Largest Premises Liability Group Settlements and Recovery Funds

104 Women Win $1.6 Billion Against Long Island Pediatrician Stuart Copperman

Anapol Weiss shareholder Kristen Gibbons Feden helped secure $1.6 billion in default verdicts for 104 women sexually abused as children by former Long Island pediatrician Stuart Copperman, one of the largest cumulative civil awards against a single individual in U.S. history.

Gentilly Tank-Car Fire: $850 Million Punitive Verdict for 8,000 New Orleans Residents

Joseph Bruno and Bruno & Bruno served as lead plaintiffs' counsel in a landmark class action brought by more than 8,000 Gentilly residents exposed to a butadiene tank-car fire in 1987, securing a jury verdict that included $2.5 billion in punitive damages against CSX Transportation alone, later reduced to $850 million on appeal and affirmed by Louisiana's Fourth Circuit.

After trial: Punitive damages, upheld on appeal; a prior settlement was reached in 2001.

Route 91 Harvest Festival Shooting: $800 Million Settlement With MGM Resorts

Kevin Boyle of the firm served as one of three plaintiffs' co-lead counsel in the $800 million settlement with MGM Resorts for victims of the 2017 Route 91 Harvest festival mass shooting at Mandalay Bay.

Flint Water Crisis: $600 Million Settlement for Lead-Poisoned Residents

Hunter Shkolnik of Napoli Shkolnik served as court-appointed co-liaison counsel for individual plaintiffs in the consolidated federal Flint water litigation, which produced a $600 million settlement from the State of Michigan in 2020.

Acadia Healthcare Pays $400 Million to Settle Three New Mexico Foster Care Abuse Cases

Acadia Healthcare agreed to pay $400 million to resolve three civil cases arising from its Desert Hills and Familyworks foster care program in New Mexico, where licensed foster parent Clarence Garcia sexually abused multiple children in his care.

After trial: The $400 million settlement resolved three separate New Mexico foster-care abuse cases against Acadia Healthcare and its former subsidiary: the G.S. plaintiffs, whose case had produced the $485 million jury verdict, received $200 million, and plaintiffs in the two other cases received $100 million each. Acadia admitted no liability.

$300 Million PFAS Cleanup for 400,000 North Alabama Residents in Twenty-Year 3M Class Action

A class action filed in 2002 on behalf of roughly 400,000 residents across six north Alabama counties ended in a court-approved $300 million cleanup settlement requiring 3M and co-defendants to remediate PFAS contamination throughout the Tennessee River watershed.

$230 Million Settlement for New Orleans Clergy Abuse Survivors After Five-Year Archdiocese Bankruptcy

Representing more clergy abuse survivors in the Archdiocese of New Orleans bankruptcy than any other firm, Herman, Katz, Gisleson and Cain helped push a five-year Chapter 11 proceeding to a $230 million settlement confirmed in December 2025, with additional recovery against Travelers Insurance still pending.

$227 Million Settlement for 19 Victims of the 22nd and Market Street Demolition Collapse

A Pennsylvania-record $227 million settlement resolved claims brought by 19 victims of the June 2013 Center City building collapse, in which an improperly braced wall fell during demolition and crushed the adjoining Salvation Army thrift store, killing seven people.

$172 Million Settlement for 17,000 Victims of the 1988 Shell Norco Refinery Explosion

Joseph Bruno served on the eight-member Plaintiffs' Legal Committee in a federal class action covering more than 17,000 people harmed when a corrosion failure triggered a catastrophic pre-dawn explosion at Shell's Norco, Louisiana refinery in May 1988, ultimately settling for nearly $172 million.

$160 Million DeKalb County Verdict Against Sony Music Over Fatal Shooting at Underground Atlanta Concert

A DeKalb County jury awarded $160 million to the families of Ewell Ynoa and Giovan Diaz, two young men shot and killed at a 2017 rap concert at the Masquerade venue in Underground Atlanta, finding Sony Music Holdings failed to protect patrons at the show.

After trial: The award covers two families ($80 million each). Sony, which never appeared before the default judgment, moved in late December 2022 to stay enforcement, saying it had no notice of the case; no public resolution has been reported since.

