Peter Klausner

Peter Klausner joined the Los Angeles offices of Baron & Budd in 2016. He is a shareholder in the firm’s Class Action Group and has spent the entirety of his career representing victims of fraud, malpractice and negligence, advocating on behalf of numerous injured clients and state agencies at all phases of complex litigation, including multiple jury trials that have gone to verdict. The breadth of his work has spanned cases involving big pharma, opioids, banking fraud, auto-defects, surgical devices, hazardous materials, and birth injuries.

Most recently, Mr. Klausner was instrumental in securing a $916,012,000 judgment on behalf of the State of Hawai’i (the largest judgment in Hawai’i history), following a four-week trial against the manufacturers of the anti-platelet drug, Plavix, in State of Hawai’i ex rel. Clare E. Connors, v. Bristol-Myers Squibb, et al., resulting in a $700,000,000 settlement. During the 2023 trial, Mr. Klausner prepared, examined, and defended the state’s medical and scientific experts, cross-examined the defendants’ key medical and scientific expert, and made numerous important decisions regarding trial strategy. For his work on the Hawai’i Plavix case, Mr. Klausner was a finalist for Public Justice’s “Trial Lawyer of the Year” award in 2022.

Presently, Mr. Klausner represents a number of states and municipalities in several of the large-scale opioid cases being litigated around the country against the responsible drug manufacturers, big chain pharmacies, and pharmacy benefit managers. These cases include City of Rochester v. Purdue Pharma, L.P., State of Washington v. Rite Aid Corp., et al., and County of Monterey v. AmerisourceBergen Drug Corp., et al. Mr. Klausner also participated in in a two-month opioid trial against defendant pharmacies Walmart, Walgreens, and Kroger, in State of New Mexico ex rel. Hector Balderas, Attorney General, v. Purdue Pharma LP, et al., resulting in eight and nine-figure settlements before closing arguments.

Further, Mr. Klausner represents school districts and young victims of addictive algorithms deployed by social media companies Meta, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube to increase screentime, resulting in mental health disorders and suicidal ideation, in the federal multidistrict litigation known as In Re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction. Mr. Klausner also represents a government whistleblower in a federal qui tam suit against various CVS entities, alleging Medicare fraud, in US ex rel. Ellsworth Associates, LLP, v. CVS Health Corp., et al., and a class of musicians alleging artificial streaming fraud in the federal class action case Collins v. Spotify USA Inc., et al.

Mr. Klausner has also participated in several nationwide class action lawsuits involving banking fraud, including Bias v. Wells Fargo & Company et al., which resulted in a $50 million settlement, as well as Weiner v. Ocwen Financial Corporation, et al., in which Mr. Klausner served as class counsel in a nationwide fraud case against the country’s one-time largest mortgage servicer.

Mr. Klausner obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of Southern California and earned his J.D. from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles. In his second year at Loyola, he competed on behalf of the school’s nationally-ranked Byrne Trial Advocacy Team, winning the 2009 AAJ regional tournament, while also serving as a chair of his school’s Public Interest Law Forum, where he helped disadvantaged Los Angeles residents obtain their public assistance benefits. In his final year, Mr. Klausner interned at the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office (hardcore gang division), while simultaneously competing on Loyola’s Moot Court team, where he ranked among the top three oralists in the nation at the ABA’s 2010 National Moot Court Competition.

Following law school, Mr. Klausner worked as an associate at Waters, Kraus & Paul, LLP, where he represented numerous victims of toxic exposures and faulty surgical devices. While there, he obtained several multi-million-dollar verdicts at trial on behalf of clients who had been exposed to asbestos while serving in the United States Navy. In addition, he obtained several multi-million-dollar settlements in cases involving birth defects that resulted from exposure to industrial solvents, while also litigating on behalf of cancer survivors whose illnesses could be linked to PCBs manufactured by the Monsanto Company.

When not practicing law, Mr. Klausner enjoys running marathons and exploring the cosmos with his two daughters.

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Publications

• “You Will Be Googled” The Recorder (June 5, 2014)
• “NFL Debate: Employer’s Right to Terminate” Los Angeles Daily Journal (September 23, 2014)