Posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025 at 3:51 pm
Laci M. Whitley brings more than a decade of experience fighting for asbestos clients to her work at Wallace Miller. Alongside the rest of the asbestos team, she focuses on tailoring the legal process to what clients need and ensuring that they and their families can continue to move forward with dignity.
How did you get into asbestos law? 
When I got out of law school, I thought I wanted to do tax law, so I was going to the University of Florida to get my advanced degree. I had a friend reach out and say, ‘Hey, I know somebody that’s got an opening in an asbestos firm.’ I had no background in asbestos, but I jumped right in and read the entire asbestos textbook in my first month there.
I was very fortunate that I got a lot of hands-on training and experience my first year and really enjoyed it. I loved working with the clients and hearing their stories, which was what I was getting to do a lot—signing up clients and taking depositions. I got to see why what I was doing was important. That really informed why I stayed, why I’m still doing asbestos work, and why I’m so passionate about it.
When did you first think to yourself, this work is really making a difference?
One of the first mesothelioma victims I worked with was a lovely man in Michigan who was homeless when he was assigned to me. His wife had died the year before of cancer, and they were older and didn’t have good insurance, and they had spent all their savings on her cancer treatment.
They didn’t have family in the area, but he couch-surfed among friends when he could, and then he got diagnosed with mesothelioma. I was able to fast-track some bankruptcy settlement money to him and help him get an apartment and a nurse that could stay with him.
That’s when it clicked for me just how important what I was doing was, and how big of an impact this area of law would allow me to have on people’s lives. He was able to live out his days with dignity because of the money we were able to get him. He was able to die comfortably, and he didn’t have to worry about anything.
Then his sister who was in Indiana, his last living family member, was able to step in, and because of this lawsuit her daughter was able to go to college free and clear. And I remember feeling so fulfilled and so thankful at the end of the case that I was able to work with that family and was able to help them. To this day I still have a voicemail from him on my phone that I refuse to delete, because he has such a special place in my heart.
How do you support clients and their families when they’re facing a life-altering diagnosis?
Asbestos can cause mesothelioma, lung cancer, ovarian cancer, asbestosis. Mesothelioma especially is a very dire prognosis. And sometimes what makes it even harder is that doctors don’t clearly communicate that to their clients. A lot of times we’re the bearers of that news.
It’s hard to be that person. But you have to focus on what you’re doing to help. How can I make this better for their family? How can I make this better for their spouse, for their kids? How can I make this whole process just a little bit easier for them? How can I make sure this person can make the most of their remaining time, and know that their family will be taken care of?
A lot of these people worked their whole lives and despite that, despite how hard they worked, they don’t have a lot in savings. They don’t have a lot of backup. Knowing that even when they’re not there anymore, their spouse and kids will be taken care of—that’s what makes it worth it.
What do people often misunderstand about asbestos lawsuits?
We get a lot of questions from families after someone passes—we’ve lost our dad, we’ve lost our husband, what happens now? People often think that when the sick individual passes, that’s the end of their lawsuit and they don’t get to carry on. That’s not true. We can absolutely have a spouse, a child, a family member take the place of the initial plaintiff and continue on with the litigation.
What other barriers do you see for people coming forward about mesothelioma cases?
There’s a lot of hesitation. A lot of people say, “I’m not a litigious person, I don’t like to sue people, that’s not me.” Instead of suing, I think about it as trying to balance the scales. Someone wronged them, and this is a step they can take to make themselves whole and set their families up to be a little more comfortable than they would be otherwise.
Especially with asbestos, a lot of the companies that we go after—we have evidence that they knew asbestos was bad and they decided to continue using it. They knew that they were hurting people, and they decided to go ahead and do it anyway because they wanted to make money. A lawsuit is a chance to say, “Because you made that decision and caused my disease, now you’re going to pay me on the back end.” This is a way to make them pay for what they did, for that choice they made. It’s about getting justice.
A lot of our clients worked hard their whole lives. These were blue-collar workers—they were roofers, they were plumbers, they were in the Navy, they served our country. They worked hard. And despite that hard work, a lot of them don’t have a huge nest egg.
This is a way you can set your spouse and your children up so that they’re comfortable when you’re gone and can no longer provide for them. This is a way to continue providing for them, because of what you went through and how hard you worked and the disease you were given because of that hard work.
How do you make sure clients know what’s going on during a case?
At the very beginning of a case, my team and I call the client and say, “Here’s where we’re at, here’s the next step.” We walk them through the process in smaller pieces so it’s not overwhelming, and once we get past a given step, we call them back and talk through what’s next.
We’re very heavy on client communication in asbestos work. We want to make sure clients know that we’re always there for them. We lay out the process so that they know what to expect, and we encourage them to call us at any point when they’re not sure about something or they have questions.
What else do you want to share with clients?
This process is about our clients. We’re not going to do anything that they don’t want to do.
For example, after medical information is confirmed, I often call the clients and say, “There are two paths we can take: a litigation side and a bankruptcy side. The bankruptcy side is an easier route, it’s minimal work for you. If you’ve got a little more fight in you, we’ll go with the civil lawsuit side and file a claim to go after the civil defendants.”
But this is based on you and how you feel. We’re never going to make you do something you don’t want to do. We recognize you’re sick, we recognize you have days where you don’t want to go on. And we’ll always be there to make it as easy as possible for you and to keep moving forward as much as we can.
The ball is in clients’ court a hundred percent. We are here to work for them and to get them as much as we can, as easily for them as we can. So that’s my biggest message to clients: we work for you. We’re on your side and we will do everything in our power to make you as much money possible with however much effort you have to give.
Read more about Laci in her bio.