Recognized in Ones to Watch since 2023 
Wyatt Vespermann is a trial attorney with Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP who represents plaintiffs in complex personal injury and wrongful death cases. A significant part of Mr. Vespermann’s practice is devoted to representing children and adult survivors harmed while in foster care or under the supervision of child protective agencies. His cases have involved sexual and physical abuse, trafficking, dangerous foster placements, failures to investigate reported abuse, and catastrophic injuries suffered by children dependent on public agencies and private foster care organizations for their safety.
In 2022, Mr. Vespermann helped secure a $32 million settlement in J.G. v. County of Tulare for a foster child who suffered catastrophic injuries following failures by child protective services. That same year, he served as trial counsel in Jane Doe v. Pasadena Unified School District, where a jury returned a $26 million verdict for a foster child sexually abused as a result of negligent supervision by a school district.
His more recent child-welfare cases include an $11 million settlement in Jane Doe v. Doe Foster Facility involving a 14-year-old girl with significant mental-health needs who was struck by a vehicle outside her therapeutic group home. That same year, he secured a $5.5 million settlement in D.W./J.R. v. County of Riverside for two children sexually abused in their foster home. In 2025, Mr. Vespermann secured a $10.5 million settlement in J.G./J.M. v. County of San Bernardino for two foster children who witnessed the torture and murder of their infant brother. Mr. Vespermann also secured in 2025 a $5.5 million settlement in K.R. v. County of Santa Clara for an adult survivor sexually abused by his foster father, a County-connected pediatrician, after uncovering evidence that County officials had suppressed earlier abuse disclosures and protected the perpetrator from scrutiny. That year, he also helped secure a $10 million settlement against Sacramento County and a foster family agency arising from the drowning deaths of twin toddlers in a foster home.
Mr. Vespermann also represents people who have suffered catastrophic injuries in motor vehicle and commercial trucking collisions and from defective products. In 2023, he served as trial counsel in Hernandez v. Geriq Logistics, where a jury returned a $13.15 million verdict for a family of three injured in a tractor-trailer collision. In 2024, he served as trial counsel in X.M. v. The Peggs Company, a product liability case that resulted in a $6.1 million jury verdict for an infant who suffered a skull fracture involving a defective shopping cart. His other results include multimillion-dollar recoveries in motor vehicle, product liability, wrongful death, and premises liability cases.
Originally from a small farming community in California’s Central Valley, Mr. Vespermann began his legal career working as a paralegal. Before joining Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP, he practiced law in Orange County, where he gained experience in complex civil litigation and jury trials. Mr. Vespermann earned his Juris Doctor cum laude from Pepperdine University School of Law in 2018, and competed on Pepperdine’s Trial Advocacy Team and was selected to the Order of Barristers.
Mr. Vespermann is admitted to practice law in California and Nevada, as well as before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the United States District Courts for the Central, Northern, and Eastern Districts of California, and the United States District Court for the District of Nevada. He received the Consumer Attorneys of California Presidential Award of Merit in 2024, has been recognized by Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America from 2023 through 2026, and was selected to the Southern California Super Lawyers Rising Stars list in 2026. He is also a member of the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles (CAALA) and Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC).
