MR. MARK BEHRENS:
 We have an incredible panel today to address asbestos litigation issues. I am going to introduce the panelists very briefly in the order in which they will speak. Our first speaker is going to be Fred Baron. Fred may be the most recognized national lawyer in the plaintiffs’ bar, certainly in the field of asbestos. He is King of asbestos litigation in Texas, and is widely recognized as a trailblazer in the mass tort area. “In the field of toxic torts,” one reporter wrote, “if the frontier were the American West, Fred would have been driving the first wagons onto the plains.” He is the immediate past president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, and has been listed by the National Law Journal as one of the 100 most influential lawyers in the United States.