Pioneers in Asbestos Litigation

Richardson, Patrick, Westbrook & Brickman is a plaintiff law firm with extensive experience in complex litigation across a diverse array of practice areas. We are frequently selected to hold leadership positions in class actions and MDLs. Our attorneys are licensed to practice in 16 states and territories. (CA, DC, FL, GA, IL, KS, MD, MI, MN, MO, NC, NY, SC TX, US-VI and WI.) With a network of co-counsel partners across the country, we have the knowledge, skill and resources to investigate and litigate throughout the United States.

RPWB was formed in 2002 by a group of attorneys who had built the reputation of being skilled, principled and tenacious. Their experience included working the most significant litigation against what was then our nation’s biggest health crisis: tobacco use. The cases led to the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, which has compensated states for healthcare costs and funded nationwide anti-smoking campaigns. Other members made a name for themselves by litigating asbestos, catastrophic personal injury, medical malpractice, products liability and pharmaceutical cases.

In 2014, we were named lead counsel in the Lipitor MDL. Our pharmaceutical team previously played integral roles in the $700 million Zyprexa and $273 million Chantix settlements, serving on both MDLs’ national plaintiff’s steering committees. Past notable steering committee appointments include: Baycol, Ortho Evra, Phenylpropanolamine (PPA), ReNu, Rezulin and the Norplant contraceptive system.

With respect to class actions, we are co-lead counsel in the Delta/AirTran Baggage Fee Antitrust Litigation, which alleges that Delta Airlines and AirTran Airways conspired to implement fees charged to passengers for checked bags. These fees have generated hundreds of millions of dollars for the air carriers. Our firm was co-lead counsel for McKesson Governmental Entities Average Wholesale Price Litigation, in which the drug distributor was accused of inflating its wholesale prices in order to overcharge governmental entities. The case settled for $82 million. In South Carolina, we were lead counsel in Ferrell v. Horry Electric Cooperative, a class action suit concerning an energy efficiency program that encouraged defective renovations that promoted mold growth in homes. The suit was settled in 2014 for $6 million.

The firm is heavily involved in financial litigation, including consumer lending, banking and securities. We are counsel in Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation, which at $5.7 billion, was the largest-ever monetary settlement of private antitrust litigation. Our securities team is involved in many of the major issues confronting our financial system. Pending financial matters include allegations of an unfair stock-trading advantage to high-speed traders who purchase faster access to the stock exchange and a breach of fiduciary responsibility to shareholders of PIMCO. The bond fund charged shareholders $1.2 billion in fees and compensated its top executives $1.5 billion in 2013 while the fund fell 1.92 percent and trailed 70 percent of its peers.

While we take pride in our work on nationwide litigation to help large groups of people who have been wronged, the backbone of our firm has always been to help individual clients by litigating catastrophic personal injury cases, truck accidents, railroad accidents, construction defects, medical malpractice, occupational lung disease and mesothelioma claims.