W. Mark Lanier

For the prominent plaintiff-side civil litigator W. Mark Lanier, a devout Christian faith fortifies his courtroom work. The Lanier Law Firm website, describing the shop he founded in 1990, talks about “promoting morality in the legal profession,” and his Bible studies have led to a series of books with titles like “Atheism on Trial.”

A new book, published Jan. 1, 2024, offers daily devotions based on the teachings of the so-called minor prophets. “My goal this year is to hear [God’s word] and let it infuse my life with meaning, direction and blessing,” Lanier wrote.

Lanier, who has expanded beyond Texas with offices in Los Angeles and New York, says he has reaped nearly $20 billion in verdicts during his career, including a $4.69 billion award for 22 women and their families — including $4.14 billion in punitive damages — in 2018 in the first trial to successfully link Johnson & Johnson talc to asbestos and ovarian cancer. Ingham v. Johnson & Johnson et al., 1522-CC10417 (Mo. 22d Jud. Cir., verdict Dec. 19, 2018).

His legal approach mirrors his faith, Lanier said. In a major antitrust case against Google LLC filed by Texas and a dozen other states, Lanier is lead trial counsel. He wants to hold the tech giant accountable for its allegedly anticompetitive advertising policies that seek “to kill competition…through an array of exclusionary tactics,” including an unlawful agreement with Facebook Inc., he wrote in a 130-page complaint. Texas et al. v. Google LLC, 4:20-cv-00957 (E.D. Tex., filed Dec. 16, 2020).

On Jan. 2, 2024, U.S. District Judge Sean D. Jordan posted a detailed briefing schedule with a March 31, 2025 trial date.

Lanier casts the litigation in moral terms. Google, expanding far beyond search, has “dropped its famous ‘don’t be evil’ motto,” the complaint states, adding, “The Supreme Court has warned that there are such things as antitrust evils. This litigation will establish that Google is guilty of such antitrust evils, and it seeks to ensure that Google won’t be evil anymore.”

In another matter, Lanier is lead counsel for the plaintiffs in a suit coordinated in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleging that social media platforms willfully cause addiction in children and minor teenage users. In October 2023, Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl held that “Plaintiffs have adequately pled a cause of action for negligence that is not barred by federal immunity or by the First Amendment.” Social Media Cases, JCCP 5255 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed May 16, 2023).

“This one strikes a major chord with my faith,” Lanier said. “I have done opioid cases, but here we have companies that are rewiring the brains of our next generation by other means, and I cannot sit idly by.”

—John Roemer