Attorney R. Brent Wisner Recognized in 2023 Top 100 Lawyers and Class Action-Mass Tort Trailblazers

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 12, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Wisner Baum's managing partner and senior trial attorney, R. Brent Wisner, has been recognized in the Daily Journal's Top 100 Lawyers and the National Law Journal's Class Action | Mass Tort Litigation Trailblazers for 2023.

The legal publications highlighted Wisner's work in a class action case that utilizes the civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) to seek justice against two major pharmaceutical companies, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company and Eli Lilly and Company.

The class action alleges both drug companies conspired to conceal the risk of bladder cancer associated with the diabetes drug, Actos, because they knew that adding a cancer warning label would cause significant harm to sales. This summer, Wisner and his colleagues earned class certification on behalf of class representative Painters and Allied Trades District Council 82 Health Care Fund, which seeks damages under RICO for the money it spent on Actos, alleging it would have paid for far less Actos if the drug companies had warned of the bladder cancer risk.

This is the first non-settlement class action that has been certified against big pharma under the civil RICO statute, which can award plaintiffs "treble damages" caused by the defendants. With damages trebled, the case could reach $7 billion or more. 

In addition to his legal victory in the Actos RICO class action, Wisner and co-counsel made headlines in July for negotiating the first settlement in the nation in the Zantac cancer litigation, just weeks before the first case was scheduled for trial. Plaintiff James Goetz would have been the first of many thousands of claimants to allege Zantac causes cancer before a jury. Instead, the next Zantac trial will take place this November, with Wisner serving as co-lead trial counsel alongside Jennifer Moore of the Moore Law Group.

There are 77,000 Zantac cases consolidated in California and Delaware state courts. Wisner and Moore serve as co-lead trial counsel in both state court litigations.

About R. Brent Wisner

R. Brent Wisner was named managing partner of Wisner Baum (formerly Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman) at the start of 2023. At 39, Wisner is the youngest attorney in American history to win a multi-billion-dollar jury verdict, which he achieved in 2019 with a $2 billion Roundup cancer verdict against Monsanto.

Media Contact: Robin McCall, [email protected] 

SOURCE Wisner Baum