
About Wisner Baum
Pursuing Justice on Behalf of Our Clients for Nearly 40 Years
Founded in Los Angeles, California in 1985, the law firm of Wisner Baum has earned a reputation for breaking new legal ground, holding major corporations accountable, influencing public policy, and raising public awareness about important safety issues. Our trial experience across a broad range of practice areas includes over $4 billion in verdicts and settlements.
These groundbreaking legal victories have earned major awards, including Law360’s Regional Powerhouse award, and the National Trial Lawyers’ Elite Trial Lawyers Mass Tort Trial Team of the Year award, induction into the U.S. News – Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms” and the National Law Journal’s Verdicts Hall of Fame, and an AV® preeminent peer-review rating by Martindale-Nolo.
Wisner Baum attorneys have a long track record of successfully handling catastrophic injury cases. Our lawyers focus on commercial transportation litigation, pharmaceutical drug and medical device product liability, mass torts, and class actions. When we take on a case, your mission becomes our mission, and we pride ourselves on being your advocate in a time of great need. Our service to you and your family doesn’t stop with the pursuit of maximum compensation; we also work tirelessly to be a force for positive change. This includes advocating for improved safety, and fighting to deter future incidents from happening again.
No matter the opponent, no matter the odds, our firm continues to prove that we know how to win the biggest cases.
To benefit from our experience, reputation, and resources, we invite you to contact our Los Angeles team today at (855) 948-5098 or submit our online contact form. We offer same-day appointments and free consultations.

