The law firms of Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman and Robinson, Calcagnie & Robinson  (RCR) work together to represent the parents of children who have died or are currently suffering from antidepressant-induced birth defects, (including heart defects, neural-tube defects [brain and spinal cord], craniosynostosis [abnormally shaped skull], infant omphalocele [abdominal wall defects], club feet, anal atresia and PPHN) related to antidepressant drugs such as Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa, Lexapro, and Effexor.

Both firms maintain the highest AV® peer review legal rating and are recognized as preeminent plaintiffs lawyers in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers.

About Baum, Hedlund Aristei & Goldman

Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman, managed by senior partner Michael Baum, has the longest track-record handling SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) antidepressant litigation, having litigated more antidepressant cases in the past 20 years than any other law firm in the country.

Members of the firm have served as leaders on plaintiffs' steering committees (PSC) that manage complex multi-district litigation arising from pharmaceutical and drug manufacturer negligence and currently serve on the PSC for the Heparin Products Liability Litigation and provide support to the PSCs for the Avandia mass tort litigation. Baum Hedlund also served as Lead Counsel for the Paxil Products Liability Litigation MDL, and as a member of the Fialuridine Product Liability MDL in Washington, D.C. and the Prozac Product Liability MDL out of Indianapolis.

Focusing a major part of its practice on drug product liability, the firm has represented victims of defective drugs since the late 1980s. Since 1990, Baum Hedlund has been handling SSRI antidepressant cases and served on the first SSRI-suicide litigation PSC in the early 1990s, involving Prozac, which was the first SSRI approved by the FDA for marketing in the U.S.

The firm has been litigating significant catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death product liability cases for over two decades, including airline and aircraft faulty parts and products, train and bus product failure, building construction flaws, and innumerable defective pharmaceutical product liability cases against defendants such as, Alpha Therapeutic, Armour Pharmaceutical Co., Baxter Health Care Corp, Bayer Corp, Ciba-Geigy, Covidien, Cutter Biologicals, Dalkon Shield, Eli Lilly, Forest Labs, GlaxoSmithKline, Marion Merrell Dow/Richardson-Merrell, Merck, Oclassen, Pfizer, Schering-Plough, Sigma Aldrich, Solvay Pharmaceuticals and Wyeth.

In concert with Robinson, Calcagnie & Robinson, the firm has filed lawsuits and currently represents families of children from across the United States who have suffered PPHN and heart birth defects due to their mothers' use of antidepressants during pregnancy.

Baum Hedlund has also filed Paxil suicide lawsuits across the country involving both children and adults including a nationwide class action involving false promotion of Paxil as safe and effective for children and adolescents. Attorneys Kate Gillespie and Nicole Maldonado are on the team handling our Paxil suicide cases. They are also on the team that handles Prozac and Zoloft birth defect and PPHN cases.

Past efforts by Baum Hedlund and others have resulted in improvements in drug safety including the most recent FDA black box suicide warning issued on certain antidepressants. Hundreds of individual clients and thousands of class claimants from every state in the United States and five continents have been successfully represented by Baum Hedlund.

The firm has been on the prevailing side of some of the nation's most highly-publicized cases. Such litigation involves complex evidence and choice of law issues which have been routinely handled by the firm in both state and federal courts. Many of Baum Hedlund’s attorneys have delivered Continuing Legal Education accredited lectures and written articles on the many complex issues involved in pharmaceutical litigation. Their attorneys have tried well over 200 cases in their careers.

Baum Hedlund has offices in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., and is listed in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers and is able to communicate in Spanish, German and Farsi.

About Robinson, Calcagnie & Robinson

Robinson, Calcagnie & Robinson (RCR) is one of the most preeminent plaintiff products liability practices in the United States. The firm has been a leader in products liability litigation ever since Mark P. Robinson Jr. was co-counsel in the landmark trial of Grimshaw v. Ford Motor Company, which resulted in a $128 million dollar verdict. Since that time the firm has represented thousands of individuals, businesses and public entities in actions involving defective products which have caused major losses, including personal injuries and deaths.

The firm's courtroom successes in catastrophic personal injury cases include several noteworthy trials, and record setting verdicts. Mark and Jeoffrey Robinson were co-counsel in Anderson vs. General Motors, an automotive crashworthiness case, which resulted in a $4.9 billion dollar verdict. In August of 2006, Mark Robinson was lead trial counsel in Barnett v. Merck, a prescription drug injury action which resulted in a $51 million dollar jury verdict. In 2003 the firm obtained a $31 million dollar verdict on behalf of a worker injured in a ski-lift maintenance accident.

Robinson, Calcagnie & Robinson senior partner Mark P. Robinson, Jr., presently serves on the Plaintiffs' State Liaison Committee of the Multi-District Diet Drug Product Liability Litigation (Fen-Phen) and is Plaintiffs' Liaison Counsel for the California Coordinated Diet Drug Litigation, the California Coordinated PPA Litigation and the California Coordinated Rezulin Litigation, and the California Coordinated Firestone Tire Litigation. Mr. Robinson has a couple of multi-billion dollar and many multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements in cases against such defendants as Merck, Baycol, Ford, General Motors, Hyundai, Nissan, and Big Tobacco.

Karen Barth Menzies, a partner at RCR, focuses primarily on mass tort cases. Karen gained national recognition in the SSRI antidepressant litigation arena while working at Baum Hedlund for more than a decade. She and a team of Baum Hedlund lawyers and staff filed the first Paxil injury class action in 2001 which helped bring national attention to the dangers of SSRIs.

RCR's Jennifer Liakos has concentrated much of her career in the prosecution of cases involving injuries from pharmaceutical drugs. She served as a member of the Plaintiffs Steering Committee of Paxil Product Liability Litigation (MDL-1574). She is currently dedicating her entire practice to the many families our firms represent whose children were born with heart defects, other congenital malformations, or PPHN and whose mothers’ took antidepressants during their pregnancy.

Robinson, Calcagnie & Robinson has extensive experience in mass tort litigation and class actions involving pharmaceuticals, toxic exposure and medical devices, and has represented thousands of individuals harmed by defective prescription drugs. In federal multidistrict litigation as well as state coordinated litigation, the firm has acted as liaison counsel or as a committee member in several nationwide mass torts.

RCR is located in Orange County, California and is able to communicate in the following languages: Spanish, Italian and French.