Best Lawyers in America for Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions - Plaintiffs

Attorney Jennifer L. Alesio is a partner at Simmons Hanly Conroy in the San Francisco office. She focuses her practice on mesothelioma and asbestos-related cases, helping injured workers and their families secure the justice they deserve. In the 10 years Jennifer has practiced law, her tenacity in the courtroom and empathetic approach to clients has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements for her clients. “It’s my job to tell the stories of the work...

Tampa personal injury attorney C. Todd Alley is AV-rated by Martindale-Hubbell. He has concentrated his practice in the fields of personal injury, medical device, mass torts, and complex products liability litigation. As a Tampa personal injury attorney, Mr. Alley has been instrumental in the firm’s successful representation of thousands of injured clients in various complex product liability and mass tort claims. The successful conclusion of these cases has resulted in our clients&rsqu...

Jason P. Amala has dedicated his law practice to representing people and businesses who have been victimized by others. The majority of his work is on behalf of survivors of childhood sexual abuse, but he continues to help people who have been severely injured and need an attorney and law firm who can navigate the most complex of cases and the most difficult of defense attorneys and insurance companies. Jason began helping survivors of childhood sexual abuse after the clergy sexual abuse scan...

Thomas R. Anapol is a Shareholder at Anapol Weiss and a recognized leader in National Medical Device Litigation. Thomas Anapol has served in a variety of leadership capacities in state and multidistrict litigation (MDL) Plaintiff Steering Committees (PSC). His roles include: Co-Lead Counsel in the Biomet metal-on-metal hip implant litigation Member of the PSC in the Stryker Rejuvenate & ABG II NJ State coordinated litigation Current litigation includes the 2022 Exactech recall .

Michael J. Angelides is a partner at Simmons Hanly Conroy and focuses his practice on asbestos litigation. He previously served as the firm’s managing shareholder. Mike’s litigation track record includes growing the firm’s reputation as a national leader in asbestos litigation, representing victims of mesothelioma against some of the largest companies in the nation. As a leader in asbestos litigation, Mike has presented at both of the profession’s leading asbestos liti...

Attorney Nick Angelides is a shareholder at Simmons Hanly Conroy LLC. He joined the firm in 2003. He currently helps direct the legal strategy for all of the firm’s asbestos and mesothelioma cases. In addition, he oversees the firm's Los Angeles office. A veteran of more than 300 asbestos cases, Nick has extensive experience representing individuals exposed to asbestos through their work as pipefitters, sheet metal workers, ship yard workers, HVAC workers and more. His legal career span...

Donald C. Arbitblit is a leader among plaintiffs’ attorneys in assessing the legal, medical, and scientific aspects of personal injury, mass torts , and environmental and toxic exposure litigation . Don has served on Plaintiffs’ Science/Expert Committees in several national cases and served on the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee in the Actos bladder cancer injuries federal multidistrict litigation that settled in 2015 for $2.4 billion. Don was a member of the trial team that ...

Kurt Arnold is a relentless advocate for his clients, having obtained billions of dollars in verdicts and settlements. One of the nation’s most accomplished trial lawyers, Kurt prepares every case for trial. Of course, many cases resolve before trial, but defendants and insurance companies only pay the largest settlements when he gives them no alternative. Kurt finds helping individuals defeat companies that have continuously denied his clients justice to be one of the most rewarding pa...

Khaldoun Baghdadi has been with the firm for 20 years. In 2016, he was part of the trial team in the Pinnacle hip implant litigation trial which resulted in a total verdict in excess of $1 billion dollars. He has dedicated his career to being a trial lawyer, helping people who need and deserve an advocate. He has served as lead trial counsel in cases throughout the State of California, on matters ranging from wrongful death, defective products, insurance disputes, medical negligence and publi...

A veteran litigator with strong roots in complex litigation, Fred Baker has worked on a broad range of environmental, medical costs recovery, consumer and products liability cases and holds numerous leadership roles within the firm. Fred represents individuals, institutional investors, and governmental entities in a wide variety of cases. He leads the firm’s tobacco litigation, and was a member of the legal team that litigated the groundbreaking tobacco litigation on behalf of several S...

