Tom Schultz has been an attorney for 27 years, focusing his practice on representing plaintiffs in a variety of complex civil cases involving claims of personal injury, wrongful death, financial loss, product liability and pharmaceutical related injuries.
During his career as a plaintiff’s attorney, Mr. Schultz has represented over 3,000 clients and has obtained over one billion dollars in settlements and verdicts on behalf of his clients. He is AV rated by Martindale and Hubbell, the highest rating possible for an attorney, is a member of ABOTA, the American Board of Trial Advocates, for his extensive jury trial experience and was recently recognized as a 2017 Southern California Super Lawyer by the Super Lawyers® publication. Mr. Schultz has received the following awards for his outstanding trial efforts:
- 2016, Finalist for CAOC Consumer Attorney of the Year
- 2016, Daily Journal Top Verdict By Impact for Newland v Los Angeles County
- 2015, Daily Journal Top Verdict By Dollar and four Top 50 Verdicts in California for Casillas v Landstar (#3 in California and #21 Nationally), Sheaffer v NuCo2 (#14 in California), Rabb v State of California (#25 in California) and Gomez v Heger Farms (#37 in California)
- 2012, Daily Journal Top Verdict By Dollar for Sheth v Schneider National Carriers (#9 in California and #54 Nationally)
In the last six years, Mr. Schultz has obtained over $500 million in verdicts and settlements including 70 cases in excess of one million dollars and multiple eight figure cases, including a $160 million trial verdict for a traumatically brain injured client, a $36.5 million trial verdict for a spine injury client, a $34.5 million trial verdict for a leg amputee, a $22.5 million settlement for a brain injured client, a $20.5 million wrongful death verdict, a $17.4 million verdict for a mild traumatic brain injured client, a $17.1 million verdict for a leg amputee client, a $14 million verdict for 21 year old suffering thoracic back fractures and chronic pain, a $10 million verdict for the wrongful death of a three-year-old child, a $10 million settlement for the wrongful death of a 14-year-old child, and a $10 million judgment for a 50-year-old leg amputee victim.
In addition to handling individual cases, Mr. Schultz was the primary handling lawyer for a number of mass tort cases, including a $200 million settlement involving claims against the pharmaceutical giant, Eli Lilly. Some of the other mass tort cases Mr. Schultz successfully resolved are as follows:
- Claims against Sulzer Orthopedics for defective hip implants involving 120 clients.
- Claims against Guidant and Medtronic for defective cardiac defibrillators and pacemakers on behalf of 150 clients.
- Claims against Johnson & Johnson for injuries from the birth control patch Ortho Evra involving 190 clients.
- Claims against Kaiser for injuries and deaths from kidney transplant victims involving 70 clients.
- Claims against Ford and Firestone for tire failures and vehicle roll-overs involving 50 clients.
- Claims against Redding Medical Center and certain physicians for unnecessary heart procedures involving 20 clients.
Prior to joining Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP, Mr. Schultz was a Deputy District Attorney in the Major Fraud Unit of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, where, for two years, he handled primarily complex criminal economic fraud cases.
Mr. Schultz developed his skills as a plaintiff’s lawyer under the tutelage of the late David M. Harney, a former past President of the International Academy of Trial lawyers and widely regarded as one of the greatest trial lawyers of his generation. After working for Mr. Harney for eight years, Mr. Schultz moved to Newport Beach, California, where he became a partner in a nationally recognized law firm, Lopez, Hodes, Restaino, Skikos & Polos.
Mr. Schultz graduated from Loyola Law School in 1990 and obtained his undergraduate degree from UCLA in 1987. He resides in Newport Beach, California, with his wife, Alexandra, and his three children, Andrew, a graduate from his alma mater, UCLA, Christian, a senior at Loyola Marymount University and young Elliot, who just is in first grade. Mr. Schultz enjoys family, friends and golf.