Harrison James

Senior Associate at Wisner Baum LLP
Los Angeles, CAAdmitted 2021

About Harrison James

Harrison E. James is a senior associate attorney at Wisner Baum's Los Angeles office, focusing on mass torts, class actions, consumer fraud litigation, and qui tam whistleblower cases. He was a key member of the legal team that litigated more than 11,000 Zantac cancer cases filed in California and Delaware state courts, working on everything from complex law and motion practice to expert development and trial preparation. Harrison is also involved in the firm's Actos litigation, a civil RICO class action in which the Wisner Baum team obtained certification of a national class of third party payors, a first of its kind victory affirmed by the Ninth Circuit. Originally from Houston, he studied philosophy and English at USC and earned his J.D. from UCLA School of Law in 2020. Best Lawyers has named him to its Ones to Watch list and the Daily Journal recognized him among its Leading Commercial Litigators in 2024.

Proven verdicts and settlements at Wisner Baum LLP

These results are credited to Wisner Baum LLP. A result appears under an attorney's own name only when a published source names them as counsel on the case.

$56.01 millionVerdictTop 20 of 2019 · #16

Alberta Pilliod, a retired teacher and school administrator from Livermore, sprayed Roundup on the couple's properties for nearly 30 years and was diagnosed in April 2015 with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in her central nervous system, which recurred in her brain in 2016. On May 13, 2019, an Alameda County jury awarded her about $37.2 million in compensatory damages and $1 billion in punitive damages, alongside a separate award to her husband. Judge Winifred Smith reduced her judgment to $56,005,830, the Court of Appeal affirmed in August 2021, and the California Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court both declined to disturb it.

Alameda County Superior Court, Oakland (Judge Winifred Y. Smith) · 2019Product LiabilityRead the full story →
$30.74 millionVerdict

Alva Pilliod mixed and sprayed Roundup on the family's Livermore-area properties from 1982 until illness stopped him in 2011, the year he was diagnosed at 69 with stage IV diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in his bones. On May 13, 2019, an Alameda County jury awarded him about $18 million in compensatory damages and $1 billion in punitive damages, alongside a separate award to his wife. Judge Winifred Smith reduced his judgment to $30,736,480, the Court of Appeal affirmed in August 2021, and the California and U.S. Supreme Courts declined review.

Alameda County Superior Court, Oakland (Judge Winifred Y. Smith) · 2019Product LiabilityRead the full story →
$20.51 millionVerdict

Dewayne "Lee" Johnson sprayed Monsanto's Ranger Pro and Roundup Pro on Benicia school grounds for two to three years, was soaked by a burst hose in 2014, and was diagnosed that October with mycosis fungoides, a rare non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. In August 2018 a San Francisco jury found Monsanto liable for failure to warn and design defect and returned $289.25 million, the first Roundup cancer verdict in the country. The trial judge cut punitive damages to match compensatory damages, for $78.5 million, and the Court of Appeal in July 2020 reduced the award to $20.5 million while affirming liability and malice. The California Supreme Court denied review in October 2020 and Bayer paid the judgment late that year.

San Francisco County Superior Court, San Francisco (Judge Suzanne Ramos Bolanos), Case No. CGC-16-550128 · 2018Product LiabilityRead the full story →
$3 millionVerdict

Stewart Dolin, a 57-year-old Reed Smith partner, was prescribed Paxil for anxiety in July 2010, had the prescription filled with generic paroxetine, and six days later stepped in front of a CTA train in downtown Chicago. His widow Wendy Dolin sued GlaxoSmithKline, which controlled the paroxetine label, for failing to warn of an adult suicide risk. After a five-week federal trial a Chicago jury awarded $3 million on April 20, 2017. The Seventh Circuit reversed in August 2018, holding the claim preempted because the FDA had rejected an adult-suicidality warning in 2007, and the Supreme Court denied review in 2019.

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Chicago (Judge William T. Hart) · 2017Product LiabilityRead the full story →

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

Practice areas

Education

University of California, Los Angeles School of Law
J.D., 2020
University of Southern California
Undergraduate, 2016

Bar admissions & credentials

State Bar of California, admitted 2021

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$122.5 Million Settlement for 124 Survivors of Police Activities League Volunteer Eric Uller
West Coast Trial Lawyers
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$13.1 million · Federal Jury Awards $13.1 Million to Parents of Man Shot in the Back by Riverside County Deputy
Wilshire Law Firm
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$35.3 Million Verdict for 81-Year-Old Backseat Passenger Rear-Ended by Tractor-Trailer on the 10 Freeway

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