Lee B. Balefsky is senior counsel and former head of the Mass Tort Department in which he was involved in lawsuits dealing with a wide range of products and toxic substances, from pharmaceuticals to defective medical devices, from asbestos to denture creams containing zinc. Balefsky was a member of the Plaintiffs Steering Committee involved in all transvaginal mesh cases nationwide and he served as liason counsel in the Philadelphia Mass Tort Pelvic Mesh program. He had great success in other...

John T. Balhoff, II, a member of the firm, was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1971. He attended college at the University of Notre Dame and graduated from there, cum laude, in 1993, receiving a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in finance. Mr. Balhoff received his Juris Doctor degree from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University in 1996. Mr. Balhoff presently is admitted to the Louisiana Bar and he also is admitted to practice before all United States District C...

John Barnerd is a Partner at Simmons Hanly Conroy. He joined the firm in 2002 as mesothelioma and asbestos attorney, and today is a member of the firm’s management committee. He previously served for two years as an Assistant State’s Attorney for Madison County, Ill. John earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Illinois College and graduated with his J.D. from Saint Louis University School of Law. In 2010, Chicago Lawyers Magazine recognized him as a top 40 Under 40 ...

Brian Barr is President and a shareholder at Levin Papantonio. He litigates pharmaceutical, environmental, mass tort and personal injury cases throughout the country. Mr. Barr has been appointed to leadership in many of the largest mass tort cases in the country. Mr. Barr is presently serving as co-liaison counsel and a member of the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee in the 3M Combat Arms Earplugs Litigation (MDL 2885) presently pending in the Northern District of Florida before the Honor...

Charles Barrett joined Neal & Harwell in September 2015. He works as a civil litigator in state and federal courts across the country. His practice focuses on personal injury cases, antitrust and consumer class actions, and False Claims Act claims, but he has also represented large multinational corporations in commercial disputes. Away from the office, Charles spends time with his wife, Elizabeth, and their five children. He also served on the board of directors of the Martha O’Bry...

Taylor Bartlett represents clients in complex litigation involving significant damages claims at both the trial and appellate levels. He has extensive experience in consumer class actions and pharmaceutical mass tort litigation. Since joining the firm in 2011, Taylor has successfully represented over 5,000 individuals and businesses throughout the United States. Taylor has also been appointed class counsel on multiple consumer class action lawsuits that resulted in settlements to the classes ...

Vincent J. Bartolotta, Jr. is a founding partner of Thorsnes Bartolotta McGuire. He specializes in plaintiffs' litigation with an emphasis in business disputes, condemnation, and major injury cases. A tenacious litigator, Bartolotta is recognized annually by Woodward/White as one of the Best Lawyers in America -- a recognition he's received every year since 1987. "There's really no secret about what I do," he says, "I really do care for my clients; each case gets a piece of my soul." Bartolot...

Michael L. Baum is the senior partner of Wisner Baum (formerly Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman). For 29 years he was Baum Hedlund’s managing partner until 2023 when he proudly turned over the reins to R. Brent Wisner. During his time at the helm, he led the firm through thousands of wrongful death and personal injury cases stemming from harmful major pharmaceutical drugs, consumer products, and commercial transportation.He began his career in 1985, primarily handling airline accident...

While his current practice extends to different areas of tort litigation, José has represented families and individuals injured in railroad grade crossing collisions for most of his career. Before starting his own firm in 2011, he was an attorney with a renowned Kansas City law firm with a national practice in railroad litigation. Missouri Lawyer's Weekly has highlighted the results of José's work on several occasions, including his $3 million settlement of a private crossing co...

Lars Berg represents individuals, corporations, and other institutional clients as plaintiffs and defendants in a wide variety of civil litigation matters, including business and commercial disputes, product liability claims, trade-secret litigation, trademark disputes, personal injury claims, employment law, and civil rights litigation. Mr. Berg also has broad experience in professional malpractice claims and disputes among business partners and shareholders of privately held entities. His e...