$122.5 Million Settlement for 124 Survivors of Police Activities League Volunteer Eric Uller

McGee Lerer Ogrin represented 14 of the 124 survivors whose claims were resolved in a $122.5 million settlement with the City of Santa Monica over decades of child sexual abuse by a PAL volunteer the city failed to stop.

After trial: Global settlement; firm share for 14 of 124 claimants.

Jackson County Courthouse Asbestos Exposure Settles for $80 Million

Two former Jackson County Courthouse employees sued U.S. Engineering Co. and Jackson County over asbestos dust that spread through the courthouse during a mid-1980s renovation, after a co-worker died of mesothelioma. A trial judge refused to certify a class, and in March 2015 the Missouri Court of Appeals reversed that ruling and reinstated the case. A jury had been selected for an October 2016 trial in Jackson County Circuit Court when the parties settled for $80 million, funded by U.S. Engineering's insurers rather than county tax dollars. The settlement set aside $25 million for attorneys' fees and litigation costs and put the remainder into a medical monitoring fund covering diagnostic testing for up to 7,500 people who worked in or spent significant time in the courthouse. Louis C. Accurso represented the plaintiffs.

After trial: Class settlement of $80 million: $25 million for attorneys' fees and costs and a 30-year medical monitoring fund for up to 7,500 eligible people. Reporting says the fund was paid through the contractor's insurers, not county tax dollars. See more

Diocese of Wilmington Pays $77.4 Million to 146 Clergy Abuse Survivors in Bankruptcy Settlement

Thomas Crumplar and co-counsel secured a $77.425 million trust for 146 survivors of clergy sexual abuse as part of the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington's Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in 2011.

John Hancock Center Scaffold Collapse: $75 Million Settlement for the Killed and Injured

Thomas Demetrio of Corboy & Demetrio represented seven of the people killed and injured when a suspended work platform fell from the John Hancock Center in 2002, part of a $75 million global settlement reached on the eve of trial.

$59.7 Million Penn State Global Settlement Shared by 26 Sandusky Survivors

Joel Feller and Matt Casey of Ross Feller Casey represented seven of the 26 survivors who reached a global civil settlement with Penn State University totaling $59.7 million, the largest single-firm contingent in the proceedings.

After trial: Global; RFC clients' individual allocations undisclosed.

$54 Million Settlement for Gambrills Families Whose Drinking Wells Were Poisoned by Coal Ash

Hassan Murphy co-led the class action against Constellation Energy after fly ash from a coal plant fouled private drinking wells in a Gambrills neighborhood, producing a $54 million package that connected affected homes to public water and established a $9.5 million resident trust fund.

KOMO Helicopter Crash Near Seattle Space Needle Yields $40 Million Settlement

Two men who suffered severe blast, burn, and traumatic brain injuries when a KOMO news helicopter fell onto their vehicles during morning rush hour in March 2014 received a $40 million settlement five weeks into trial.

$34.33 Million Verdict for Ruth's Chris Workers Poisoned by Carbon Monoxide at Pier Five Hotel

After a 13-week trial, a Baltimore City jury awarded $34.33 million to 20 Ruth's Chris Steakhouse workers and three of their spouses after the workers suffered permanent brain damage when carbon monoxide from Pier Five Hotel's boiler system flooded their workplace over several months in early 2008.

$27 Million Settlement for Hoosick Falls Residents in DuPont PFOA Water Contamination Case

James Bilsborrow of Weitz and Luxenberg served as co-lead class counsel for more than 4,000 Hoosick Falls residents whose drinking water was contaminated with PFOA from a nearby DuPont Teflon manufacturing facility, securing a $27 million settlement in 2025.

Walkup's $20 Million Partial Settlement for the Berkeley Balcony Collapse Families

Walkup attorney Matthew Davis represented the families of five Irish students killed and seven survivors injured when a Berkeley apartment balcony sheared off in 2015, reaching a partial settlement of more than $20 million on confidential terms.

After trial: Partial; full terms confidential.