Enter legal issue and location
Bijan Esfandiari - Los Angeles, CA
11111 Santa Monica Blvd.Suite 1750 Los Angeles, CA 90025
Wisner Baum LLP
Los Angeles Class Actions Lawyer
Overview
Bijan Esfandiari is a pharmaceutical product liability litigation attorney and a senior shareholder partner at Wisner Baum (formerly Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman)in Los Angeles. He has successfully represented clients in state and federal courts across the nation, at both the trial and appellate level, in wrongful death and catastrophic personal injury cases.
He has participated in several cases that have shaped and developed the law for the benefit of injured victims and consumers of pharmaceutical products. In one case of first impression (a case that presents a new issue for legal interpretation), the Court agreed with Bijan's argument and held that drug manufacturers owe an affirmative duty to warn regarding risks associated with children's off-label use.
Bijan's published cases have also exposed reprehensible corporate conduct. In one instance, a federal court in Pennsylvania allowed Bijan's clients to proceed with their punitive damages claims after finding that internal documents demonstrated the defendant had "acted with a wanton and willful disregard for the safety of its consumers."
Where drug makers have tried to convince courts that federal preemption (the doctrine that federal law preempts conflicting state laws) grants them immunity from state lawsuits, Bijan has time and again prevented their escape. In Mason v. SmithKline Beecham Corp., the first and only prescription drug preemption case to be heard by the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, the drug maker argued that FDA approval of a drug shielded its manufacturer from fault even if the company later learned of harmful negative reactions. The court, however, sided with Bijan and held that plaintiffs' claims were not preempted by federal law.
Bijan has likewise successfully opposed preemption in numerous other state and federal court cases. He co-authored amicus briefs in support of the respondents in the Supreme Court's landmark cases Wyeth v. Levine, 129 S.Ct. 1187 (2009) and Pliva v. Mensing, 131 S.Ct. 2567 (2011). Bijan received his bachelor's degree (cum laude, 1999) and J.D. degree from UCLA. He has been selected to Best Lawyers®, The National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Trial Lawyers, and Southern California Super Lawyers®. He also - has an rating of 10 out of 10: Superb.
About Bijan Esfandiari
Practice Areas
- Class Actions
- Complex and Multi-District Litigation
- Consumer Fraud Litigation
- Defective Medical Devices
- Personal Injury
- Prescription Drugs
- Product Liability Law
- Whistleblower Protection
- Wrongful Death Law
Current Employment Position(s)
- Senior Partner, Attorney
Year Joined Firm
- 2007
Languages
- Farsi
Qualifications
Bar Admissions
- U.S. Court of Appeals 10th Circuit, 2008
- U.S. District Court Western District of Michigan, 2008
- U.S. District Court Eastern District of Wisconsin, 2008
- U.S. Court of Appeals 3rd Circuit, 2008
- U.S. Court of Appeals 7th Circuit, 2009
- U.S. Supreme Court, 2011
- U.S. District Court Northern District of California, 2012
- U.S. Court of Appeals 1st Circuit, 2013
- California, 2002
- U.S. District Court Central District of California, 2002
- U.S. District Court Eastern District of California, 2005
- U.S. District Court Southern District of California, 2005
- U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit, 2002
- U.S. District Court Western District of Wisconsin, 2021
Other Affiliations
- American Bar Association, 2002 - Present (Member)
- American Association for Justice: Leader’s Forum
- Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles
Education
- University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law, Los Angeles, California, June, 2002
J.D.
Honors: Moot Court Honors Program
Law Journal: UCLA Journal of International Law & Foreign Affairs, Member, 1999 - 2000 - University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, California, 1999
B.A.
