Brian J. Panish

Los Angeles

Personal Injury

From the furnace of California wildfires, Brian Panish seeks to help each devastated client rise like a phoenix from the flames. Recognized nationally as a preeminent trial lawyer, Brian J. Panish serves as co-lead counsel for individual plaintiffs with cases against Southern California Edison due to losses suffered during the December 2017 Thomas Fire that ravaged Santa Barbara and Ventura counties -- only to be followed a month later by a deadly debris flow that tore through a streambed in Montecito. Less than a year later, the Woolsey Fire raced through Ventura and Los Angeles counties and brought Panish to the forefront as co-lead counsel once more.

In the wake of the recent Maui wildfire, clients are already reaching out to him for assistance. It's easy to understand why they would, as he has procured momentous jury verdicts and settlements on behalf of a variety of plaintiffs over the years, including more than 100 verdicts and settlements in excess of $10 million in business litigation, wrongful death, and personal injury cases.

As the lead trial counsel in the litigation against Southern California Gas Company and Sempra Energy, Panish and a large team of lawyers secured a victory of $1.8 billion to settle the claims of over 35,000 victims of the 2015 Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Facility blowout, the largest natural gas leak in history, which released methane and other noxious fumes over the course of 118 days.

"It was a long fight," he said. "There was a huge amount of sanctions. We recovered almost $6 million in monetary sanctions for discovery abuse. We were on the verge of trial, and then we were able to work out the $1.8 billion global settlement."

Earlier this month, Southern California Gas also agreed to pay a $71 million fine to the California Public Utilities Commission.

In addition, Panish was recently appointed by the California judiciary to serve as co-lead counsel representing plaintiffs in the litigation against social media companies, which are facing allegations of building addictive traps into their technology, leading adolescents into a variety of mental health crises, including several cases of suicide.

Panish cares about personal injury cases as much as mass tort cases, as evidenced by a recent victory when he and his team secured a pathbreaking $32 million settlement against the county of Tulare due to the failure of Child Welfare Services to respond to reports of child abuse regarding a malnourished infant.

Having practiced law for 38 years, Panish is licensed in California, Washington, and Texas, is a partner at the firm of Panish Shea Boyle Ravipudi LLP in Los Angeles, and served for three years as the president of the prestigious Inner Circles of Advocates. He decided a year and a half ago that he might as well take the bar exam in Nevada, too. "I had to go take the bar, but I did it with my daughter," he said, chuckling. "We were the only father and daughter who ever passed at the same time."

--Kathryn Stelmach Artuso