Michael L. Baum

Practice areas

Class Action/Mass Torts: Plaintiff, Personal Injury – Products: Plaintiff

Focus areas

Class Actions, Medical Devices, Pharmaceutical, Toxic Torts

Michael L. Baum serves as the senior partner at Wisner Baum (previously known as Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman). Over a span of 29 years, he held the position of managing partner at Baum Hedlund until 2023, when he passed on the leadership to R. Brent Wisner. During his tenure, he guided the firm through numerous cases involving wrongful deaths and personal injuries connected to harmful pharmaceutical drugs, consumer goods, and commercial transportation.

Commencing his professional journey in 1985, he initially dealt with aviation accidents and other incidents related to commercial transportation. However, he subsequently shifted his focus towards litigating cases concerning pharmaceutical product liability, detrimental medical devices, hazardous herbicides, and consumer products.

Michael Baum expressed, “When I entered the legal profession in 1985, we were newcomers striving for the achievements we now take pride in. Our guiding principle from the start was straightforward: to employ the law in aiding individuals who had suffered injustices and to contribute positively to the world. Despite our growth over the years, this philosophy remains unchanged, fostering a culture that attracts skilled attorneys like Brent, who share our mission. He is precisely the type of lawyer and leader who will elevate this firm to greater heights. Wisner Baum is in capable hands.”

Under Michael’s leadership, our reputation was established as a law firm that consistently exceeded expectations and went the extra mile to accomplish tasks. We gained recognition for our pioneering and exceptional legal work in intricate litigations. Michael’s unwavering advocacy in cases involving pharmaceutical and consumer fraud litigation earned our firm international acclaim.

Noteworthy among Michael’s achievements is his work in the contaminated hemophilia medication lawsuit. In 1999, he was part of the trial team for the sole Hemophiliac AIDS case to reach a jury. Michael and his team represented Leo and Shirley Dixon, whose son, Ken Dixon, contracted HIV and AIDS allegedly due to using hemophilia medication contaminated with HIV.

Trial evidence indicated that the medication Ken Dixon used was derived from plasma and contaminated with HIV due to high-risk donors. The jury held two medication manufacturers, Cutter Biological and Alpha Therapeutics, liable for strict product liability, negligence, and fraud. Furthermore, the jury concluded that after Ken Dixon was initially infected with the AIDS virus (which he was unaware of at the time), the continued use of contaminated products worsened his condition, accelerating the progression of AIDS. The jury awarded Leo and Shirley Dixon $35.3 million for wrongful death and survival damages. Although a technical issue led to the verdict’s overturning by the judge, it brought essential justice not only to the Dixon family but also to hemophiliacs nationwide who suffered due to HIV-infected medication.

Moving ahead two decades, Michael remains committed to seeking justice for those harmed by pharmaceutical products from major corporations. In 2018, The National Law Journal recognized Michael and his team as Elite Trial Lawyers and top winners in Pharmaceutical Litigation for securing a groundbreaking jury verdict against a brand-name drug manufacturer (GSK) concerning the wrongful death of an individual who took a generic form of Paxil.

Michael was part of the trial team for three initial Monsanto Roundup lawsuits to go to trial. In the first trial, he and his colleagues represented Dewayne “Lee” Johnson, a school district groundskeeper who linked his terminal non-Hodgkin lymphoma to exposure to Monsanto herbicides. A San Francisco jury unanimously awarded Mr. Johnson $289 million in compensatory and punitive damages, finding that Monsanto had acted with malice, oppression, or fraud. This award was later reduced to $20.5 million.

Following this groundbreaking verdict, Michael and his team were named the 2019 Trial Team of the Year in the Mass Torts category by The National Trial Lawyers Top 100.

The second Roundup lawsuit, Hardeman v. Monsanto Company, resulted in an $80 million jury verdict (later reduced to $25.2 million). In May 2019, the third Roundup cancer trial concluded with a historic $2.055 billion verdict (later reduced to $87 million) favoring a couple who attributed their non-Hodgkin lymphoma to years of Roundup exposure. The Pilliod verdict stood as California’s largest and the U.S.’s second-largest verdict in 2019, ranking ninth in U.S. history. The Pilliod trial team earned multiple accolades after this landmark verdict, including being a finalist for the 2020 Elite Trial Lawyers Mass Tort Law Firm of the Year, inclusion in the Top 100 Verdicts 2019 by ALM and the National Law Journal, and recognition in the Daily Journal Top Verdicts 2019.

In addition, Michael’s firm is renowned for successfully resolving significant transportation disaster cases against prominent companies such as Airbus, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Amtrak, Bell Helicopter Co., Beechcraft, Boeing, Cessna, China Eastern Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines, EgyptAir, Ford Motor Co., McDonnell Douglas, Piper, Robinson Helicopter Co., Sikorsky, SwissAir, TACA Airlines, TWA, United Airlines, and US Airways, among others.

As a member of the plaintiffs’ trial team for families affected by the 1989 United 232 Sioux City, Iowa crash, Michael discovered a pivotal document revealing General Electric engineers’ predictions of the next DC 10 engine failure, which coincided with the United 232 crash five years later.

He highlighted, “Thoroughly investigating and litigating the devastating cases we handle daily demands unwavering focus and dedication to our clients’ causes. Our team approaches every problem with the belief that an optimal solution awaits, streamlining our perspective on each aspect of the cases we undertake.”

Michael received invitations to address governmental and regulatory bodies on several occasions, shedding light on serious health hazards unveiled, in part, through his firm’s legal actions. He testified before the European Parliament’s Special Committee Hearing on the EU’s pesticide authorization procedure (PEST) in Brussels, addressing environmental impacts of pesticides, including Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer. During the same trip, he and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. delivered the keynote address to members of the European Green Party at their pesticides hearing. He and his partner, R. Brent Wisner, briefed members of Canada’s Green Party in Parliament about the initial Roundup cancer verdict and the presented evidence. Owing to his groundbreaking work in Monsanto Roundup cases, Politico EU designated Michael as one of five “changemakers” worldwide shaping pesticide policies.

Health officials from foreign governments, including Ireland, Japan, Russia, and Taiwan, sought Michael’s guidance and assistance in shaping their nations’ consumer drug safety policies. These officials recognized Michael’s profound grasp of biomedical research, clinical trials, statistics, the pharmaceutical industry, marketing, and his firm’s effective discovery procedures and collaboration with experts on intricate scientific matters related to pharmaceutical litigation.