Pedram Esfandiary

Pedram Esfandiary is an attorney and Partner at the Los Angeles office of Wisner Baum (formerly Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman). He represents people harmed by environmental toxins, pharmaceutical drugs, consumer products, and police misconduct. He is currently leading the toxic baby food litigation for our firm. The national program, Spotlight on America, featured Pedram and one of his clients to discuss one of the first baby food-autism lawsuits in the United States.

Monsanto Roundup Cancer Trials

Pedram was a key member of the litigation teams for the first three Roundup cancer cases to go to trial against Monsanto (now part of Bayer):

• Johnson v. Monsanto Co., in which the jury awarded the plaintiff, a groundskeeper, $289 million;

• Hardeman v. Monsanto Co., in which the jury awarded the plaintiff $80 million for his damages; and

• Pilliod et al. v. Monsanto Co., in which the jury awarded the plaintiffs, a Livermore, California couple, $55 million in compensatory damages and $2 billion in punitive damages.

Various legal journals recognized these landmark Roundup verdicts with awards and honors, including the Daily Journal, Law360, National Law Journal, Courtroom View Network, and .

UCLA School of Law, the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, the Resnick Center for Food Law and Policy, and the Yale Law School Collaboration for Research Integrity and Transparency (CRIT) program invited Pedram to speak about the Roundup litigation and the trials.

Pedram has received many well-deserved awards and recognition for his accomplishments, including for his work in the Roundup cancer litigation. He is listed in Best Lawyers: Ones To Watch, Southern California Super Lawyers® Rising Stars, and National Trial Lawyers: Top 40 under 40. He was selected for Law360’s Rising Stars list in 2019, which recognizes attorneys under 40 years old whose legal accomplishments transcend their age. Pedram and his fellow trial team members were honored as Elite Trial Lawyers Mass Torts—Law Firm of the Year finalists for 2020 by ALM and National Law Journal; the 2019 Trial Team of the Year by The National Trial Lawyers: Top 100; and the Product Liability Practice Group of the Year in 2020 by Law360. Finally, the National Law Journal inducted Pedram and his colleagues into The Verdicts Hall of Fame.

Education & Career History

In September 2016, Pedram took a position at Wisner Baum as a law clerk. Just a few months later, he passed the California Bar Exam and was hired as an attorney. He earned his Master of Laws (L.L.M.) from the Gould School of Law at the University of Southern California, where he was admitted on a merit scholarship.

At USC, Pedram worked as the senior editor of the Los Angeles Public Interest Law Journal (LAPILJ), an independent collaboration of law students from Southwestern, Loyola, Pepperdine, UCLA, and USC. The journal is a platform on which students, practitioners, and academics address the structural inequalities within the legal system from the perspective of public interest. Contributors collaborate based on a shared concern for the adequate provision of legal services to disenfranchised groups.

Prior to his USC days, Pedram attended the University of Birmingham Law School in the United Kingdom. He graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.), then attended Nottingham Trent University for his Master of Arts in criminology.

Outside of his studies, Pedram made time to work as a Postgraduate Outreach Ambassador with The Schools, Colleges and Community Outreach team—now known as the Centre for Student and Community Engagement (CenSCE)—of Nottingham Trent University. This position gave him the opportunity to teach Farsi at a local afterschool program for disadvantaged communities and host presentations/seminars at disadvantaged secondary schools. In the latter, he made sure to highlight the utility of learning a second language to help bolster a student’s chances of entering higher education with transferable skills and knowledge of other cultures.

Pedram is admitted to practice law in the U.S. District Court, Central District of California and the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California. He holds membership to the State Bar of California, the American Association for Justice, the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association. Further, he is an executive board member of the National Lawyers Guild of Los Angeles.

Pedram truly cares about making the world a better place, and he knows that to do so, one must start with their community. He regularly volunteers time giving presentations and speeches to share his knowledge and legal techniques with others. He is also honored to be an Adjunct Professor of Law.

Call for a free, confidential consultation with Pedram. He provides legal services in fluent English, Farsi, and Swedish.