MEET OUR TEAM
A TRADITION OF SUCCESS

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R. Brent Wisner Attorney, Managing Partner
R. Brent Wisner is the managing partner of Wisner Baum and is based at our San Francisco Bay Area office. Brent is driven by a deep-rooted passion for using the law to help those who have been marginalized and hurt by large, and sometimes malicious, corporations.
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Michael Baum Attorney, Senior Partner
Michael L. Baum is a senior partner of Wisner Baum (formerly Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman) with nearly 40 years of experience. He was the managing partner of Baum Hedlund from 1993 to 2022 and proudly turned over the reins to R. Brent Wisner in January of 2023.
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Bijan Esfandiari Attorney, Senior Partner
Bijan Esfandiari is a pharmaceutical product liability litigation attorney and senior partner at Wisner Baum in Los Angeles. Since joining the firm in 2007, Bijan has worked as lead counsel on several cutting-edge pharmaceutical and medical device cases.
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Timothy Loranger Attorney, Senior Partner, Pilot, Marine Corps Veteran
Timothy A. Loranger is an attorney and senior partner at the national mass disaster law firm of Wisner Baum. A consumer attorney, pilot, and avid citizen advocate.
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Monique Alarcon Attorney, Senior Associate
Monique Alarcon is an attorney in the Los Angeles office of Wisner Baum where she focuses her practice on the firm’s medical device cases, pharmaceutical drug liability and consumer fraud litigation.
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W. Crawford Appleby IV Attorney, Senior Associate
William Crawford Appleby IV is an attorney in the Los Angeles office of Wisner Baum. He focuses on complex law and motion matters, in-depth legal research and writing, and case strategy.
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Pedram Esfandiary Attorney, Partner
Pedram Esfandiary is a partner and trial attorney based in the Los Angeles office of Wisner Baum, where he concentrates his practice on toxic tort injuries, pharmaceutical drug liability, class actions, consumer fraud litigation and police misconduct lawsuits.
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Adam Foster Associate, Attorney
Adam M. Foster is an attorney in the Los Angeles office of Wisner Baum. Adam concentrates his practice on class actions and mass torts particularly those related to pharmaceuticals, consumer products, and products liability, generally.
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Matthew French Associate, Attorney
Matthew P. French is an attorney at Wisner Baum’s Los Angeles office, where he focuses his practice on the firm’s commercial transportation accident cases. Led by a strong desire to help people when they need it most, Matthew’s clients appreciate his empathetic approach to how he handles his cases.
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Ari Friedman Attorney, Partner
Ari Friedman is a partner and trial attorney at Wisner Baum where he focuses his practice on complex and multi-district litigation, product liability, and personal injury and wrongful death cases stemming from transportation accidents (including aviation accidents and truck crashes) and other catastrophic injury (including TBI).
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Harrison James Associate, Attorney
Harrison E. James is an attorney in the Los Angeles office of Wisner Baum, where he focuses his practice on the firm’s pharmaceutical drug liability, class action, and consumer fraud litigation.
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Mayra Maturana Associate, Attorney
Mayra Maturana is an attorney in the Los Angeles office of Wisner Baum where she concentrates her practice on toxic tort injuries. She is part of firm’s legal team handling the toxic baby food litigation.
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Clay Robbins III Attorney, Partner
Clay Robbins III is an attorney and partner in the Los Angeles office of Wisner Baum. A third-generation California lawyer, Clay concentrates his practice on commercial transportation accident litigation and mass disasters.
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Stephanie Sherman Attorney, Partner
Stephanie B. Sherman is a multiple award-winning trial lawyer and partner at Wisner Baum. With over 20 years of experience, she has helped thousands of clients in serious personal injury, wrongful death, product liability, chemical exposure, and dangerous pharmaceutical cases.
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Helen Tokar Attorney, Senior Associate
Helen E. Tokar is an attorney in the Los Angeles office of Wisner Baum where she focuses her practice on the firm’s Zantac cancer litigation.
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Cara Luther Attorney of Counsel
Cara J. Luther is of counsel to Wisner Baum, focusing on the firm’s mass disaster cases and commercial transportation accident cases. She worked for 31 years as a full-time attorney at the firm until 2022.
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Frances Phares Attorney of Counsel
Frances M. Phares is of counsel to Wisner Baum, where she focuses her practice on personal injury and wrongful death litigation stemming from major transportation disasters, pharmaceutical product liability cases and toxic exposure across the nation.
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Mark Schlein Attorney of Counsel
Mark H. Schlein transitioned to ”of counsel” status to Wisner Baum in 2022 and continues to focus on the firm’s whistleblower qui tam cases. For 11 years he worked full time as the firm’s top whistleblower attorney, handling dozens of whistleblower cases.
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Ronald L. Goldman Pilot, Attorney of Counsel, Retired
Ronald L. M. Goldman retired after 60 years in the practice of law on January 10, 2023. He held the positions of vice president and senior trial attorney at Baum Hedlund & Aristei & Goldman (now Wisner Baum) and was a pillar of Baum Hedlund for 19 years.
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Paul Hedlund Senior Shareholder, Mechanical Engineer, Retired
Paul J. Hedlund was an attorney for 45 years and a member of our team at Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman for 30 of those years. He served as one of the firm’s senior shareholders for more than 20 years, overseeing the firm’s major transportation accident cases.
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J. Clark Aristei Senior Shareholder, Deceased
J. Clark Aristei was an attorney for nearly 40 years and a member of our team at Wisner Baum for 26 of those years. Clark served as a senior shareholder for more than two decades and then semi-retired while also acting as Of Counsel to our firm.
More Than $4 Billion Won
There’s a reason that many consider Wisner Baum to be, quite simply, among the best in the business: Our attorneys have represented thousands of victims in some of the most complex litigation, securing over $4 billion in recovery for victims of serious, life-altering injuries. Our firm served as co-lead trial counsel in cases against agrochemical giant Monsanto Company (now part of Bayer) that resulted in two of the largest jury verdicts in recent history, worth a combined $2.344 billion upon initial judgment. The verdicts in Johnson v. Monsanto Co. and Pilliod et al. v. Monsanto Co. were hard-earned legal victories that will have a lasting impact not just for the plaintiffs and their families, but for public health and the environment too.
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$2.0 Billion Verdict Personal Injury
In May of 2019, the jury in the case of Pilliod et al. v, Monsanto Company ordered the agrochemical giant to pay $2.055 billion in damages to the plaintiffs, Alva and Alberta Pilliod, a Bay Area couple in their 70s.
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$105 Million Settlement Pharmaceutical Settlement
Wisner Baum obtained $105 million on behalf of multiple clients involved in a pharmaceutical negligence case.
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$18 Million Settlement Whistleblower Settlement
Wisner Baum secured an $18 million settlement against the Boeing Company for overcharging the U.S. government on aircraft maintenance.
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$17.5 Million Settlement A Major US Plane Crash
Wisner Baum obtained a $17.5 million settlement on behalf of a client who was killed in a major U.S. plane crash.
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$15 Million Settlement Truck Accident
Our firm successfully negotiated a $15 million catastrophic injury settlement for our clients. The case stemmed from a Southern California accident involving a commercial truck and a pedestrian.
California-Based Law Firm Taking on Cases Nationwide
While Wisner Baum’s main office is located in Los Angeles, our personal injury attorneys handle cases throughout California and across the United States. In fact, our firm has litigated personal injury and wrongful death cases on behalf of clients in all 50 states.
Our office locations:
West Coast
- Los Angeles
- San Francisco Bay Area
- Bakersfield
- Ontario
- Sacramento
- San Diego
East Coast
- Washington D.C.


Contact our experienced attorneys to learn about your legal options. Your consultation is free and confidential.
Locally & Nationally Recognized


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We take pride in our professional relationships with referring attorneys and are equipped with the resources to take on your complex case.
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We have resolved thousands of cases worldwide, winning over $4 billion in verdicts and settlements on behalf of clients.
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Interested in exploring your legal rights? Schedule a free consultation with our team. You won't pay unless we win your case.
Ceaseless Advocacy
Our work is not solely about winning a verdict at trial or securing a settlement—it is about achieving all of your goals as outlined during our initial consultation. Wisner Baum attorneys have always fought, and will continue to fight to:
- Improve consumer safety when corporations put profit over people.
- Implement vital transportation safety technology that has the potential to save lives.
- Use litigation as a catalyst for meaningful change that makes the world a better place.