talk about the new Netflix movie “Worth” which stars Michael Keaton as the 9/11 victims paymaster, Kenneth Feinberg, as well as a deep dive into Feinberg's history and the causes he has taken up and involved himself in over the years. support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/theantedote https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/08/spike-lee-hbo-documentary-richard-gage.amp https://www.architectmagazine.com/design/architects-shy-from-trutherism_o?o=1 https://screwloosechange.blogspot.com/ https://www.ae911truth.org/news/779-spike-lee-s-9-11-doc-still-has-the-building-blocks-he-was-laying-for-his-controlled-demolition-expose https://slate.com/culture/2021/09/worth-netflix-movie-true-story-september-11.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Feinberg --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-antedote/support

In this reflective episode I discuss something that bugs me - the always or never fallacy. We often exaggerated and use hyperbole to emphasis our stories, but society is often a reflection of our complacency at recognising the things that make us unique and the grey areas of life most of us inhabit. We consider Kenneth Feinberg's unenviable role in the aftermath of 9/11 and how recognising the nuance that makes us unique is in conflict with the need to generalise. Show notesWhat if life worth? The unprecedented effort to compensate the victims of 9/11 - Kenneth FeinbergThe Here and Now Podcast on FacebookThe Here and Now Podcast on TwitterSend me an emailSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/thehereandnowpodcast)

How do you price a life? That was the question facing Kenneth Feinberg in the days after 9-11. He joined Boyd to talk about his work on that tragedy and the shares stories of the people behind the insurance payouts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Guest Kenneth Feinberg was appointed by President George W. Bush to administer the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund after one of our greatest tragedies. In a very special episode of Workers' Comp Matters, he shares how his team raced to administer $7.1 billion to families and victims of the 2001 terror attacks.  Feinberg compares the unique, Congressionally mandated process to current Workers' Compensation and the raw emotions that made his charge painfully difficult. Working with thousands of survivors and injured victims, his team worked thr`ough their anger, sadness, and skepticism to resolve virtually every claim in 33 months. He calls his pro bono service “a patriotic obligation.”  The podcast is the first of two commemorating the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy and how a nation came together to support the victims, grieve, and heal.

Guest Kenneth Feinberg was appointed by President George W. Bush to administer the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund after one of our greatest tragedies. In a very special episode of Workers' Comp Matters, he shares how his team raced to administer $7.1 billion to families and victims of the 2001 terror attacks.  Feinberg compares the unique, Congressionally mandated process to current Workers' Compensation and the raw emotions that made his charge painfully difficult. Working with thousands of survivors and injured victims, his team worked thr`ough their anger, sadness, and skepticism to resolve virtually every claim in 33 months. He calls his pro bono service “a patriotic obligation.”  The podcast is the first of two commemorating the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy and how a nation came together to support the victims, grieve, and heal.

On this week's episode of Kickin & Streamin Podcast Graham & Jocelyn the Netflix original movie Worth, starring Michael Keaton, Stanley Tucci, and Amy Ryan. The film is based on the real-life story of New York lawyer Kenneth Feinberg who was assigned Special Master of the 9/11 Fund to the victims and loved-ones of the attacks on 9/11, 2001 on the Twin Towers in New York City. Graham & Jocelyn began by reflecting on the way the 9/11 attacks have changed our way of life both in the US as in the rest of the world. Graham highlighted how Michael Keaton seems to become more of an iconic actor with some of his most remarkable performances as he get older. Jocelyn discuss how she learned about the real Kenneth Feinberg's work with the 9/11 fund through some reporting on the CBS's iconic weekly news program 60 Minutes. Jocelyn praised Ken Feinberg's ability to change his point of view and by doing so, making the fund's assignments to the victims' families fairer. Graham & Jocelyn also praised Stanley Tucci's performance as the Charles Wolf, the grieving widower who made it his life mission to persuade the government and Ken Feinberg to review their original methods of distributing the funds to a fairer system.  This episode will also be available to watch on our YouTube channel and please don't forget to subscribe for future episodes. If you like this episode, please rate us on your podcast player, and subscribe for future episodes. Follow us on social media on Faceboook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. You can also support the show by becoming a Patron on our Patreon page where you'll become eligible for our exclusive patrons-only contents. Finally, we'd like you to visit our merchandise store on Teespring where you can purchase our beautiful and stylish t-shirts, pullover, and mug.

Nathan Eckersley sits down with American lawyer Ken Feinberg who was Special Master of the 9/11 Victim's Compensation Fund, and the subject of the new Netflix film "Worth". Kenneth Feinberg is an American attorney, specializing in mediation and alternative dispute resolution. Feinberg was appointed Special Master of the U.S. government's September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, where his role was to literally decide how much human life was worth. Since then he has led compensation funds for victims of disasters including the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster, the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, the Boeing 737 Max Crash and the Volkswagen emissions scandal. He is portrayed by Michael Keaton in the Netflix film "Worth". DISCLAIMER: Any facts, statistics and news stories mentioned in this episode are true and relevant as of the time it was recorded. All opinions stated on this podcast are representative only of the people they are credited to and are not a representation of any sponsors, advertisers or partners involved in The Nathan Eckersley Podcast, including W!ZARD Studios and Nathan Eckersley. Please do not try to send in a message or opinion whilst listening to this podcast as your message won't be read but you might still be charged. For our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions, please visit: www.wizardradio.co.uk Spotted a mistake on this podcast? Let us know and we'll try to fix it. Message us using the Contact Form on: www.wizardradio.co.uk/about Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Keaton (“The Protege”) portrays lawyer Kenneth Feinberg in “Worth,” a Netflix original drama. Feinberg was the head of the 9/11 Victims' Compensation Fund, assigned with the unenviable task of […] The post Take Two: “Worth” (PG-13) appeared first on KKFI.

Michael Keaton (“The Protege”) portrays lawyer Kenneth Feinberg in “Worth,” a Netflix original drama. Feinberg was the head of the 9/11 Victims’ Compensation Fund, assigned with the unenviable task of deciding what a human life was worth. The post Take Two: “Worth” (PG-13) appeared first on KKFI.

9月3號，星期五，Netflix 推出新電影《生命的價值》(Worth) ，講的是9/11恐怖襲擊之後，華盛頓律師Kenneth Feinberg和他的團隊是如何決定給5,562受害人及家屬的賠償金的。罹難的這些人，從清潔工到投資商，每個人都是一條命，但賠償金額的多少，則是一個殘酷的數學公式和數字。沒有可能讓所有的人都滿意和接受。

Chris and Taylor review the new Netflix biographical film "Worth" written by Max Borenstein and directed by Sara Colangelo. Based on the book "What Is Life Worth?" by Kenneth Feinberg, the film follows Kenneth's challenges of running the fund that is meant to compensate the victim's families after the September 11th attacks. The film stars Michael Keaton, Amy Ryan, Stanley Tucci, Tate Donovan, Laura Benanti, Shunori Ramanthan and Chris Tardio.

The new Netflix film "Worth" tells the story of attorney Kenneth Feinberg, who administered the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. We speak with Feinberg and his office administrator Camille Biros. And, climate change in Nigeria has led to seasons of drought and excess flood, impacting agriculture and causing loss of farmland. Environmentalist Nnimmo Bassey talks about the impact climate change is having on the country and the government's response to the crisis.

