About Brian Ward
Brian Ward is a trial lawyer specializing in catastrophic injury, wrongful death, and toxic exposure cases. Born and raised in South Bend, Indiana, he left the Midwest to attend film school at the University of Southern California. It was during this time that he developed and fostered a passion for storytelling.
In his first year at Loyola Law School, Brian discovered trial advocacy and decided to audition for the nationally recognized Byrne Trial Team. Brian competed on the team for two years and won a National Championship at the National Trial Competition. On the team, he met and became friends with Courtney Rowley and Erin Powers.
Thirteen years ago, Brian became a victim of negligence that left him permanently injured and disabled. Because Brian spent his childhood as a gymnast and then a pole-vaulter, this injury was truly devastating. After struggling through constant pain and trying to navigate these new challenges, Brian decided to take a break from law. He sold his home and purchased an Airstream trailer. Together with his wife and dog, they spent the next eighteen months traveling the nation, taking in the natural beauty and wonder while recalibrating what mattered most to them.
Out on the road, he received a call from Nick Rowley with a life-changing offer to join the firm that he couldn’t refuse. Brian is a primary instructor at Trial by Human and he tries cases nationwide. He has discovered his experience and disability is not a limitation but a superpower in assisting and representing permanently injured and disabled clients. The lessons he gained through his experience stay with him always.
“Nothing feels better than obtaining justice for these kinds of clients when they are facing off against the most powerful corporations in the world. In the courtroom, we are still all equal,” Ward says.
As a former USC yell leader, Brian remains a dedicated Trojan and football fan. In the fall, you can find him parked, every Saturday, in front of the TV, catching all the games. Fight On!
Proven verdicts and settlements at Trial Lawyers for Justice
These results are credited to Trial Lawyers for Justice. A result appears under an attorney's own name only when a published source names them as counsel on the case.
Carrie DeJongh, 40, of Hull, Iowa, died on June 9, 2015 after receiving iodinated contrast dye for a CT scan at Sioux Center Health, when the physician treating her gave her an antihistamine but did not immediately check her vital signs or give epinephrine. Her family sued Sioux Center Health and Dr. Roy T. Slice for negligence, and both defendants denied the allegations. A Sioux County jury in Orange City returned a $29.5 million verdict on June 13, 2018, covering DeJongh's pain and suffering before her death and loss of consortium for her husband and four children. No appeal, remittitur or reduction has turned up since.
In February 2017, a physician assistant at a UnityPoint urgent care clinic in Des Moines diagnosed Joseph Dudley with the flu despite a negative flu test, sent him home on Tamiflu, and never ordered a complete blood count. Two days later Dudley was hospitalized with bacterial meningitis caused by an undetected heart valve infection, spent eight days in a medically induced coma, and suffered a series of strokes that left him with permanent brain damage, hearing loss, vertigo and nerve damage. A Polk County jury tried the malpractice claim against physician assistant Melanie Choos and Central Iowa Hospital Corp, doing business as UnityPoint Clinic, over a week in November 2022 and returned a $27,000,000 verdict, all of it noneconomic damages. The defense moved for a new trial afterward and UnityPoint said it was weighing an appeal.
Richard J. Pellock, 80, had surgery to remove bladder cancer at UnityPoint Health Finley Hospital in Dubuque, Iowa in January 2015, and the operation succeeded. Days later he needed a second procedure for a post-surgical complication, and the nurse anesthetist handling that procedure induced anesthesia without first emptying his stomach despite signs he had a full one. Pellock aspirated, developed aspiration pneumonia and respiratory failure, and died. His widow and son sued the anesthesia group and a Dubuque County jury returned a $10 million verdict against it in September 2017, awarded entirely as loss-of-consortium damages. Defense lawyers were reported as saying they would challenge the verdict, but no Iowa appellate decision in the case has ever been published.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
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