Background and Experience
Gene Locks is married to Sueyun Pyo Locks and the proud father of six daughters. He resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Fisher Island, Florida.
Gene is the founding and managing partner of Locks Law Firm, a prominent national environmental, litigation, and consumer-oriented law firm formed in 1966, with offices in Philadelphia, New York and New Jersey. He is a graduate of Princeton University, and received his Doctor of Laws degree from Columbia University. He is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, as well as many federal courts in the United States.
The Locks Law Firm was founded by Gene Locks, who established the Firm in Philadelphia, New York and New Jersey after more than 40 years of practice. Since then, the firm has grown into a prominent national environmental, personal injury, consumer-oriented, and complex litigation law firm.
Gene was born and raised in the Philadelphia area and is the product of the Philadelphia public school system. He has dedicated his life to representing the people of Philadelphia and beyond, who have been used and abused by the legal system. He obtains justice for the working people of the world and focuses his work exclusively on helping individuals, not corporations, obtain justice through the legal system. He is an innovator, creator, and a pioneer. Gene Locks is a true people’s lawyer.
Gene was a pioneer in asbestos personal injury litigation, having handled such cases and obtaining precedential verdicts in decisions in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Virginia, since 1974. Asbestos litigation has since become the largest mass tort in the United States. Gene and the personal injury attorneys at Locks Law Firm have represented in excess of 16,000 personal injury victims in more than 20 different states. Gene is co-counsel and acts in a pro hac vice capacity in both federal and state courts across the country. Gene has tried hundreds of these complex product liability matters. He has participated directly and as amicus in numerous appeals resulting in precedent-setting opinions in many states that have become landmark decisions on a wide spectrum of issues.
Thanks to his litigation experience, negotiating reputation and his ability to persevere and sustain lengthy litigation, Gene was appointed by the Honorable Jack B. Weinstein of the Eastern District of New York to the Management Committee of the Agent Orange Litigation, MDL 381. He directed the liability and medical aspects of the Agent Orange cases and was co-chair of the negotiating committee which, at the time, resulted in the largest class action settlement of a personal injury class of victims.
After negotiating the Agent Orange settlement, Gene became involved in other major toxic tort litigation primarily involving environmental and occupational exposure to hazardous substances. This led, in the early 1990s, to his being named as lead counsel in the nationally coordinated asbestos cases. He ultimately became class counsel in a case in which an innovative and creative solution to many major asbestos litigation problems was developed. The principles developed and negotiated have become a model for recent national asbestos resolutions.
Gene served as co-lead counsel in the Asbestos Personal Injury Litigation, MDL 875 in Philadelphia for many years and was the chief negotiator representing victims in almost all the 20th century asbestos bankruptcy re-organizations which eventually paid over $10 billion dollars to more than one million victims. He became the Chairman and Director of the Board of UNR Industries, Inc. and director of Celotex Corporation and Raytech Corporation. Gene and the attorneys of Locks Law Firm have also represented numerous school districts and other entities across the nation in property damage cases arising from asbestos exposure.
In the late 1990s, Gene and Locks Law Firm attorneys filed class actions in the Diet Drug (Fen-Phen@) Litigation in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Gene was co-lead negotiator in that litigation which culminated in a 3.75 billion dollar settlement of those claims (in Brown v. American Home Products Corp, MDL 1203).
Gene, a former quarterback in college and high school, is a man who plays to win. He chooses to represent those with just positions who deserve to win against the abuses created by large global companies. Nationally and internationally, he and the firm fight to right the injustices of corporate misbehavior by helping individuals to obtain their fair day in court. A born leader, Gene is known for creating winning teams that bring people justice.
Business Activities
- Chairman, UNR Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ), 1991 – 1999
- Director, UNR Industries, Inc., 1989 – 2002
- Director, Celotex Corporation, 1997 – 2001
- Chairman, APEX Teletech Resources, Inc., 1996 – 1997
- President, Locks Investments, Ltd., 1990 – Present
- Director, Raytech Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ), 2001 – 2009
Personal Activities
- Chairman, Board of Managers – The Philadelphia Foundation, one of the largest community foundation in a U.S. city, 1999 – Present,
- Board of Managers – The Philadelphia Liberty Medal, 2005
- Advisory Board Chairman Fund for Children – 2006
- Trustee and Chairman, Asbestos Victims Special Fund Trust, 1988 – 1996
- Board Member – Oceanside Five Condominium Association – 2006 – Present
Outside the Office
Gene Locks is married to Sueyun Pyo Locks and the proud father of six daughters. He resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Fisher Island, Florida. Although his first love is the Princeton Tigers, during baseball season, he can often be found cheering on the St. Louis Cardinals.
