Richard East, senior partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan in London, has joined the Quinn Emanuel team acting alongside Pogust Goodhead (PG) in the Mariana litigation against BHP.
East joins partner Justin Michaelson, who leads the team appointed in June 2026 to carry the proceedings through the dispute's quantum phase alongside PG.
East’s appointment follows a contested decision by a client committee, represented by Humphries Kerstetter, to change representation to Bailey Glasser International (BGI), which employs several former PG partners and staff, including former chief executive and co-founding partner Thomas Goodhead, who joined BGI last week. It is supported by Hausfeld as co-counsel for the second phase.
East said: “This is a claim of a scale and difficulty that few firms are equipped to see through to the end, and the claimants are entitled to representation that will not falter at the quantum stage. I am joining a team that is already deep in preparation, and my focus is on that preparation and nothing else.”
Earlier this month, Mr Justice Constable rejected a request by BGI to stay the damages phase of the proceedings, which are due to go to trial next April. A public hearing on 5 and 6 October before a different judge will decide which of the two firms should represent the claimants.
Michaelson said: “Pogust Goodhead’s clients have waited eleven years. What serves them now is a settled, properly resourced team preparing for a trial that begins in April 2027, not a contest between law firms conducted through announcements.”
The court, said Michaelson, would determine the question of representation in October, and QE’s preparation would continue against the existing timetable “whatever the court decides”.
He added: “Richard’s expertise will help immensely and is a measure of the seriousness with which this firm treats that responsibility.”
The Stage Two proceedings will determine causation, loss and damages, with evidence to be heard from April 2027 and closing submissions listed for March 2028.
The litigation follows the November 2015 collapse of the Fundão tailings dam in Minas Gerais. The dam, operated by BHP and Vale joint venture Samarco, released mining waste into the Doce River basin and killed 19 people.
The High Court held BHP liable under Brazilian law in November 2025 in a major victory for PG.
A PG spokesperson insisted the firm was best placed to continue the claim.
“This is particularly important because changing legal representation at this stage of one of the largest cases before the English courts is not simply an administrative exercise,” the spokesperson said. “It raises significant contractual, procedural and financial issues, including the existing ATE insurance and litigation funding arrangements and the potential impact on the timetable for the Stage Two trial.”
“Our clients have already waited almost eleven years for justice. Whatever disputes need to be resolved over their representation should not cause unnecessary disruption or further delay,” the spokesperson added.
Separately, Harris Pogust, co-founder and former chair of PG, has posted a video update on LinkedIn, saying he was speaking out “to the people and the Brazilian lawyers who have been working on this case for almost 10 years about the unbelievably selfish dispute that is going on in London currently over control of the case”.
Pogust, who left PG in 2024, added on the same thread that “at least now we have a judgment as to liability”. He continued: “Now let’s fix this mess and get them the compensation they deserve”.
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