Darron Berquist practices in the areas of asbestos litigation, toxic torts, mass torts, pharmaceutical litigation and product liability. Prior to joining The Lanier Law Firm in 2012, Mr. Berquist was an associate at one of the largest and most successful law firms in New Jersey, where he focused his practice on class actions and representing individuals suffering from asbestos-induced diseases, such as mesothelioma and lung cancer. Mr. Berquist has also advocated on behalf of individuals who ...

Kevin Berry is a shareholder in the Mass Tort/Class Action group at Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer, P.A. Over the last 34 years, he has represented more than 5,000 victims of occupational and environmental injuries in New York and New Jersey, including those caused by asbestos, lead, toxic chemicals, and defective equipment. In addition to representing various tradespeople, Mr. Berry also represents individuals who have been injured by defective pharmaceutical products and dangerous consumer ...

Attorney Andrea Bierstein is a Partner at Simmons Hanly Conroy. With over three decades of legal experience, Ms. Bierstein is one of the premier appellate brief-writers and oral advocates in the nation. She works in the Complex Litigation Department and has secured millions of dollars on behalf of her clients, including a $32 million antitrust settlement for a medical supply manufacturer.

Janet Ward Black is the principal owner of the personal injury law firm, Ward Black Law located in Greensboro. The 36-person firm is one of the largest woman-owned law firms in our state. Ward Black Law has represented over a thousand clients in the past 4 years with client settlements of over 34 million dollars.* Ward Black Law represents people in personal injury, workers’ compensation and defective product actions. A graduate of Davidson College cum laude in economics and Duke Law Sc...

Stephan D. Blandin is a principal and partner in Romanucci & Blandin LLC, a Chicago-based personal injury firm. Since co-founding the firm in 1998, Mr. Blandin has focused his practice on catastrophic plaintiff’s personal injury and wrongful death cases involving motor vehicle and airplane crashes, medical negligence, product liability and workplace accidents. He also has a particular passion for birth injury cases in Illinois, Wisconsin and Arizona. At Romanucci & Blandin, Mr. ...

Attorney Daniel Patrick Blouin is a Partner at Simmons Hanly Conroy in the Asbestos Litigation Department. Under his leadership as a lead trial attorney securing significant trial verdicts in courts nationwide, the firm’s product liability practice was named a 2019 “Practice Group of the Year” by Law360.Based in the firm’s New York office, Daniel has secured hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of clients diagnosed with products-related cancers, extreme injury and...

With a legal career in personal injury and wrongful death that spans 30 years, Bob is tireless in his dedication and resolve to seek justice for each and every one of his clients. From the very first meeting with any prospective client, Bob’s easygoing manner engenders trust because he is naturally compassionate, sincere and possesses a unique ability to understand and communicate with clients from all walks of life. This same direct, common-sense approach has proven to be extremely eff...

Caj Boatright has made a habit of winning exceptional verdicts and settlements for his clients. In fact, in the last couple of years, it would be difficult to find another trial lawyer who has tried more cases to verdict and obtained more multimillion-dollar settlements even though Mr. Boatright has spent only five years of his 15-year legal career representing plaintiffs. His winning formula rests on his strong sense of justice and a belief that the American jury system is the best way to he...

Brandon began his legal career working for judges—first clerking for a Missouri Supreme Court judge and then for a U.S. District Court judge. He then entered the courtroom as a litigator, and over the last 13 years has litigated significant, high stakes cases in courts in Kansas, Missouri, and fourteen other states. Brandon has represented corporate and individual clients in matters ranging from trucking accidents to antitrust monopolies to large breach of contract and business tort mat...

Thomas J. Brandi represents people in consumer class actions, injury and wrongful death including aviation, dangerous roads, defective drugs, and unsafe products. Tom has 19 verdicts from $1 million to $1 billion, has tried cases to verdict in 15 California Counties, and settled over 150 cases over one million dollars. He has been Court appointed to numerous executive committees in mass tort cases. Tom has been recognized for his trial skills named Trial Lawyer of the Year by CAOC (2004), nom...