With the Taliban and ISIS K taking hold in Afghanistan, former jihadist and MI6 spy inside al Qaeda Aimen Dean joins Christiane Amanpour and explains that the Kabul attack may inspire others and extremist groups may now come out of their sleeper cell mode. Then Michael Keaton, screenwriter Max Borenstein and attorney Ken Feinberg discuss their new film "Worth" that captures the work of the 9/11 victim compensation fund. Returning to Afghanistan, Syrian filmmaker and activist Hassan Akkad who sought asylum in the UK in 2015 gives an insight into what it's like to be uprooted from your home, something he details in his new book “Hope Not Fear.” Washington Post sports journalist Kent Babb follows a high school football season in his new book, "Across the River." Our Walter Isaacson speaks to him alongside football coach Nick Foster about keeping young students out of the line of fire in Louisiana where homicide rates were the highest in the country in 2019. To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

In this weeks episode of the world's-fastest-movie-review podcast Jackson and Mike review two new films. "WORTH" In Washington, D.C., lawyer Kenneth Feinberg battles cynicism, bureaucracy and politics to help the victims of 9/11. Starring Michael Keaton, Amy Ryan, and Stanley Tucci. And a quick review of “CINDERELLA” A musical film based on the fairy tale of the same name. Starring Camila Cabello, Idina Menzel, Minnie Driver, Billy Porter, and Pierce Brosnan.

Wir rauchen die neue Davidoff 110th Anniversary und sprechen über Kenneth Feinberg, den bekannten US-amerikanischen Anwalt, der vor allem in diversen Schlichtungsprozessen zum Einsatz gekommen ist und damit moralische Fragen aufgeworfen hat. Außerdem reden wir kurz über die erste Yoga Stunde, die Michael und Andreas absolviert haben und wie überraschen das war.

Today on Boston Public Radio: Washington Post opinion columnist EJ Dionne discusses the litany of challenges facing President Biden, and why he believes he ought to prioritize urgency over unity. He also talks about his expectations for the future of the filibuster. Victim’s rights attorney Kenneth Feinberg discusses the open question of whether a federal victim’s compensation fund ought to be instated in response to the pandemic. We then open lines to listeners, to hear your thoughts on whether a COVID-19 victim compensation fund is necessary. Daniel Lieberman, a professor in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, talks about his new book, “Exercised,” about the evolution of humans and our aversion to exercising.  Revs. Irene Monroe and Emmett Price, hosts of GBH’s All Rev’d Up, talk about the need for civil rights leaders to maintain pressure on the Biden administration on issues of racial equity, and weigh in on critiques of Biden from conservative faith leaders in the Catholic Church.  Boston Globe business columnist Shirley Leung speak on her reporting about struggling Boston restaurants, and renewed focus from city and state leaders in prioritizing small businesses for grants and loans. She also talks about the challenges facing Mayor Marty Walsh as U.S. Labor Secretary. We close out Monday’s show by opening lines, talking with listeners about your experiences trying to stay in shape in quarantine.  

Putting a Price on Life A Powerful Evening with Attorney Kenneth Feinberg Special Master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (Recorded live in Atlanta on November 5, 2020) Is a stockbroker’s life worth more than a janitor’s? Kenneth Feinberg has had to answer this question regularly in his unprecedented job of dispersing compensation to victims of historic disasters, including 9/11, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, GM’s fatal ignition switch recall, the Boston Marathon Bombing, and the Newton, Aurora, and Virginia Tech shootings.

Kenneth Feinberg, author of "What Is Life Worth" and "Who Gets What?", on being 9-11 mediator. Fernand de Varennes, UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, on statelessness. Bill Groner of SSAM Alternative Dispute Resolution on his book, "9/12: The Epic Battle of the Ground Zero Responders". Tom Smith of Brigham Young Univ on polar bears. Staci Gruber of Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital on medical cannabis.

Learn from the most successful people and companies every week with Polina Marinova’s The Profile, a popular weekly newsletter that features stories and dossiers on people and companies across areas of business, entertainment, tech, sports, and more. Take for example, in a recently published dossier, The Profile highlights Kenneth Feinberg, the Master of Disaster, and his life as the man who oversees the funds that compensates victims of events such as 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, and the Boston Marathon bombings, to name a few. Polina is the former author of Fortune Magazine’s Term Sheet, a widely-read daily newsletter on deals and dealmakers, startups and venture capitalists. She has interviewed some of the most inspirational and successful people in business, and she joins 33N83W remotely from her home office in NYC to talk about The Profile and the impact that Covid-19 has had on some of our favorite startups and businesses.

