Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP attorneys Brian Panish and Deborah Chang have been named by Daily Journal as Top Plaintiff Lawyers in California for 2018. The legal publication recognized 30 lawyers across the state who brought single cases or multi-party actions in antitrust, labor & employment, environment, personal injury, privacy and data security, product defect and securities and financial fraud, using their legal skills to forge real and lasting change. This is the fourth consecutive Top Plaintiff Lawyer recognition for Mr. Panish and the second for Ms. Chang.
The Daily Journal article highlighting Mr. Panish includes his leadership role as Individial Plaintiffs Co-Lead Counsel in the Southern California Fire Cases litigation, representing more than 1,500 plaintiffs who have sued Southern California Edison as a result of the 2017 Thomas Fire and Montecito debris flows that followed in January 2018.
“We’re in the Northern California Fire Cases against PG&E too,” Panish tells the reporter. “Trouble is, the governor is now raising legislation to reduce the utilities’ exposure. PG&E has talked about bankruptcy, claimed they’re underinsured and now they’re going to the Legislature, wanting lawmakers to give them a break. We’re reaching out to individual legislators, hoping they’ll stand up for their constituents.”
“I’ve been litigating with PG&E since San Bruno,” Mr. Panish adds, referring to the 2010 PG&E gas line explosion that killed eight people. “They always want the ratepayers to pick up the tab.”
Additional highlights in the article on Mr. Panish include a recent $52.7 million verdict for two brothers injured in a head-on collision with a big rig and a California Supreme Court decision in the Katherine Rosen case, determining colleges and universities have a duty to protect its students form foreseeable acts of violence from other students.
PSBR lawyer Deborah Chang is the the lead attorney on the Rosen case and is also featured as one of 30 lawyers selected to the Daily Journal‘s Top Plaintiff Lawyers in California for 2018. According to Ms. Chang, the high court’s unanimous March 22 reversal of a state appellate decision dismissing Rosen’s lawsuit has resonated nationally.
“There’s been a ton of reviews by legal scholars across this country who see this as a modern approach to the traditional, age-old in loco parentis problem,” she says in the article. Among other things, the reversal gives Ms. Rosen the right to return to trial court and pursue her case against UCLA.
“We were in the middle of discovery when UCLA appealed the trial court’s rejection of its summary judgment motion,” she says. “I’ll be there for the retrial. Of course, there is no way of knowing whether they will settle. The money is secondary to the effect this case will have nationally. In one sense, our job is done even before the case fully plays out. No matter what happens with my client, the decision remains.”
Founded in 2005, Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP has become one of the leading Plaintiff’s law firms in the country. The firm’s attorneys have more 8-figure verdicts in personal injury and wrongful death cases than any other law firm in California.
For a full list of Daily Journal Top Plaintiff Lawyers in California, click here.