Michael Brickman is a skilled trial attorney and legal strategist who has devoted his career to representing consumers in complex legal matters against the world’s largest corporations. He is a founding member of RPWB. From confronting anti-competitive and unscrupulous business practices to helping those harmed by dangerous products, Michael is known for taking on challenging cases in emerging areas of the law that benefit workers, consumers and ordinary investors. Michael was born in C...

Shareholder Perry Browder is head of the Asbestos Department at Simmons Hanly Conroy. He has worked for more than 30 years helping numerous families resolve hundreds of million dollar-plus cases. He started at the firm in 2001 and played a key role in helping the firm develop a national reputation. Within a few years, he had successfully secured one of the largest asbestos verdicts in the country, a $250 million verdict against U.S. Steel. Today, Perry manages the firm’s more than 50 as...

Leslie J. Bryan joined Lawrence & Bundy after a long tenure practicing at the nationally respected firm, Doffermyre Shields Canfield & Knowles, LLP. Leslie is a trial lawyer. Her experience includes litigation ranging from the historic federal multidistrict breast implant litigation to the current Florida state court tobacco litigation. She has been involved at all levels of the litigation – from pretrial proceedings to electronic discovery, expert witness depositions and Dauber...

Mr. Bubalo is Board Certified in Civil Trial Advocacy by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (“NBTA”). Mr. Bubalo has appeared in various types of trials. A few examples follow. In Loomis v. St. Mary's Hospital , he was Lead Trial Attorney, resulting in one of the largest personal injury verdicts recorded in the State of Indiana. The Judgment for almost $17,000,000 was unanimously affirmed by the Indiana Court of Appeals in St. Mary’s Medical Center of Evansville, Inc. v. L...

Michael Buchman leads Motley Rice’s antitrust team. Prior to joining Motley Rice, Michael served as an Assistant Attorney General in the New York State Attorney General’s Office, Antitrust Bureau. He also served as a co-managing partner of the antitrust department at a large New York-based class action law firm. Michael has served as lead or co-lead counsel for a variety of plaintiff clients, including a Fortune 500 company, multiple states, a city and individual consumers in comp...

Russell W. Budd, a mainstay of the plaintiff’s bar with more than forty-five years’ experience representing victims of corporate wrongdoing, has been a trailblazer for the entirety of his career. Serving as a Baron & Budd shareholder since 1985 and president and managing shareholder since 2002, Mr. Budd presides over one of the nation’s largest plaintiffs’ firms. Founded in 1977, Baron & Budd has nearly 200 full-time employees and is headquartered in Dallas, Te...

Michael Burg J.D. is one of America’s leading trial lawyers, a best-selling author, legal expert, and founding shareholder of Burg Simpson Eldredge Hersh & Jardine. A legal champion for victims of corporate and individual malfeasance, negligence, overreach, and abuse, Burg began his career fighting for the underdog and has gone on to successfully litigate some of the country’s most high-profile cases of the past four decades. Under Burg’s leadership, Burg Simpson Eldredg...

Peter W. Burg J.D. is one of America’s leading trial lawyers and one of the country’s foremost legal experts handling claims for persons with traumatic brain and/or spinal cord injuries. Mr. Burg is a senior shareholder at Burg Simpson Eldredge Hersh & Jardine, a national trial firm known for fighting for victims of negligence, malfeasance, malpractice, and abuse that has secured over $1 billion in verdicts, settlements, and judgments on behalf of its clients. Over the course ...

Stephen Burg is a trial attorney at the law firm Burg Simpson Eldredge Hersh Jardine, P.C. Mr. Burg’s practice is focused on representing victims of auto crashes, personal injury, trucking accidents, motorcycle collisions, product liability injuries, gas explosions, wrongful death, and harmful drug products. Mr. Burg has been recognized for his legal excellence both nationally and locally. He was named as a “Recommended Attorney” by the U.S. Legal 500. and has also been reco...