Back in November, podcast host Matt Tullis talked with Chris Jones. Tullis wanted to talk with him about writing for a book he’s working on, a book focused on how to report and write narrative journalism. Tullis talked with Jones about writing for about 30 minutes. They talked about how Jones wrote “The Things That Carried Him,” which Jones won a National Magazine Award for in 2009. They talked about his Zanesville zoo story and his Roger Ebert profile and his Kenneth Feinberg profile. They also talked about Jones making the move to screenwriting. Jones made quite a career for himself at Esquire. He was regularly included in Best American Sports Writing for work he did for ESPN The Magazine. Now he’s a writer for the Netflix show Away. The show is loosely based on Jone’s Esquire story with the same title. That show will likely be released later this year. Jones was on the podcast back in January 2014. At the time, he talked about his Feinberg piece, as well as a story he wrote about what happened on Air Force One immediately after President John F. Kennedy was killed.

The Battle to Compensate Ground Zero First RespondersGuest: Bill Groner, founder &CEO, SSAM Alternative Dispute Resolution, co-author “9/12: The Epic Battle of the Ground Zero Responders”When the World Trade Center's Twin Towers fell to terrorists on September 11, 2001, an army of first responders rushed to Ground Zero. First it was a rescue effort. But for months and months after that –well into the following year –thousands of people worked in and around Ground Zero and at the landfill where debris was dumped and sorted. Construction workers, coroners, fire and police officers. All breathing dust that we now know contained toxic chemicals. In the years that followed, many would develop serious lung illnesses –and even cancers. Finding fake volcanoes and dealing with the real onesGuest: Janine Krippner, PhD., Volcanologist at the Smithsonian Institute Volvanologist Program and host of the Popular Volcanics podcastThere are fewer volcanoes today than there were just a few weeks ago thanks to people like volcanologist Janine Krippner. She works at the Smithsonian and one of her jobs is to sniff out imposters on the official list of volcanoes. Yes, there's an official list. And best beware if you're a volcano-wannabe, cause Krippner has no qualms killing your dream. Is Compassionate Release an Option for Aging Prison Populations?Guest: Tina Maschi, PhD, Associate Professor at the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service in New York City The number of elderly prisoners in the US is going up, and fast. Some projections estimate that by 2030, one third of prisoners will be age 55 and up. As those inmates get older, many will get sick and some will die in prison. Not only does that mean more taxpayer dollars to take care of them, but it also creates a moral dilemma: do you let someone die alone behind bars? President Trump Says Deal with Taliban is Dead. What Next?Guest: Michael Kugelman, Deputy Director and Senior Associate for South Asia, Wilson Center in Washington, DCIt's been 18 years since Al Qaeda's terrorist attacks on US soil. And 18 years since the US struck back in Afghanistan, where the Taliban was giving safe haven to Al Qaeda. That's now America's longest war. But a peace deal between the US and the Taliban had been close at hand. Imminent, we were told. And American troops would be coming home soon. But now? “(The talks) are dead, as far as I'm concerned they're dead,” said President Trump on Monday. “(The Taliban) thought they had to kill people in order to put themselves in a little better negotiating position. When they did that they killed 12 people. One happened to be a great American soldier.” Kenneth Feinberg on Deciding What a Life is WorthGuest: Kenneth Feinberg, Former Special Master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, Author of “What Is Life Worth?” And “Who Gets What?”2,977 people died when terrorists hijacked commercial airplanes and crashed them into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. More than 6,000 others were injured. Just eleven days after the attacks, Congress created a $7 billion fund to compensate those victims and their families. The man tasked with deciding who would get what –how much each life was worth in dollars and cents –was Kenneth Feinberg. Since then, he's overseen victim compensation funds for mass shootings in Aurora, Newtown, Orlando and Las Vegas and for the Boston Marathon Bombing. BP hired him to award compensation to victims of the Gulf Oil spill. He's now handling compensation for victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and for the families of people who died in the Boeing 737 plane crashes.

