Mark P. Robinson Jr.

He obtained the largest personal injury/product liability verdict in 1978, and it stood for close to 15 years. Mark Robinson's career as a plaintiff's lawyer is inextricably intertwined with the Ford Pinto. At age 28, he started working on a case against Ford Motor Co. in which the female driver was killed and her teenage passenger suffered burns on more than 90 percent of his body. Five years later, he and attorney Arthur N. Hews Jr. won a $128 million verdict for the young man who got severely burned - the enormous verdict was meant to send Ford a loud and powerful message. As a result of this verdict, along with the sea of negative publicity regarding all the gas tanks that exploded - killing and injuring several hundred people - Ford recalled all the Pintos on the road and shut down the line altogether.

Since then, Robinson has represented plaintiffs in the Toyota unintended acceleration litigation. He was one of the lead counsels appointed by a federal judge for these cases nationwide.

He's currently on the executive committee for all the lawsuits against General Motors over its keyless ignition systems.

"My primary goal is representing clients and getting fair compensation for them," Robinson said. "But I found out that sometimes there's a significant, collateral, societal benefit."

- DEIRDRE NEWMAN