Charles W. LaGrave - Biography

Charles LaGrave has specialized in management of mass toxic torts and general civil litigation as a trial attorney, claims supervisor, and in-house counsel. In his more than forty years of practice, he has served as local and regional counsel for asbestos litigation defendants. He was the Asbestos Claims Facility's Northern California claims supervisor, and spent five years as senior litigation counsel for Fibreboard Corporation, supervising asbestos personal injury and property damage cases, including the development of litigation strategy, mass settlement negotiations, and management of indemnity and defense budgets. He retired as a partner from the San Francisco firm of Morgenstein & Jubelirer LLP (now known as Schiff Hardin LLP) in September, 2001. Charles, continued work in asbestos litigation as a legal and claims consultant to the Western Asbestos Settlement Trust starting in 2004 and also provided similar services to the J.T. Thorpe Settlement Trust, Thorpe Insulation Company Settlement Trust, and the Plant Insulation Company Asbestos Settlement Trust. All four trusts were headquartered in Reno, Nevada. His work for the four Trusts continued until November, 2019.


Charles was the co-chair of the Executive Committee of the Law Practice Management Section of the Bar Association of San Francisco and was a member of the Judicial Endorsements and Legal Seminars Committees of Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (BALIF). From 2007 to 2013, Charles was a member of the National Certification Board for NALA (National Association of Legal Assistants).


Charles LaGrave received his Juris Doctor in 1976 from the University of North Dakota Law School, where he was a member of the law review and the Order of the Coif. He holds a Master of Arts in rhetoric from the University of Massachusetts (Amherst), graduating in 1971. He received a Bachelor of Arts in communications, graduating from the Honors Program at the University of North Dakota in 1969.