Honors: cum laude
Major: History
Pro Bono Activities
- Public Counsel Volunteer Attorney, 2007
- Member, Representative Assembly of the Palms Neighborhood Council
Classes and Seminars
- Strategies for Litigating Copyright Cases When Infringement is Uncontested, San Fernando Valley Bar Association, February 17, 2006
- Oral Advocacy Competition Participant, ABA Forum on Communications Law, Media Advocacy Workshop, American Bar Association, February 8, 2007
- Legal Implications of Pharmaceutical Ghostwriting, Faculty of Law’s Conference, The Ethics of Ghost Authorship in Biomedical Research: Concerns and Remedies Workshop, University of Toronto, May 4, 2011
- Living with the Mensing Decision, Mass Torts Made Perfect, Actors and Pelvic Mesh Litigation Update, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, February 8, 2012
- Panel: Corruption, Selling Sickness, Selling Sickness, People Before Profits, Session VI, Washington, D.C., February 20, 2013 - February 22, 2013
- Status of the Infuse Litigation, Mass Torts Made Perfect, Medtronic Infuse Litigation Update, Las Vegas, Nevada, October 10, 2013
- Medtronic InFUSE Litigation Group, Status of Cases That Have Survived Preemption Motions and Discovery Strategies and Different Venue Options, American Association for Justice, AAJ Annual Convention, July 26, 2014 - July 30, 2014
Achievements
Other Sources of Feedback About Bijan Esfandiari
Included on the 2025 Southern California Super Lawyers list
Past Lists
- 2024 Southern California Super Lawyers list
- 2023 Southern California Super Lawyers list
- 2022 Southern California Super Lawyers list
- 2021 Southern California Super Lawyers list
- 2020 Southern California Super Lawyers list
- 2019 Southern California Super Lawyers list
- 2018 Southern California Super Lawyers list
- 2017 Southern California Super Lawyers list
- 2016 Southern California Super Lawyers list
- 2015 Southern California Super Lawyers list
- 2014 Southern California Super Lawyers list
- 2013 Southern California Super Lawyers list
- 2012 Southern California Super Lawyers list
- 2011 Southern California Super Lawyers list
- 2010 Southern California Super Lawyers list
- 2009 Southern California Super Lawyers list
Honors
- Southern California Super Lawyers, 2017 - 2020
- Southern California Super Lawyers Rising Stars, 2009 - 2016
- The Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers
- Avvo.com Superb Score 10 out of 10
- Up-and-Coming 100: Southern California Rising Stars, Top List, 2016
- Products Liability Trial Lawyers Association – Top 25
- The National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Trial Lawyers
- Nation’s Top One Percent, National Association of Distinguished Counsel
Office Information
Address
11111 Santa Monica Blvd.Suite 1750 Los Angeles, CA 90025
Phone
Publication
Articles
- Camisoles: Providing Thin Protection, IP Law 360, 2006
- YouTube Sued: It's a Riot, American Bar Association, Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section, Media Privacy Committee Newsletter, 2006
- Contributing Author to The Docket, UCLA School of Law Publication
- Grokster: Inducing Further Litigation – ABA Tort Trial & Practice Section, Intellectual Property Law Committee Newsletter, Fall, 2005
- Caught Without a License – Marketing Management – Marketing Law, November/December, 2007
- Complete Tort Immunity For Drug Manufacturers Is Bad For The Public Health: A Commentary On Colacicco v. Apotex And Other Recent Preemption Decisions – LexisNexis Mealey’s Litigation Report: Antidepressant Report, Volume 4, Issue #10, May, 2008
- Preemption’s Requiem in the Wake of Wyeth v. Levine – LexisNexis Mealey’s Emerging Drugs & Devices, Volume 14, Issue #10, May, 2009
- Outsmarting the ‘Learned-Intermediary Doctrine’ Defense – The Advocate, February 2010, pg 62
- Levine To Mensing — A Journey From The Sublime To The Ridiculous – LexisNexis Mealey’s Emerging Drugs & Devices, Volume 16, Issue #16, August 18, 2011
- Reason Magazine Perpetuates False Information About Safety and Efficacy of Antidepressants, September 30, 2011
- Challenging Medical Ghostwriting in US Courts – PLOS Medicine, January 24, 2012
Representative Cases
- Berg & Berg Enterprises, LLC v. Sherwood Partners, Inc., et al., 131 Cal.App.4th 802 (Court of Appeals, 6th District, California 2005)
- Tucker v. SmithKline Beecham Corp., 596 F.Supp.2d 1225 (2008)
- Knipe v.SmithKline Beecham, 583 F.Supp.2d 553 (2008)
- Forst v. Smithkline Beecham Corp., 639 F.Supp.2d 948 (2009)
- Mason v. SmithKline Beecham Corp, 596 F.3d 387 (7th Circuit 2010)
- Dorsett v. Sandoz, Inc., 699 F.Supp.2d 1142
- Cabana v. Stryker Biotech, LLC et al., Case No. BC465313 (2012)
- Knipe v. SmithKline Beecham, 583 F.Supp.2d 602 (E.D.Pa. 2008)
- Cunningham v. SmithKline Beecham, 255 F.R.D. 474 (N.D.Ind. 2009)
- Forst v. SmithKline Beecham Corp., 602 F.Supp.2d 960 (E.D.Wis. 2009)
- ucker v. SmithKline Beecham Corp., 701 F.Supp.2d 1040 (S.D.Ind.2010)
- Dorsett v. Sandoz, Inc., 699 F.Supp.2d 1142 (C.D.Cal. 2010)
- Cabana v. Stryker Biotech, LLC et al., Case No. BC465313, 2012 WL 3729227 (Cal.Super. Ct., August 20, 2012)
- McCormick v. Medtronic, Inc., 219 Md. App. 485, 101 A.3d 467 (2014)
- Boutte v. Stryker Biotech, LLC, 67 F. Supp. 3d 732, 734 (M.D. La. 2014)
- Hricik v. Stryker Biotech, LLC, 89 F. Supp. 3d 694 (E.D. Pa. 2015)
When viewing a listing, consider the state advertising restrictions to which lawyers and law firms must adhere, as well as our FindLaw.com Legal Directory disclaimer. Some lawyers publish comparative information regarding the services that they provide which may be subject to specific comparative communications restrictions.
Write Your Review
Fields marked with an * are required
