Harrison E. James

Harrison E. James specializes in the realm of plaintiff mass tort, class action, product liability and personal injury litigation and works closely with Wisner Baum LLP’s managing partner R. Brent Wisner in several high-stakes legal battles that have set precedents and could potentially lead to substantial financial settlements.

One of the cases under James’ belt is the class action lawsuit against Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly and Company. He played a pivotal role in achieving class certification in a civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) lawsuit. Painters and Allied Trades District Council 82 Health Care Fund v. Takeda Pharmaceuticals Co., 2:17-cv-07223-JWH-AS (C.D. Cal., filed Sept. 29, 2017).

This lawsuit was the first instance where a class action against a pharmaceutical company has been certified under the civil RICO statute. The lawsuit alleges that Takeda and Eli Lilly conspired to hide the risks of bladder cancer associated with the diabetes drug Actos, a concealment driven by concerns over its impact on sales. The case’s potential to award treble damages could see its value soar to more than $7 billion, making it one of the most significant in the pharmaceutical industry.

“Indeed, the case has already yielded a published Ninth Circuit opinion regarding the issue of proximate causation under civil RICO,” James said.

In another matter, James contributed to the team in In Re: Ranitidine Product Cases, JCCP No. 5150. This case involved confidential settlements for four plaintiffs in the Zantac cancer litigation in California state court. These settlements were significant because they resolved bellwether lawsuits alleging that Zantac causes breast cancer, marking a critical milestone in the ongoing litigation surrounding the drug.

James’s involvement in these cases is notable not just for the potential financial implications, but also for the legal precedents they set.

In the Zantac litigation, James said overcoming the Sargon hurdle was crucial.

“The MDL court in the Southern District of Florida had recently dispensed with the MDL plaintiffs’ causation experts in its Daubert ruling, and with this backdrop coloring the overall Zantac litigation, we had to make the case to the JCCP court in Alameda County that the outcome should be different with respect to our causation experts,” he said. “It was a marathon effort, but we were ultimately successful in obtaining a favorable Sargon ruling on bladder cancer from the JCCP court.”