Robinson is the senior partner with Robinson, Calcagnie & Robinson in Newport Beach, California. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University and graduated
cum laude from Loyola School of Law. Mr. Robinson has devoted his legal career to product safety, and has been counsel or co-counsel in cases in over 20 states. He has handled hundreds of product liability cases, including the landmark Ford Pinto case of
Grimshaw v. Ford Motor Company with his partner Art Hews, in which the jury awarded $128 million in compensatory and punitive damages. Some of his other significant trials include
Ketchum v. Hyundai, where a Los Angeles County jury awarded $15 million to a young boy who was paralyzed and brain-damaged in a freeway collision due to a defective seatbelt system,
Oliver v. Nissan, a $9 million verdict in a crashworthiness case in Los Angeles County,
Sui v. General Motors, which resulted in a $9 million judgment in San Diego County, and the Carrollton, Kentucky, school bus crash. He was also co-trial counsel in
Anderson v. General Motors, which resulted in a $4.9 billion verdict in Los Angeles County.
Mr. Robinson was elected to serve in 1999 as President of the Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC), formerly the California Trial Lawyers Association. In 1996 and 1978 the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association honored him as Personal Injury Trial Lawyer of the Year. Mr.
Robinson has served as a Board Member of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA), the National Board of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), the Association of Business Trial Lawyers Orange County Chapter, the Attorneys Information Exchange Group (AIEG), and the International Society of Barristers. He is past President of the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association, and in 2001 he served as President of the Orange County Bar Association Charitable Fund. He has also served as Lawyer Representative to the 9th Circuit Judicial Conference, 1999 to 2002.
He is a founding member of Trial Lawyers for Public Justice and Attorneys Information Exchange Group as well as a member of the Institute for Injury Reduction. In 1999 Mr. Robinson was selected as one of the ‘‘Lawyers of the Year’’ by California Lawyer Magazine. In 2001, California Law Business named him one of the top ten ‘‘Most Influential Lawyers in California,’’ according to a survey of attorneys.
Mr. Robinson was co-lead trial counsel for several coordinated cases against tobacco product manufacturers.
He currently serves on the Executive Committee for the Castano Litigation Group, and represented the County of Los Angeles and Gray Davis in private attorney general lawsuits against the tobacco industry. He is also co-counsel with the Orange County, California District Attorney in underground storage tank litigation against various oil companies. He also 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. He has also been appointed Plaintiffs’ Co-Lead Counsel in the California coordinated Baycol litigation. He is a member of the Executive Committee for the Ford/Firestone Multi-District Litigation, a member of the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee for the Rezulin Multi-District Litigation, an Ex-Officio Member of the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee, and chairperson of the State Liaison Committee for the Propulsid Multi-District Litigation.
Mr. Robinson has authored or co-authored numerous publications and articles on tort law practice.