The arrival on UK soil of Michael Hausfeld, the doyen of American class-action lawyers, earlier in the year has inspired some fairly excitable headlines anticipating a tidal wave of US-style group litigation...The lawyer made his name representing Native Alaskans hit by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, Texaco workers in a record-breaking $176 million (£90 million) racial discrimination case, victims of the Holocaust in their action against Swiss banks and South African victims of apartheid. [also refers to Merck]