HomeHawaiiHonoluluL. Richard Fried, Jr.

About L. Richard Fried, Jr.

L. Richard Fried, Jr. is one of the founding members of the firm and has practiced law for over 55 years. He has a national reputation in personal injury, medical malpractice (with more than 50 verdicts and settlements exceeding $1 million), and aviation law. He is listed and holds the highest ratings in multiple lawyers' directories, including Best Lawyers in America, and has been named Lawyer of the Year in Hawaii for 2012, 2021, and 2025. Mr. Fried served as President of the Consumer Lawyers of Hawaii in 1984 and 2001 and received that organization's first trial lawyer of the year award in 1994.

He was appointed by the Chief Justice of the Hawaii State Supreme Court to serve on the Judicial Evaluation Committee and by the Chief Judge of the Hawaii Federal District Court to serve as a delegate to the federal district judges conference. He is an active member of the Hawaii Innocence Project (serving as Executive Director since 2017), the Hawaii Theater Center board, and the Hawaii Make-a-Wish Foundation board. Mr. Fried frequently conducts teaching seminars for other attorneys in various aspects of tort law.

Proven verdicts and settlements

$700 millionSettlement

After proving through 12.5 million internal company documents that Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi hid for twelve years that Plavix was ineffective in patients with a common genetic variant, the State of Hawaii secured a $700 million settlement in 2025, the largest pharmaceutical recovery in the state's history.

First Circuit Court, State of Hawaii (Honolulu) · 2025Product LiabilityRead the full story →
$24.7 millionVerdict

A federal bench trial awarded $24.7 million to a Navy family after Tripler Army Medical Center physicians failed to administer IV antibiotics for roughly 48 hours following a post-delivery infection, leaving the patient with permanent kidney failure.

U.S. District Court, District of Hawaii (Honolulu) · 2018Medical MalpracticeRead the full story →
$16.5 millionVerdict

A federal judge awarded $16.5 million to the family of a newborn who suffered permanent brain damage after an Army pediatrician at Tripler Army Medical Center administered carbon dioxide instead of oxygen for 42 minutes following his birth. It was the largest single personal-injury judgment for an individual in Hawaii history at the time.

U.S. District Court, District of Hawaii (Honolulu) · 2006Medical MalpracticeRead the full story →
$10 millionSettlement

The City and County of Honolulu agreed in October 2021 to pay $10 million to settle a wrongful-death claim brought by the family of cardiothoracic anesthesiologist William Travis Lau, who was struck and killed on a Kakaako sidewalk when a drunk driver fleeing an HPD high-speed pursuit veered off Ala Moana Boulevard in January 2019.

City and County of Honolulu · 2021Wrongful DeathRead the full story →
$5.62 millionVerdict

A Honolulu jury awarded $5.62 million to Jeff Kim, a Mililani flight attendant whose oral tumor grew from lima-bean to fist size over three years because Straub Clinic & Hospital physicians failed to order a readily available diagnostic test.

First Circuit Court, State of Hawaii (Honolulu) · 2014Medical MalpracticeRead the full story →
View all 6 proven verdicts →

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.

Practice areas

Education

University of Arizona College of Law
LL.B., 1966
University of Arizona
Undergraduate, 1963

Bar admissions & credentials

State Bar of Arizona, admitted 1966
State Bar of Hawaii, admitted 1968

Other attorneys at Cronin, Fried, Sekiya, Kekina & Fairbanks

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Proven verdicts and settlements from other Honolulu firms

Davis Levin Livingston
Davis Levin Livingston
$80 million · $80 Million Settlement for 32 Survivors of Decades of Sexual Abuse at Kamehameha Schools
Leavitt, Yamane & Soldner
Leavitt, Yamane & Soldner
$4.037 billion (global, multi-firm) · $4.037 Billion Settlement for Maui Wildfire Victims