Top Litigator Steven B. Weisburd Joins Carlton Fields’ Los Angeles Office
August 29, 2018
Weisburd has more than 20 years of experience litigating business and entertainment disputes as well as complex class actions and mass tort cases. He previously was a partner in Dechert LLP’s Austin, Texas office (2006-2016) and at Munger Tolles & Olson LLP in Los Angeles (1994-2006). His arrival significantly expands Carlton Fields’ growing Century City office.
“We are delighted to have Steven join Carlton Fields as we continue to grow our Southern California practice,” said the firm’s President and CEO Gary L. Sasso. “He brings a wealth of talent and experience to our Los Angeles office.”
“His tenacious analytics, and ability to forge winning strategies in the most difficult and complex disputes, are extraordinary,” added Mark Neubauer, Carlton Fields Los Angeles Office Managing Partner. “We expect Steven to help us continue to expand Carlton Fields' nationally recognized class action and civil litigation practice.”
“I am excited to help Carlton Fields continue to build an extraordinary Los Angeles office filled with top-flight lawyers committed to the highest level of practice and client service,” said Weisburd.
Weisburd has successfully litigated bet-the-company disputes for major corporate clients and product manufacturers, while also representing artists, film and television producers, record companies, talent agencies, magazines, and major media companies in federal and state courts in California, Texas, Florida, New Jersey, New York, and elsewhere.
Among Weisburd’s triumphs, he and his team derailed a multi-billion-dollar mass tort litigation against pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca in the Seroquel litigation. He earned national attention when defense motions he crafted and argued prevailed on the eve of trial in all of the first 12 bellwether cases. The rulings were affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in an appeal Weisburd argued.
Other high-profile victories include dismissals of consumer class actions against Google Inc. in California, along with victories or class certification denials in cases against tobacco giant Altria/Philip Morris in California, across the U.S., and foreign jurisdictions, such as the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
Since he began his career at Munger Tolles in the 1990s, Weisburd’s variegated litigation practice has included cases for mass media and entertainment industry clients, beginning with his role in the successful First Amendment defense of Jeffrey Toobin and the New Yorker Magazine against a defamation action filed by former LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman midway through the O.J. Simpson criminal case. Over the years, Weisburd represented many other entertainment industry clients in high-profile litigation, including the producers of the Basic Instinct franchise in a suit filed by actress Sharon Stone; Grammy-award-winning musical artist Ry Cooder in matters related to his Buena Vista Social Club; and diverse matters on behalf of Universal Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Music Group, and the Motion Picture Association of America.
Weisburd received his J.D. with honors from Stanford Law School in 1992, where he was a Law Review editor; earned an LL.M. with first class honors in 1994 from the University of Cambridge; and graduated in 1988 with his B.A., magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of California, Los Angeles. He also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Alfred T. Goodwin on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
