Similar personal injury attorneys in Washington
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
About Austin Brane
Represented hundreds of the nation’s largest school districts against e-cigarette maker Juul Labs, Inc. and Altria Group (Philip Morris) in litigation alleging the defendants targeted underaged youth and caused an e-cigarette epidemic in schools, resulting in a historic $1.9 billion settlement. Currently representing school districts across the country in litigation against Meta, TikTok and other social media companies related to the platforms’ role in causing a youth mental health crisis in school-aged students. Served on the Lead Class Counsel team for multiple high-profile securities class action litigations in federal courts across the country. Austin is a partner with an emphasis in complex litigation. He has represented plaintiffs and defendants in federal and state courts around the country in matters ranging from mass torts, class actions, antitrust litigation, consumer protection, contract disputes, fraud, and civil RICO.
Several of Austin’s cases have made national headlines, including Austin’s recent work on behalf of school districts concerning the youth e-cigarette epidemic, which was featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Good Morning America. Austin was a member of the University of Kansas Law Review, where he graduated in 2012. During his third year of law school, Austin externed for the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office, where he supported the office in all phases of the criminal justice process. Austin was certified pursuant to Kansas Rule 719 to appear on behalf of the office and did so on multiple occasions.
Proven verdicts and settlements at Wagstaff & Cartmell
These results are credited to Wagstaff & Cartmell. A result appears under an attorney's own name only when a published source names them as counsel on the case.
San Francisco Unified School District's case was the first JUUL bellwether trial against Altria; after the plaintiffs rested, Altria agreed to pay $235 million to resolve roughly 6,000 pending e-vapor claims nationwide.
A federal jury in Hammond, Indiana found that Ethicon's Prolift transvaginal mesh was defectively designed and inadequately warned against, awarding Barbara and Anton Kaiser $35 million. A judge reduced the punitive damages, leaving a $20 million verdict that the Seventh Circuit affirmed in full in 2020.
Kathryn Gant died at the scene of a head-on crash on K-58 in Kansas on June 10, 2011, after a driver crossed the center line in a no-passing zone. Her husband sued the driver, the driver's parents and the family oil company. After a five-day bench trial in June 2015, a Coffey County judge found all of them liable and awarded $6,723,021. Under a pretrial agreement, none of the judgment could be collected from the defendants themselves.
A Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google's YouTube negligent in designing platforms that harmed a young woman identified as K.G.M., who began watching YouTube at age 6 and joined Instagram at 9. On March 25, 2026, it awarded $3 million in compensatory damages, split 70 percent to Meta and 30 percent to YouTube, plus $3 million in punitive damages. It was the first bellwether trial in the coordinated California social media addiction cases.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
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Proven verdicts and settlements from other Washington firms
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.