Mark P. Robinson, Jr.

Robinson is a veteran litigator and former president of the Consumer Attorneys of California. In June 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom named him to a Regional Judicial Selection Advisory Committee to help choose state court judges. It’s another entry on a busy docket that keeps him young, Robinson said.

“I’ll tell you, we’ve got wildfire cases, opioid mass torts and the Las Vegas shooting, among many other things,” he said. “We’re wrapped up in litigation. It’s what we do, and it’s fun.”

He represents clients suing the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas and its parent, MGM Resorts, over the October 2017 massacre of concert-goers near the hotel. In May 2019 the defendant indicated in financial disclosures it could settle for up to $800 million.

“There’s a mediation process going on right now,” he said in August. “I can only hope it is effective for both sides.”

Robinson first came to prominence 40 years ago with the landmark 1978 Ford Pinto design defect case in which an Orange County jury awarded his clients $128 million in compensatory and punitive damages over flaws that caused the car’s gas tank to erupt in flames in rear end collisions. The trial judge reduced the award to $3.5 million—foreshadowing the way a different judge in 2017 erased Robinson’s $417 million jury verdict against Johnson & Johnson and its consumer products subsidiary over talcum powder linked to cancer. Echeverria v. Johnson & Johnson, BC628228 (L.A. Superior Ct. filed July 25, 2016).

“We’re trying to get our talc verdict back,” Robinson said in early August. The reduction was widely reported as a potential disaster for as many as 800 other talc plaintiffs waiting for the outcome of plaintiff Eva Echeverria’s trial.

On Aug. 12 he petitioned the state Supreme Court for review of an appellate ruling that largely went against him. The petition argued that the Court of Appeal misread case law over Johnson & Johnson’s duty to warn. Johnson & Johnson Talcum Powder Cases, S257378 (Cal. S. Ct., filed Aug. 12, 2019).

“The California Supreme Court will help define the law and the evidence allowed to go forward in these [talc] cases,” he said. “We hope they will clarify what cases are viable and what damages will be allowed. The whole country will await a ruling from this highly respected court.”

Robinson called the challenges of major litigation are hallmarks of his career.

“I’ve been fighting these battles my whole life,” he said.

— John Roemer