Mike Ciresi
Encyclopedia
Michael "Mike" V. Ciresi is a prominent trial attorney and was a Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party
candidate for the United States Senate
from Minnesota
. He dropped out on March 10, 2008. Ciresi gained his public reputation by litigating several high-profile mass tort cases. Ciresi is the former Chairman of the Executive Board of the Minneapolis firm Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi
LLP, a 250-lawyer firm he joined in 1971http://www.rkmc.com/Michael_Ciresi.htm.
tobacco industry
, suing in 1994 as the second of eventually 46 states to join in the tobacco litigation. Ciresi's Minneapolis law firm, Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi
, of which he is the chairman, settled with the tobacco companies in 1998 with an agreement for the tobacco defendants to pay the state of Minnesota $6 billion. The law firm donated $30 million to the Minneapolis Foundation in 1998, a contribution made possible by the settlement fee; at the time, the gift was thought to be the largest contribution from a law firm to a community foundation. Mike serves on the Board of Trustees of his alma mater, the University of St. Thomas, as the Board of Governors of the University of St. Thomas School of Law. He currently serves on the board of Regions Hospital Foundation and Minnesota Early Learning Foundation.
) of the Ciresi firm's fees, relative to the total award, was enhanced. The fees were funded directly by tobacco companies.
"Marlboro has risen to its No. 1 position on the backs of America's youth," Ciresi said in January 1998http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9905E7D6113BF934A15752C0A96E958260.
As a result of the 1998 Minnesota tobacco settlement, Ciresi came to be known as a wealthy man and philanthropist, appearing regularly in the national and local press. According to Forbes Magazine, with Ciresi among the highest-paid lawyers in the USA, "Cigarette money alone put these ten lawyers on the top-earning list—and it's likely to keep them there for the next 25 years." The magazine listed Ciresi's personal annual income at $14.4 million in 2000. Forbes speculated that Ciresi would use his newfound wealth and prominence to run for political officehttp://www.forbes.com/forbes/2001/0514/134.html, which soon proved correct.
against Union Carbide
over the Bhopal catastrophe
. He was counsel to women rendered infertile by the Copper 7 IUD and to the families of women killed by the Dalkon Shield
IUD.
(DFL), spending several million dollars of his own money on the campaign. Ciresi ran as a self-described progressive moderate, and was endorsed by the Sierra Club
and the Minnesota Nurses' Association. Ciresi was handily defeated by Mark Dayton
, an heir to the founders of Target Corporation
, in the four-way DFL primary. Dayton then came from behind in the polls to defeat first-term incumbent Republican
Senator Rod Grams
to win the general election.
Dayton announced in early 2005 that he would not seek a second term in the 2006 elections. Although Ciresi indicated an interest in the race and registered the domain name ciresiforsenate.com within 48 hours after Dayton's announcement, he announced on February 7 that he would not seek the nominationhttp://www.startribune.com/587/story/232572.html.
He would have faced Hennepin County
district attorney Amy Klobuchar
and Ford Bell in the DFL primary.
On April 18, 2007, Ciresi announced that he would seek the DFL endorsement for the Senate seat currently held by Norm Coleman
. Other announced Democrats in the race included author and satirist Al Franken
, professor
and author
Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer
, and Human Rights Activist
Jim Cohen
. On March 10, 2008, Ciresi announced his withdrawal from the primaryhttp://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/16463506.html.
On June 7, 2008 the Minnesota DFL endorsed Al Franken for the Senate seat earlier sought by Mr. Ciresi. Mr. Ciresi was widely reported on June 11, 2008 to be 'leaving all options on the table' when questioned about a possible primary run against Mr. Franken http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/19630619.html. However, Ciresi eventually dropped out of the race without challenging Franken in the primary after the DFL convention.
Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party
The Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party is a major political party in the state of Minnesota and the state affiliate of the Democratic Party. It was created on April 15, 1944, with the merger of the Minnesota Democratic Party and the Farmer–Labor Party...
candidate for the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
from Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
. He dropped out on March 10, 2008. Ciresi gained his public reputation by litigating several high-profile mass tort cases. Ciresi is the former Chairman of the Executive Board of the Minneapolis firm Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi
Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi
Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L.L.P. is a large U.S. law firm based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As of 2010, the firm had 250 lawyers in six offices nationwide: Minneapolis; Atlanta, Georgia; Boston, Massachusetts; Los Angeles, California; New York, New York and Naples, Florida.-Practice...
LLP, a 250-lawyer firm he joined in 1971http://www.rkmc.com/Michael_Ciresi.htm.
Role in Minnesota lawsuit against Big Tobacco
Most famously, he was counsel to the State of Minnesota and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota against the AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
tobacco industry
Tobacco industry
The tobacco industry comprises those persons and companies engaged in the growth, preparation for sale, shipment, advertisement, and distribution of tobacco and tobacco-related products. It is a global industry; tobacco can grow in any warm, moist environment, which means it can be farmed on all...
, suing in 1994 as the second of eventually 46 states to join in the tobacco litigation. Ciresi's Minneapolis law firm, Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi
Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi
Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L.L.P. is a large U.S. law firm based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As of 2010, the firm had 250 lawyers in six offices nationwide: Minneapolis; Atlanta, Georgia; Boston, Massachusetts; Los Angeles, California; New York, New York and Naples, Florida.-Practice...
, of which he is the chairman, settled with the tobacco companies in 1998 with an agreement for the tobacco defendants to pay the state of Minnesota $6 billion. The law firm donated $30 million to the Minneapolis Foundation in 1998, a contribution made possible by the settlement fee; at the time, the gift was thought to be the largest contribution from a law firm to a community foundation. Mike serves on the Board of Trustees of his alma mater, the University of St. Thomas, as the Board of Governors of the University of St. Thomas School of Law. He currently serves on the board of Regions Hospital Foundation and Minnesota Early Learning Foundation.
Notoriety regarding $440 million fee
Ciresi's law firm was frequently mentioned in the press for the remarkably high legal fees collected in the 1998 tobacco settlement, fees variously reported as between $440 million and $558 millionhttp://www.forbes.com/forbes/2001/0514/134.html. The fees were to be paid over two yearshttp://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1036630492127, in contrast to the 25-year annual payment scheme used to pay the plaintiffs of the case, the State of Minnesota. Hence, the time-adjusted value (or net present valueNet present value
In finance, the net present value or net present worth of a time series of cash flows, both incoming and outgoing, is defined as the sum of the present values of the individual cash flows of the same entity...
) of the Ciresi firm's fees, relative to the total award, was enhanced. The fees were funded directly by tobacco companies.
"Marlboro has risen to its No. 1 position on the backs of America's youth," Ciresi said in January 1998http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9905E7D6113BF934A15752C0A96E958260.
As a result of the 1998 Minnesota tobacco settlement, Ciresi came to be known as a wealthy man and philanthropist, appearing regularly in the national and local press. According to Forbes Magazine, with Ciresi among the highest-paid lawyers in the USA, "Cigarette money alone put these ten lawyers on the top-earning list—and it's likely to keep them there for the next 25 years." The magazine listed Ciresi's personal annual income at $14.4 million in 2000. Forbes speculated that Ciresi would use his newfound wealth and prominence to run for political officehttp://www.forbes.com/forbes/2001/0514/134.html, which soon proved correct.
Other famous cases
Ciresi served as counsel to the Government of IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
against Union Carbide
Union Carbide
Union Carbide Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company. It currently employs more than 2,400 people. Union Carbide primarily produces chemicals and polymers that undergo one or more further conversions by customers before reaching consumers. Some are high-volume...
over the Bhopal catastrophe
Bhopal disaster
The Bhopal disaster also known as Bhopal Gas Tragedy was a gas leak incident in India, considered one of the world's worst industrial catastrophes. It occurred on the night of December 2–3, 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India...