In the days after September 11, 2001, Kenneth Feinberg took on an unenviable task. Congress had created the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, and it was his job to figure out who should receive money and how much they should get. But much of his time was spent doing something else: listening to people’s stories. Nearly two decades later, he’s still the person we turn to in the wake of our worst catastrophes.

In the days after September 11, 2001, Kenneth Feinberg took on an unenviable task. Congress had created the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, and it was his job to figure out who should receive money and how much they should get. But much of his time was spent doing something else: listening to people’s stories. Nearly two decades later, he’s still the person we turn to in the wake of our worst catastrophes.

If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers.- Thomas Pynchon, Fake Elections, Wikileaks, Pizzagate, Clinton Scandals,The Franklin Coverup, Monica Lewinsky, Wag the Dog, JFK, Dealey Plaza, The Trident, Psi, Psychological Operations, Donald J Trump, Commercialization of September 11th, Alex Jones, Reince Priebus, Kenneth Feinberg, Guaranteed Minimum Income, Brexit, Theresa May. Sean, Rick, and John on the call. hoaxbusterscall.com

At the time of his visit on the podcast, Chris Jones was a writer at large for Esquire, as well as a back-page columnist for ESPN The Magazine. Jones has twice won National Magazine Awards. In 2009, his story “The Things that Carried Him” won for feature writing. Jones is an expert profile writer. His 2010 piece on the late Roger Ebert is, in our opinion, one of the best celebrity profiles ever written. It’s touching and poignant, showing a side of the film critic that hadn’t been seen since Ebert’s battle with cancer. Most recently, Jones turned his eye on a man most have never heard of, but a man who has been involved in nearly every major tragic event in recent US history. His Esquire story, “Kenneth Feinberg: the nation’s leading expert in picking up the pieces,” looks at the man who decides how much money the surviving victims of horrific shootings and bombings get once there is a monetary fund set up for those victims. In October 2012 he wrote a historical piece on what happened on Air Force 1 immediately after the President John F. Kennedy assassination. In 2011, Jones participated in a virtual roundtable discussion moderated by podcast host Matt Tullis. That discussion focused on journalism as a sub-genre of creative nonfiction, and was published in Creative Nonfiction in the Winter 2012 issue of the magazine. The discussion was ultimately the inspiration for the podcast. Since joining the podcast, Jones wrote a piece about astronaut Scott Kelly as he prepared to spend a full year in outer space.

One of the nations premier legal experts and administrator of Mass Torts, Kenneth Feinberg, joins Speaking of Justice this week to discuss his newly announced role as the point man for VW of America in resolving their emissions scandal and the claims that are arising as a result.  Ken Feinberg has evolved into the "go to guy" on just about every major Mass Tort, ranging from his work on the 9/11 settlements, to the BP Oil Spill, the Sandusky claims, GM ignition litigation and others. His firm, Feinberg Law Offices is in constant demand when large scale solutions are needed for complex and tragic litigation.  In this audio podcast host Mark Wahlstrom and Ken Feinberg discus not just the VW case, but the issues that arise when a special master, or "settlement czar" is appointed to expedite settlements outside of the typical mass tort or class action process. Does it provide a better result for claimants? Is it a material threat to the legal rights of injured parties? Are lawyers simply opposed because it cuts them out of the compensation model?

One of the nations premier legal experts and administrator of Mass Torts, Kenneth Feinberg, joins Speaking of Justice this week to discuss his newly announced role as the point man for VW of America in resolving their emissions scandal and the claims that are arising as a result.  Ken Feinberg has evolved into the "go to guy" on just about every major Mass Tort, ranging from his work on the 9/11 settlements, to the BP Oil Spill, the Sandusky claims, GM ignition litigation and others. His firm, Feinberg Law Offices is in constant demand when large scale solutions are needed for complex and tragic litigation.  In this audio podcast host Mark Wahlstrom and Ken Feinberg discus not just the VW case, but the issues that arise when a special master, or "settlement czar" is appointed to expedite settlements outside of the typical mass tort or class action process. Does it provide a better result for claimants? Is it a material threat to the legal rights of injured parties? Are lawyers simply opposed because it cuts them out of the compensation model? Follow Speaking of Justice on Facebook, SoundCloud, Itunes and other social media sites. 

Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg View columnist Barry Ritholtz interviews Kenneth Feinberg, who is best known for serving as the Special Master of the Federal September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001. They discuss grief and compensation. This interview aired on Bloomberg Radio.

Kenneth Feinberg is best known for the work that he did as the Special Master of the Victim Compensation Fund that was established by Congress to distribute billions of taxpayer dollars to those who were either injured or lost loved ones during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Since then he has presided over the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund to compensate the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings, the BP Oil Spill Fund, the Aurora Victim Relief Fund, and the Boston Marathon Fund. Currently, Feinberg is working with General Motors to vet the claims that are now being made as a result of a defective ignition switch that has so far been blamed for at least 13 deaths. In January, Feinberg spoke with UC Hastings law professor Evan Lee about the challenges he's faced. Series: "Legally Speaking" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 28448]

Kenneth Feinberg is best known for the work that he did as the Special Master of the Victim Compensation Fund that was established by Congress to distribute billions of taxpayer dollars to those who were either injured or lost loved ones during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Since then he has presided over the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund to compensate the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings, the BP Oil Spill Fund, the Aurora Victim Relief Fund, and the Boston Marathon Fund. Currently, Feinberg is working with General Motors to vet the claims that are now being made as a result of a defective ignition switch that has so far been blamed for at least 13 deaths. In January, Feinberg spoke with UC Hastings law professor Evan Lee about the challenges he's faced. Series: "Legally Speaking" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 28448]

Special Master of the Federal September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 Kenneth Feinberg discusses how the law values human life and how compensation can reflect self-worth in the eyes of the recipient. Kenneth Feinberg is interviewed by Steve Clemmons.

Kenneth Feinberg lays out the parameters for relief to state fair victims. Lincoln Plowman caught on tape. A jobs plan from Melina Kennedy, a school voucher report and the Colts without Peyton Manning.

"The time has come" says Foytlin, "we have exhausted our options, collected the facts, tried negotiation, gone from meeting to meeting. The oil is still here. We are still here, and we will not wait! Take care of my people on the coast!" Since last summer, when Foytlin reached out to President Obama (to no avail), she has attended countless town hall meetings, community forums, and has walked from New Orleans to Washington DC in order to be sure federal officials are aware of the unresolved economic, environmental, and health devastation caused by the BP disaster. Foytlin is one of several dozen Gulf Coast fishermen, BP clean-up workers, residents and community organizers who gathered in front of BP Headquarters in New Orleans to mark the one year anniversary of the date when the White House falsely claimed that 75% of the oil was gone from the Gulf of Mexico. The group demanded BP and Kenneth Feinberg honor health claims and operate a transparent and fair claims process for those impacted financially. Feinberg has denied all health claims and has approved less than 40% of all claims submitted. Tonight! Hear first hand accounts from locals who are reaching out to fellow Americans to hear their stories and accounts of what is STILL HAPPENING right in our own back yard. What is STILL happening in the Gulf? Find out TONIGHT!

Last week the Obama administration's ”pay czar ” Kenneth Feinberg announced that the government will impose caps on compensation for the 25 highest-paid executives at seven companies that received ”exceptional assistance” through the Troubled Asset Relief Program -- including American International Group (AIG) Bank of America Citigroup Chrysler Chrysler Financial General Motors and GMAC. Under the new regulations salaries will be reduced by an average of 90% and total compensation (including bonuses and stock options) will be lowered by 50%. Knowledge at Wharton spoke with Wharton accounting professor Wayne R. Guay and then with finance professor Alex Edmans about what these changes could mean for Wall Street company shareholders and taxpayers. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.