Brian Panish has again been recognized by the Daily Journal as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in California.
The September 21, 2016 Daily Journal profile on Mr. Panish highlights his recent victories including Agu v. The Regents of the University of California. Mr. Panish obtained a $4.75 million settlement in April 2016 for the parents of Ted Agu, a 21-year-old student athlete with sickle cell trait who died in February 2014 during a preseason conditioning drill with his UC Berkeley football team. The Agu family filed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging that the university subjected Agu to a conditioning drill that was too extreme given his known sickle cell trait and then failed to come to his aid when he began showing signs of the sickling process. Included in the settlement were stipulations that the university improve its football practice and drill procedures.
The profile also discusses Mr. Panish’s work in Kransky v. DePuy Orthopaedics Inc., the first case involving defective DePuy ASR hip implants to go to trial. The $8.3 million jury verdict in this case was recently affirmed by Second District Court of Appeal. As the Daily Journal notes, the verdict was significant because it was a bellwether that set the scene for some 20,000 other cases that later settled for about $4 billion. “It’s nice to win and nice that now they have to pay,” Mr. Panish tells the legal publication. “Unfortunately, Mr. Kransky died while the appeal was in progress. The money will go to his spouse.”
Also highlighted is Mr. Panish’s ongoing claims against Olympus America Inc. over CRE superbug infections linked to defective duodenoscopes as well as the fight against Southern California Gas Company on behalf of Porter Ranch residents who were affected by the October 2015 gas well blowout at the Aliso Canyon Storage Facility. In addition to being the first to file a CRE case (which was brought on behalf of an 18-year-old man infected by the bacteria). Mr. Panish was also part of the team that filed the first class action and individual lawsuit against SoCalGas.
Mr. Panish will serve as co-lead trial counsel in the Porter Ranch matter.
Read more on the Daily Journal profile here
Read more on the Ted Agu case here
Read more on the Loren Kransky affirmance here