Steven C. Parrish

Steven C. Parrish circa 1996. Photo from Internet Archive.

Steven C. Parrish is Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Altria Group, the parent company of cigarette maker Philip Morris (PM). He was born on April 13, 1950 in Moberly, Missouri. He received a B.A. degree in Political Science in 1972, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Missouri and received a Juris Doctor Degree from the University of Missouri School of Law in 1975. While in law school he served as editor of the law review. Prior to working for PM, Parrish was a member of the Kansas City law firm of Shook, Hardy & Bacon (SHB) beginning in 1975 and became a partner in 1980. SHB has represented Philip Morris in numerous lawsuits and has a long history of working on behalf of PM. SHB was responsible for screening external scientific research projects with the goal of minimizing threats to PM of adverse publicity and litigation. Parrish works out of Philip Morris, Inc., headquarters at 120 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017.

During his long career in tobacco, Mr. Parrish has had numerous titles at PM. He served as Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel for Philip Morris in 1986 and again from 1992 to 1993. In September 1992 he was appointed Senior Vice President of External Affairs, and General Counsel for Philip Morris USA. In 1994 he was appointed Senior Vice President of PM Worldwide Regulatory Affairs. He served as Senior Vice President of Executive Affairs, Secretary, General Counsel and served on the Board of Directors from 1994 to 1995. (Source: Philip Morris Summary - PMI Liability Notebook) Parrish has also served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel for Philip Morris-U.S.A. In 1990 he was Vice President of Corporate Scientific Affairs for Philip Morris.

According to plaintiff lawyers, Mr. Parrish has knowledge of Philip Morris' and the tobacco industry's participation in public fraud and disinformation relative to health hazards of tobacco, the manipulation of nicotine in tobacco products and marketing of tobacco products to children. Mr. Parrish has publicly defended Philip Morris on the "MacNeil - Lehrer News Hour" and other news programs. As an in-house lawyer for PM, he worked on the Rose Cipollone case, a landmark liability case that led to the first cigarette company loss in a personal injury case. PM later appealed the case.(NYT 8/28/95)

Not long after he started working for Philip Morris, Parrish, then 40 years old, highly educated, well to do, surprised himself by taking up smoking. Experts say almost no one starts smoking so late in life. So why did Parrish? It wasn't from anxiety or curiosity or the pressures of the new job, he says. In fact, He struggles to explain it. "There are times when I like fiddling with a cigarette before I even light it. There are times when I like to see the smoke go up. I like the sensation in the back of my throat. Sort of all those things. I don't know. I have never really thought about it, I guess." (Washington Post National Weekly Edition, January 13, 1997, pg. 9)

Dossier:

http://tobaccodocuments.org/profiles/people/parrish_steven_c.html

Countless secret tobacco documents on Parrish can be directly searched at: http://www.legacy.library.ucsf.edu