Willie Gary
Proven VerdictsAbout Willie Gary
Willie E. Gary earned a national reputation as "The Giant Killer" for winning verdicts against some of America's largest corporations, with career results valued at more than 30 billion dollars. Born in 1947 in Eastman, Georgia, and raised in migrant farming communities across Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas, he earned an athletic scholarship at Shaw University, where he co-captained the football team and completed a degree in business administration before earning his law degree from North Carolina Central University in 1974. Admitted to the Florida Bar that same year, he returned home and opened Stuart's first African American law firm, which grew into Gary, Williams, Parenti, Watson & Gary.
His results include a 500 million dollar verdict against the Loewen Group funeral home chain, a 240 million dollar verdict against the Walt Disney Corporation, a 139.6 million dollar verdict for Maris Distributing against Anheuser-Busch, and the 23.6 billion dollar jury verdict against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco in 2014. He has tried cases in 45 states, has been featured on 60 Minutes and in Forbes and Ebony, and through the Gary Foundation, formed with his wife Gloria in 1994, has donated millions of dollars to historically Black colleges and universities, including a 10.1 million dollar pledge to Shaw University.
Proven verdicts and settlements
A Pensacola jury awarded Cynthia Robinson $23.6 billion in punitive damages against R.J. Reynolds over the 1996 lung cancer death of her 36-year-old husband, the largest single-plaintiff award of Florida's Engle tobacco litigation, but the trial judge called the number constitutionally excessive, an appeals court ordered a full retrial over improper closing arguments, and a second jury returned a complete defense verdict in 2019, so the estate ultimately collected nothing.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
