William D. Marler
Marler Clark, LLP PS
Seattle, Washington
20 Years Later, Where Were We,
Where are We and Where are We Going?
Many would say that the 1992–1993 Jack in the Box E. coli O157:H7 outbreak was the beef and restaurant industries’ “911.” William “Bill” Marler was a young attorney in Seattle in the right place at a wrong time – right for an aggressive litigator, but wrong for the over 600 sickened, at least 50 with acute kidney failure and four deaths – all from doing the all American thing – eating a hamburger!
Mr. Marler is proud to give the Ivan Parkin Lecture in honor of those who were sickened and those who died. However, after over 20 years of being involved in every major foodborne illness outbreak that has occurred in the United States, Mr. Marler recognizes the major breakthroughs that have occurred in academics, government, but, most importantly, industry, in trying to make our food supply safer.
Mr. Marler will walk through the history of the Jack in the Box case and how it led to changes in how everyone viewed food safety. Although safer food has always been the goal, getting agreement on who is responsible and how to accomplish it has been a struggle.
In the end, however, professionals who showed a commitment to science and their craft have led a revolution to a safer food supply. Foodborne illness cases are down, outbreaks are down, but the commitment to make food safer remains the goal.
As illnesses and outbreaks fade, the challenge is to keep all – from farm-to-fork – focused on doing their jobs and not resting on the improving statistics.