Robert helps lead the firm’s trial teams and mass tort practice, while also heading the appellate practice at the firm. He sues product, pharmaceutical, and medical device manufacturers to recover for the firm’s clients’ most serious injuries. He is the “final pen” on the law firm’s most critical briefs and other written submissions, including two briefs to the United States Supreme Court, and also argues many of those important issues in courts around the country. His practice also includes employment-related lawsuits and asbestos exposure liability cases, among other areas. He also assists in negotiating the firm’s most significant mass tort settlements.
Noteworthy successes on the firm’s behalf include:
- Rob is Co-Lead Counsel for the personal injury plaintiffs in the Onewheel cases that are nationally consolidated in California federal court (MDL 3085), fighting for hundreds of persons injured while riding the Onewheel electric skateboard who experienced “nosedives” or other sudden device shutdowns, often resulting in serious injuries or death;
- Rob served on the plaintiffs’ leadership steering committee for the military service persons who were injured by 3M’s alleged faulty combat arms earplugs (MDL 2885), participating in two trials that reached jury verdicts;
- $8.2 million judgment against 3M in favor of injured army veteran, which at time was the largest single-plaintiff verdict in the 3M combat arms earplugs litigation;
- $11.5 million verdict in favor of Navy serviceman’s widow and family after he died from mesothelioma after deadly asbestos exposure while working on asbestos-filled gaskets in ships’ engine rooms;
- $124 million consumer protection trial victory against Risperdal-maker Janssen Pharmaceuticals affirmed by South Carolina Supreme Court; drug company’s appeal denied by United States Supreme Court (attorneys’ fees & expenses: $23,101,269);
- $15.5 million consumer protection settlement in favor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky against Risperdal-maker Janssen Pharmaceuticals (attorneys’ fees & expenses: $2,244,646.85);
- $7.75 million settlement in favor of the State of Arkansas in deceptive trade practices action against Ortho-McNeil-Janssen and Johnson & Johnson (attorneys’ fees & expenses $2 million);
- Rob was the lead briefing attorney for co-lead counsel in In re Seroquel Products Liability Litigation, MDL 1769, in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida;
- Pursued to successful resolution deceptive trade practice cases against major drug manufacturers on behalf the states of Arkansas, Mississippi, New Mexico, and South Carolina;
- Repeatedly defeated defendants’ delay and forum-shopping tactics by successfully convincing federal courts to transfer (remand) cases back to state courts where they were originally filed;
- Defeated summary judgment motion on federal preemption grounds filed by a pharmaceutical manufacturer in the largest docket of antipsychotic drug injury cases pending in the country;
- Defeated pharmaceutical defendants’ motion to disqualify firm in Medicaid fraud recovery lawsuit in Pennsylvania, including two disqualification attempts in the trial court and on appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court; and secured denial of a writ of certiorari in the Louisiana Supreme Court, as well as denial of supervisory writ application in the Louisiana Court of Appeal, against drug maker seeking to invade the privacy of thousands of Louisiana Medicaid patients through unnecessary disclosure of their personal medical records.
