Brian is a go-to first-chair trial lawyer who has tried over 30 cases to verdict before juries across the country, achieving numerous full defense verdicts on behalf of his many clients in some of the most challenging jurisdictions in the country.
Brian recently helped achieve a major victory for the NFL and its 32 member teams when a California federal judge granted a post-trial motion for judgment as a matter of law, overturning a jury’s earlier $4.7 billion verdict in the class action lawsuit that had challenged the League’s collective licensing of broadcast rights to NFL games. Brian conducted the cross-examination of the plaintiffs’ primary expert, laying the groundwork for the post-trial Daubert ruling, and subsequently delivered oral arguments resulting in a complete victory for the NFL.
Brian serves as national trial counsel for several clients in multi-district litigations around the country, including Monsanto in its Roundup litigation. He delivered the first full defense verdict for Monsanto in that litigation in a Los Angeles Superior Court case involving a boy diagnosed with cancer at age five. Brian has also obtained complete defense verdicts on behalf of Bayer, Eli Lilly, and Pfizer in products liability bellwether trials, including the first state court jury verdict for Bayer in the Xarelto litigation.
Brian has also played a critical role in winning cases before trial, including delivering multiple Daubert and summary judgment victories in multidistrict litigation for clients, such as for Medtronic in hernia mesh litigation in the Central District of California and for Bayer in its Roundup litigation in the Northern District of California. These results have paid dividends in related cases that relied on the same testimony.
Before founding Wilkinson Stekloff, Brian practiced at Covington and Burling and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, where he tried multiple cases to verdict. Brian also spent four years as an Assistant Federal Public Defender for the Southern District of Florida, where he obtained full acquittals in nearly one-third of his jury trials at a rate of more than double the national average.
In recognition of his success, Brian is nationally ranked in Chambers in “Products Liability and Mass Torts.” Chambers describes Brian as “a tremendous lawyer” who is “instrumental in getting favorable results.” Brian is also ranked by Legal 500 for “Toxic Torts,” “Consumer Products,” “Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices,” and “Sports.” In 2023, he was named “Trial Lawyer of the Year” and “Top Product Liability Litigator” by Benchmark Litigation, and led the trial team that received Benchmark’s “National Impact Case Award” for the defense verdict secured in Clark v. Monsanto. Brian is also a Benchmark “Top 100 Trial Lawyer” and “Litigation Star,” one of Lawdragon’s 500 “Leading Lawyers” and “Leading Litigators” in America, and a two-time National Law Journal “Winning Litigator” finalist.
Brian’s other notable representations include:
- Lead trial counsel defending Altria Group, Inc. and certain of its subsidiaries in the first government entity bellwether trial, brought by the San Francisco Unified School District, in multidistrict litigation arising out of Altria’s minority investment in JUUL Labs, Inc. Just one day after SFUSD rested its case and Brian’s cross-examinations of three key plaintiff experts, plaintiffs agreed to a global settlement with Altria that resolved the personal injury, consumer class action, and government entity cases brought in over 6,000 e-vapor cases in state and federal courts.
- Lead trial counsel for a major chemical manufacturer in the Aqueous Film-Forming Foams (AFFF) Products Liability Litigation in the District of South Carolina. The multidistrict litigation, involving alleged PFAS groundwater contamination from the use of AFFF, is considered the most significant PFAS litigation in the country. Brian directs overall trial strategy in both the MDL and various state courts on behalf of the major chemical manufacturer, and was set to serve as lead trial counsel for the manufacturer in the first bellwether trial in the AFFF MDL, which was halted when the remaining parties announced a settlement to end all water-provider claims brought against the manufacturer.
Updated Sep 2024
