Wisner Baum, PC

The award-winning plaintiff attorneys at Wisner Baum (formerly Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman) have earned a reputation for breaking new ground, holding Fortune 500 companies accountable, influencing public policy, raising public awareness, and improving product safety. They have won more than $4 billion in verdicts and settlement for their clients.

Wisner Baum is recognized as a preeminent plaintiff firm that has represented thousands of victims across the nation in aviation, bus, train, and trucking accidents, as well as those harmed by defective pharmaceuticals, medical devices and other consumer products. The firm also represents whistleblowers and litigates class actions.

The firm won the largest verdict in California and the second largest in America in 2019. The Pilliod verdict is also the ninth largest verdict in U.S. history. A team of Wisner Baum lawyers with Brent Wisner serving as co-lead trial counsel, tried the first and third of the first three Roundup cancer cases against agrochemical giant Monsanto Company (now Bayer) that resulted in two of the largest jury verdicts in recent history, worth a combined $2.344 billion. They also assisted with the second trial (Hardeman v. Monsanto Co.). The $289 million verdict in Johnson v. Monsanto Co. and the $2 billion verdict* in Pilliod et al. v. Monsanto Co. were hard-fought legal victories that will have a lasting impact not just for the plaintiffs and their families, but for public health and the environment.

In recognition of Wisner Baum's work in the Monsanto Roundup and other landmark litigation, the firm and individual lawyers have received numerous honors and awards including:

Best Lawyers in America®

U.S. News & World Report Best Lawyers® Best Law Firms

Martindale-Hubbell®, the highest AV® Peer Review Rating available

Elite Trial Lawyers Mass Torts Law Firm of the Year, Finalist 2020 | ALM and The National Law Journal

Top 100 Verdicts 2019, ALM, National Law Journal, Verdict Search (Pilliod et al. v. Monsanto)

Civil Plaintiffs Trial Lawyer of the Year 2019 | 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)

Elite Trial Lawyers Mass Tort Trial Team of the Year 2019 | The National Law Journal and The Trial Lawyer Magazine

Trial Lawyer of the Year Finalist 2019| 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

Wisner Baum has successfully litigated against some of the largest corporations in the world, including major airlines, rail organizations, pharmaceutical and medical device companies, agrochemical corporations, and even the federal government. Thousands of people have entrusted Wisner Baum to represent their interests in lawsuits against major companies such as:

• Ground Transportation Companies

Allied Waste Industries, Amtrak, CR England, CSX Corporation, Eagle Systems, Food Express Inc., Food 4 Less, Ford Motor Co., GARDA Inc., Greyhound, J.B. Hunt; Kimberly-Clark, Lucky’s, Metrolink, Roadway Express, Ryder Truck Rental, Schneider National Trucking, Swift Transportation, Tyson Foods, and Werner Enterprises.

• Aviation Companies

Aerospatiale, Airbus, Alaska Air, American Airlines, Beechcraft, Bell Helicopter Textron, Boeing, Bombardier, Cessna, Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines, Grumman, Heli USA Airways, Hughes Aircraft, JetBlue, McDonnell Douglas, Piper, Robinson Helicopters, Rockwell, Sikorsky, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, and US Airways.

• Defective or Dangerous Product Manufacturers

Alpha Therapeutic, Armour Pharmaceutical Co., Baxter Healthcare Corporation, Bayer Corporation, Boehringer, Covidien, Cutter Biologicals, Eli Lilly, Forest Labs, GlaxoSmithKline/SmithKline Beecham, Johnson & Johnson, Marion Merrell Dow/Richardson-Merrell, Medtronic Inc., Merck, Monsanto Company, Oclassen, Pfizer, Sanofi, Schering-Plough, Sigma Aldrich, Solvay Pharmaceuticals, Stryker Biotech, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.

Wisner Baum has taken on the Zantac cancer litigation after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it is investigating Zantac cancer risks after testing of certain Zantac (ranitidine hydrochloride) tablets found the commonly-used heartburn medication contains a cancer-causing chemical up to 3,000 times greater than the FDA’s daily intake limit. The carcinogenic chemical present in Zantac is known as N-nitrosodimethylamine (“NDMA”). Though the FDA has yet to issue an official Zantac recall, CVS and Walgreens have pulled Zantac and Zantac OTC generics from their shelves and Apotex has voluntarily recalled its ranitidine products from Rite-Aid and Walgreens.

The firm is also leading the Gardasil vaccine litigation against Merck. Thousands of adolescent boys and girls and young men and women have reported serious and disabling injuries after getting the Gardasil vaccine. These injuries range from auto immune diseases, disabling neurological side effects to reproductive disorders and even death. Wisner Baum has filed lawsuits on behalf of young women and men alleging Merck misled the FDA, legislators, doctors and moms about the safety and efficacy of its Gardasil vaccine. The lawsuit asserts Merck purposely downplayed the risk of Gardasil’s ingredients, including a proprietary aluminum compound (a potent neurotoxin) and secret and potentially hazardous DNA particles. ---------- *The verdicts in Johnson and Pilliod were reduced by the judges overseeing both cases but both are on appeal.