. He was counsel to women rendered infertile by the Copper 7 IUD and to the families of women killed by the Dalkon Shield
Dalkon Shield
The Dalkon Shield was a contraceptive intrauterine device developed by the Dalkon Corporation and marketed by the A.H. Robins Company. The Dalkon Shield was found to cause severe injury to a disproportionately large percentage of its users, which eventually led to numerous lawsuits in which...
IUD.
U.S. Senate run
Ciresi ran in the 2000 Senate primary for the Democratic-Farmer-Labor PartyMinnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party
The Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party is a major political party in the state of Minnesota and the state affiliate of the Democratic Party. It was created on April 15, 1944, with the merger of the Minnesota Democratic Party and the Farmer–Labor Party...
(DFL), spending several million dollars of his own money on the campaign. Ciresi ran as a self-described progressive moderate, and was endorsed by the Sierra Club
Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by the conservationist and preservationist John Muir, who became its first president...
and the Minnesota Nurses' Association. Ciresi was handily defeated by Mark Dayton
Mark Dayton
Mark Brandt Dayton is an American politician, the 40th and current Governor of the state of Minnesota. Dayton previously served as United States Senator from Minnesota from 2001 to 2007 in the 107th, 108th, and 109th Congresses...
, an heir to the founders of Target Corporation
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
, in the four-way DFL primary. Dayton then came from behind in the polls to defeat first-term incumbent Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
Senator Rod Grams
Rod Grams
Rodney Dwight "Rod" Grams served the state of Minnesota in both the United States House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.- Early life :...
to win the general election.
Dayton announced in early 2005 that he would not seek a second term in the 2006 elections. Although Ciresi indicated an interest in the race and registered the domain name ciresiforsenate.com within 48 hours after Dayton's announcement, he announced on February 7 that he would not seek the nominationhttp://www.startribune.com/587/story/232572.html.
He would have faced Hennepin County
Hennepin County, Minnesota
Hennepin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Minnesota, named in honor of the 17th-century explorer Father Louis Hennepin. As of 2010 the population was 1,152,425. Its county seat is Minneapolis. It is by far the most populous county in Minnesota; more than one in five Minnesotans live...
district attorney Amy Klobuchar
Amy Klobuchar
Amy Jean Klobuchar is the senior United States Senator from Minnesota. She is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, an affiliate of the Democratic Party...
and Ford Bell in the DFL primary.
On April 18, 2007, Ciresi announced that he would seek the DFL endorsement for the Senate seat currently held by Norm Coleman
Norm Coleman
Norman Bertram Coleman, Jr. is an American attorney and politician. He was a United States senator from Minnesota from 2003 to 2009. Coleman was elected in 2002 and served in the 108th, 109th, and 110th Congresses. Before becoming a senator, he was mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota, from 1994 to 2002...
. Other announced Democrats in the race included author and satirist Al Franken
Al Franken
Alan Stuart "Al" Franken is the junior United States Senator from Minnesota. He is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which affiliates with the national Democratic Party....
, professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer
Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer
Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer is an American academic. He sought the endorsement of Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party as a candidate for U.S. Senate in 2008 but was defeated by Al Franken.-Background:...
, and Human Rights Activist
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
Jim Cohen
Jim Cohen
Jim Cohen is an American human rights activist, attorney, environmentalist, and former candidate for the United States Senate seat from Minnesota then held by Republican Norm Coleman. Cohen sought the endorsement of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, but withdrew his candidacy after...
. On March 10, 2008, Ciresi announced his withdrawal from the primaryhttp://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/16463506.html.
On June 7, 2008 the Minnesota DFL endorsed Al Franken for the Senate seat earlier sought by Mr. Ciresi. Mr. Ciresi was widely reported on June 11, 2008 to be 'leaving all options on the table' when questioned about a possible primary run against Mr. Franken http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/19630619.html. However, Ciresi eventually dropped out of the race without challenging Franken in the primary after the DFL convention.