Asbestos / Mesothelioma Statistics in San Francisco
~200
Annual Mesothelioma Diagnoses (SF Bay Area)
2 years
SOL from Diagnosis
Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, Mare Island, Kaiser Richmond Shipyards, oil refining
Key Exposure Industries
$38.7M (Leavitt v. Honeywell)
Notable 2024 Verdict
Courts in San Francisco, California
San Francisco County Superior Court — Complex Litigation Center
400 McAllister St, San Francisco, CA 94102
U.S. District Court — Northern District of California
450 Golden Gate Ave, San Francisco, CA 94102
Hospitals & Trauma Centers in San Francisco
UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center — Thoracic Mesothelioma
1600 Divisadero St, San Francisco, CA 94115
UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay
1855 4th St, San Francisco, CA 94158
Liability Considerations in San Francisco
San Francisco Bay Area's Extraordinary Shipbuilding Asbestos Legacy
The San Francisco Bay Area was home to one of the most intense concentrations of shipbuilding activity in American history during WWII, with Kaiser's Richmond Shipyards launching a Liberty Ship every four days at peak production. All of these ships were built with extensive asbestos insulation. Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco served as a major Pacific Fleet overhaul facility, with civilian workers and Navy personnel exposed to asbestos in ship repair operations. Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo built and overhauled nuclear submarines — a particularly high-exposure environment given the quantity of asbestos insulation required for submarine systems. Standard Oil of California (Chevron) operated major refineries in Richmond with significant asbestos pipe insulation exposure for maintenance workers.
Your Legal Team
Linda Nakamura
Partner
San Francisco, CA
Linda Nakamura is one of California's leading mesothelioma attorneys, with a particular focus on Navy veteran cases and complex multi-defendant litigation in the Northern District of California's active asbestos docket. Over 22 years, she has represented over 800 mesothelioma families, developing deep expertise in trust fund portfolio maximization — identifying all applicable trusts, optimizing claim sequencing, and coordinating trust fund distributions with civil settlements to maximize total family recovery. Linda has been recognized by the San Francisco Examiner as one of the Bay Area's top plaintiffs' attorneys and is a regular panelist at the American Association for Justice annual convention's toxic tort track. Her technical knowledge of shipbuilding history, Navy vessel specifications, and industrial insulation products enables her to reconstruct exposure histories with exceptional precision.
Education
- J.D., UC Berkeley School of Law, Boalt Hall (2004)
- B.A., Political Science, Stanford University (2001)