Baum Hedlund Earns 2nd Largest Jury Verdict in Nation for 2019 - NLJ

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Attorneys from Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman and the Miller Firm earned the second-highest verdict in the nation and the highest verdict in the state of California for 2019, according to the National Law Journal's newly-released Top 100 Verdicts of 2019.

Baum Hedlund's senior partner and vice president R. Brent Wisner served as co-lead counsel alongside the Miller Firm's senior partner Michael Miller in the trial of Pilliod et al. v. Monsanto Co., which culminated in a historic $2.055 billion verdict in favor of the plaintiffs, Alva and Alberta Pilliod.

The Pilliods, a married couple from Northern California, alleged in their lawsuit that exposure to Monsanto's Roundup weed killer caused them both to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma. After roughly seven weeks of trial, the jury found that Roundup caused Mr. and Mrs. Pilliod to develop cancer and that Monsanto failed to warn about this severe health hazard, awarding $55.2 million in compensatory damages and $2 billion in punitive damages.

The jury verdict in Pilliod was the ninth largest for a personal injury case in United States history.

Trial Team for Alva and Alberta Pilliod

From the Miller Firm

• Michael Miller (Co-lead trial counsel)
• Nancy Miller
• Curtis G. Hoke
• David J. Dickens
• Jeffrey Travers 

From Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman

• R. Brent Wisner (Co-lead trial counsel)
• Pedram Esfandiary
• Michael L. Baum

From Audet & Partners

• Mark Burton

From Brady Law Group

• Steven J. Brady

Multinational and life sciences giant Bayer purchased Monsanto in 2018. Since the acquisition, the company has been hit with three stinging court losses in the Roundup litigation. The other Roundup case to go before a jury last year, Hardeman v. Monsanto Co., resulted in an $80 million jury verdict in favor of the plaintiff, Edwin Hardeman. The verdict in Hardeman is ranked #34 in the National Law Journal's Top 100 Verdicts of 2019.

Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman is the only law firm in the country to serve on the trial teams in all three of the first Roundup cases to go before juries. These three cases resulted in $2.424 billion in combined jury verdicts.

• Johnson v. Monsanto Co. | Aug. 2018 | $289.2 million jury verdict
• Hardeman v. Monsanto Co. | Mar. 2019 | $80 million jury verdict
• Pilliod et al. v. Monsanto Co. | May 2019 | $2.055 billion jury verdict

All of the cases listed above are currently on appeal.

The National Law Journal's Top 100 Verdicts for 2019 was released amid reported upheaval in the Roundup litigation. Over the summer, Bayer announced that it had an agreement in principle to settle more than 100,000 Roundup cases filed in courts throughout the country for roughly $10.9 billion. But Wisner, who was involved in the settlement negotiations, now says the deal is in jeopardy of falling apart.

"As of right now, there is no settlement," says Wisner. "We had an agreement but when the time came to finalize the deal, Bayer retreated. While we are deeply disappointed that they refused to honor our deal just weeks after they broadcasted it to regulators, the courts, and the world, we welcome the opportunity to continue earning massive verdicts at trial on behalf of our clients."

About Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman

The national law firm of Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman has earned more than $4 billion in verdicts and settlements on behalf of clients across all areas of practice. In recognition of the firm's groundbreaking work in the Monsanto Roundup litigation, Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman has received the following honors and accolades:

• 2020 Elite Trial Lawyers Mass Torts Law Firm of the Year, Finalist | ALM and The National Law Journal
• 2019 Civil Plaintiffs Trial Lawyer of the Year | National Trial Lawyers and ALM (Brent Wisner)
• America's 50 Most Influential Trial Lawyers, 2019 | Trial Lawyer Magazine and The National Law Journal (Brent Wisner)
• 2019 Elite Trial Lawyers Mass Tort Trial Team of the Year | The National Law Journal and The Trial Lawyer Magazine
• 2019 Trial Lawyer of the Year Finalist | Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles (Brent Wisner)
• Daily Journal Top Verdicts, 2019 (Pilliod et al., v. Monsanto listed #1)
• California Top 100 Lawyers, 2019 | The Daily Journal (Brent Wisner)
• The Round Table: America's Most Influential Trial Lawyers, 2018 | National Trial Lawyers (Brent Wisner)
• Top 40 Under 40 Lawyers in California (2019-lifetime award) | The Daily Journal (Brent Wisner)
• Trial Team of the Year, 2019 | The National Trial Lawyers Top 100
• Winning Litigators Titans of Industry, 2019 | The National Law Journal (Brent Wisner)
• Top Plaintiffs Lawyers in California, 2019 | Daily Journal (Brent Wisner)
• CVN's Top 10 Most Impressive Plaintiff Verdicts of 2018 (Johnson v. Monsanto)
• Rising Star, 2019 | Law360 (Brent Wisner)
• Daily Journal Top Verdicts, 2018 (Johnson v. Monsanto)
• Top 10 Verdicts, Personal Injury | TopVerdict.com, 2018

SOURCE Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman