R. Brent Wisner: Attorney | Partner | Vice President
Attorney | Partner | Vice President
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Class Actions; Complex and Multi-District Litigation, Consumer Fraud Litigation, Defective Medical Devices, Personal Injury, Medicare Secondary Payer Lawsuit, Monsanto Roundup Cancer, Paxil Suicide Lawsuit, Pharmaceutical Drug Product Liability, Product Liability Law, Qui Tam Claims, Whistleblower Protection, Wrongful Death Law
Brent Wisner is an attorney and partner in the Los Angeles office of Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman, PC. A Los Angeles native, Brent is driven by a deep-rooted passion for using the law to helpthose who have been marginalized and hurt by large, and sometimes malicious, corporations. Brent has dedicated his practice to vindicating his client’s rights and holding wrongdoers accountable. He concentrates his practice on pharmaceutical class action litigation, toxic-tort injuries, whistleblower and qui tam claims, and consumer fraud litigation. Brent also oversees the firm’s Medicare Secondary Payer cases, representing Medicare providers who have lost taxpayer funds to pharmaceutical companies and other large defendants.
Brent is one of Baum Hedlund’s lead trial attorneys and manages a highly-trained team of attorneys on all aspects of the cases in his department. Brent takes pride in personally working up all facets of litigation—from briefing, expert discovery, through trial and, if needed, appeal. Brent is routinely asked to provide commentary and advice to media and other counsel on high-profile cases.
Law360 named Mr. Wisner a “Titan of the Plaintiffs Bar” for, in part, his role as co-lead counsel in a complex trial that resulted in the first multi-million-dollar jury verdict against a brand-name drug-maker liable for injuries caused by a generic version of the drug. The case has been described as groundbreaking and likely to shape the landscape of pharmaceutical litigation for years to come.
#BaumHedlundLaw partner Brent Wisner named Top 100 Lawyer in California by The Daily Journal. pic.twitter.com/XLuc8ZXVDH
— Baum Hedlund Law (@baumhedlund) September 19, 2018
Prior to working at Baum Hedlund, Brent served as a Law Clerk for the Honorable Helen Gillmor in the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii for two years. While clerking, he worked on several jury trials, both criminal and civil, and was responsible for aiding the Court in resolving complex pretrial and post-trial motions. In addition, he worked on several cases in other jurisdictions, including the District of Arizona and the Eastern District of California. While clerking, Brent also gained valuable appellate court experience when Judge Gillmor sat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Pasadena, California.
Brent received his law degree (J.D.) and a Master of Public Policy (M.P.P.) from Georgetown University prior to his clerkship. While at Georgetown on a scholarship, he was recognized for his commitment to public interest law and received a pro bono service award for completing over 750 hours of volunteer legal work.
During law school, Brent was heavily involved with the Georgetown Law Trial Advocacy Program, where he was one of the most successful mock trial advocates in the history of the school. Some accolades Brent received at various national competitions included “Top Advocate” at the National Ethics Trial Convention — a competition he also won — and “Most Exceptional Advocate” at the National White-Collar Crime Invitational. Because of Brent’s success with mock trial, he volunteered as a coach and instructor of the team and served as the Managing Director of the Trial Advocacy Program his third year of law school. In addition to his pro bono work and participation in mock trial, Brent also served as the Executive Editor of the Georgetown Public Policy Review—a peer-reviewed publication focusing on important issues in law and public policy.
Brent also volunteered as a legal intern, during law school, at the Institute on Religion and Public Policy, where he drafted testimony, affidavits and declarations for legal proceedings that related to human rights. He even wrote a resolution on the imprisonment of Sigma Huda, an outspoken Bangladeshi critic of human trafficking, which passed in the U.S. House of Representatives. During his first summer at law school, Brent worked for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, within the Civil Fraud Division. It was there that Brent first discovered an interest and passion in whistleblower law. In his second summer of law school, he worked as a Summer Associate at Paul Hastings in the Los Angeles office.
Prior to starting law and graduate school, Brent participated in the prestigious Coro Fellowship. As a Coro Fellow, Brent worked on a variety of important projects with labor unions, local and national government, Fortune 100 companies, and non-profit organizations. It was a formative experience for Brent where he developed a unique insight into how, through the law, one could genuinely improve society.
Brent is an outspoken and passionate UCLA Bruin. He received his undergraduate degree, with honors, in Philosophy and Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2005. At UCLA, Brent was heavily involved with the UCLA Sailing team, serving as a Captain for two years. In addition, Brent was a Captain on the UCLA Mock Trial Team, which during his last two years won back-to-back National Championships. Brent was also personally recognized as an “All-American Attorney” by the American Mock Trial Association.
R. Brent Wisner in the News
Education:
- Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C. (Juris Doctor)
- Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy, Washington, D.C. (Master of Public Policy)
- University of California, Los Angeles (Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Political Science)
Court Admissions:
- California, 2011
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, 2012
- U.S. Dist. Court, Central District of California, 2013
- U.S. Dist. Court, Eastern District of California, 2013
- U.S. Dist. Court, Southern District of California, 2013
- U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit, 2013
- U.S. Supreme Court, 2014
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, 2014
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, 2014
- U.S. District Court, Southern District of Indiana, 2015
- U.S. District Court, Western District of Wisconsin, 2016
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, 2017
Video Center: R. Brent Wisner
- Selected: Top 100 Lawyers in California 2018, Daily Journal
- Selected: Law360 Titan of the Plaintiffs Bar
- Top List: Up-And-Coming-100, 2018 Southern California Rising Stars
- The National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40
- Selected: Southern California Super Lawyers® – Rising Stars, 2016 – 2018
- Avvo.com Superb Score 10 out of 10
- Listed, The Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers™
- Georgetown Public Policy Review, Executive Editor
- Mock Trial: Georgetown Law Barristers’ Council, Trial Advocacy, Managing Director
Individual Awards:
- “Top Advocate” at the National Ethics Trial Competition
- “Most Exceptional Advocate” at the National White Collar Crime Invitational
- “Top Gun” at the Top Gun Mock Trial Tournament
Competition Results:
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- Winner of the National Ethics Trial Competition
- Winner of the American Association of Justice Mock Trial Tournament
- Finalist (2nd of 200) at the National Student Trial Advocacy Competition
- Semi‐finalist at the National Trial Advocacy Competition
- Semi‐finalist at the National Civil Trial Competition
- Academic Scholarship, Honors in Philosophy and Political Science, UCLA
- UCLA Mock Trial Team, Team Captain
- National Champions in 2003 and 2004
- Named “All American Attorney” by the American Mock Trial Association
- UCLA Sailing Team, Team Captain
- Trial Co-Lead Counsel, Dewayne “Lee” Johnson vs Monsanto Company (Roundup cancer lawsuit), San Francisco, California, 2018
- Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee, Administrator and Co-Lead Counsel for the Roundup Products Cases, known as the Roundup Judicial Council Coordinated Proceedings (JCCP 4953), California Superior Court for the County of Alameda, California, 2018 – present
- Trial Co-Lead Counsel, Wendy B. Dolin vs GlaxoSmithKline LLC (generic Paxil suicide lawsuit), Chicago, Illinois, 2017
- Trial Co-Lead Counsel, Hagen-Brown vs Eli Lilly (Cymbalta withdrawal lawsuit), Richmond, Virginia, 2015
- State Bar of California
- Consumer Attorneys of California
- Consumer Attorneys of Los Angeles
- American Association for Justice: Leader’s Forum; Products Liability; Section on Toxic, Environmental, and Pharmaceutical Torts; Talcum Powder/Ovarian Cancer Litigation Group; Herbicides and Pesticides Litigation Group; Class Action Litigation Group; Preemption Law Litigation Group
- Federal Bar Association; Federal Litigation Section; Younger Lawyer Division
- Law Clerk, Hon. Helen Gillmor, United States District Court, Honolulu, Hawaii, 2010 – 2012
- Judicial Extern, Hon. Marian Blank Horn, United States Court of Federal Claims, Washington, D.C., 2009
- Summer Extern, United States Attorney’s Office, Civil Fraud Division, Los Angeles, California, 2008
- Brian Ohleyer Legislative Intern, Office of United States Senator Barbara Boxer, Washington, D.C., 2004 – 2005
- Topic: Suing Monsanto: How a Team of Lawyers Won a Verdict Linking the Herbicide Roundup to Cancer
Organizations: UCLA School of Law, Emmett Institute on Climate Change & the Environment and The Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy
Event: Lunchtime Event
Location: UCLA Law Building, University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law
Date: October 31, 2018
- Topic: $289M Monsanto Roundup Verdict – Life After the Daubert Ruling and Johnson Trial
Speech Title: The Johnson Trial and JCCP ( Judicial Council Coordination Proceedings)
Organization: Harris Martin Publishing
Event: Half-Day Roundup CLE (Continuing Legal Education)
Location: Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, Santa Monica, California
Date: October 24, 2018
- Topic: Recent $289M Monsanto Verdict
Organization: Harvard University
Event: Notable torts case discussion with Professor Jon Hanson’s Tort Law Class
Location: Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Date: September 28, 2018
- Topic: Challenging Court Secrecy in Medical Product Litigation
Organization: Yale University
Event: Conference, Yale Law School’s Collaboration for Research Integrity and Transparency (CRIT) program
Location: Yale University’s Greenberg Conference Center, New Haven, Connecticut
Date: September 17, 2018
- Topic: Monsanto Roundup Litigation
Organization: Mass Torts Made Perfect
Event: MTMP Spectacular Fall Conference
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Date: October 19, 2017
- Topic: Roundup Class Action
Organization: HarrisMartin
Event: HarrisMartin’s Roundup® Litigation Conference Agenda
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Date: June 29, 2017
- Topic: Cymbalta Withdrawal Litigation In re: Cymbalta (Duloxetine) Products Liability Litigation
Organization: American Association for Justice
Event: AAJ Education’s Plaintiff-Only Hot Topics and Trends in Litigation Seminar
Location: Charleston, South Carolina
Date: December 3, 2014
- Politics of Enforcement: How the Department of Justice Enforces the Civil False Claims Act, 17 GEO. PUB. POL’Y REV. 43-60, 2012
- Judicial Activism? The Roberts Court in the Coming Term, GEO. PUB. POL’Y REV., Dec. 31, 2009
- Asylum Denied: Seeking Asylum in the Age of Terrorism, 12 GEO. PUB. POL’Y REV. 21, 2007
- Expressing the Sense of the House of Representatives Regarding the Violation of the Human Rights of United Nations Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, Sigma Huda, and Others, by the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh, H. R. 761, 110th Cong., 2007
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