Thomas V. Girardi

Girardi continues to fight for meaningful wins and lasting change for his clients, taking on the National Football League, Shell Oil, Johnson & Johnson, and Riddell Sports.

Two of his suits are moving through the stages of settlement, one on behalf of professional football players against the NFL over neurological injuries and the other for citizens of the city of Carson over ground contamination from a tank farm.

"One of the best parts of the Carson settlement is that the money will pay to clean up and restore the area," Girardi said.

The suit against Shell settled last year for $120 million, a large portion of which will be dedicated to repairing the damage done to the area. It reduced the value of the land, in many cases causing severe financial damage to families. Acosta v. Shell Oil Co. et al., NC053643 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Oct. 14, 2009).

"It's not like these people have another million dollars in the bank," Girardi said.

Similarly, he spoke about the lasting effects of the recently settled suit against the NFL, which spawned a new case against Riddell, which manufactures helmets.

"It's really terrible, you've got these young guys doing good, making all this money, but they can't remember the names of their kids," he said.

Girardi represented roughly 1,100 plaintiffs accusing the NFL of not taking care of players who suffered head trauma while playing in the league. Maxwell v. National Football League, BC465842 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed July 19, 2011). Girardi filed the nation's first suit on the matter, and soon joined with other plaintiffs.

"The settlement is not perfect, but certainly better than what it could have been. And hopefully then to come back against Riddell, we can make everybody whole again," Girardi said. "I'm very proud of the NFL case, because it did bring to light some real problems."

The Riddell case is in the early stages after being severed from the NFL suit.

Girardi also represents plaintiffs in two different cases against Johnson & Johnson. One concerns allegations that Risperdal, a drug for psychological ailments such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, causes hormonal imbalances in young boys. In some cases, these imbalances can cause the boys to grow breasts.

The other case accuses the company of selling talc baby powder, despite knowledge that it causes ovarian cancer. According to Girardi, the company received a letter over two decades ago from Harvard's head of obstetrics and gynecology pointing out the dangers of the product and did nothing.

"Twenty-five years ago, Johnson & Johnson, the so-called family company had absolute positive evidence that their product causes ovarian cancer and did nothing about it," he said.

"It's one thing if you're a company, and something happens, and you say, "Oh my God, we had no clue." Here, these guys absolutely, positively knew they were going to damage a bunch of women."

Girardi represents over 400 plaintiffs in the talc suit, and said that analysis of cancer cells from over half of the women showed evidence of the powder.

Girardi is also taking on cases in Oklahoma, brought by people claiming that fracking caused an increased number of earthquakes in the region.

Girardi not only takes pride in the subject matter of his cases, but the deterrent effect that his victories have on companies, such as the MLB taking action so that it never has another situation like Bryan Stow. Girardi famously won an $18 million settlement for Stowe after he was badly beaten in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium following a game.

"The only real thing the people have to protect them is the jury trial. That's the only thing that causes companies to maybe do something right," he said.

— Andy Serbe