Lecturer Bios
Robert Kelner, Esq.
Mr. Kelner graduated from Columbia University School of Law, and is a member of the
Bar of the State of New York. He is admitted to the United States District Court,
Southern and Eastern Districts.
Currently, Mr. Kelner is a member of the law firm Kelner
& Kelner, Esqs., specializing in the practice of personal injury, medical malpractice and
products liability law. He has obtained many verdicts in excess of $10,000,000, including
one verdict of approximately $23,000,000 (Martin v. Dellwood) and one verdict in excess
of $36,000,000 (Driscoll v. New York City Transit Authority).
Mr. Kelner has lectured
before virtually all major bar associations in Continuing Legal Education Programs,
including, but not limited to, the New York State Bar Association, New York State Trial
Lawyers Association, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and the New York
County Lawyers’ Association, where he is Co-chair of the annual Civil Trial Practice
Institute.
In addition, he lectured at Princeton University and Columbia University School
of Law. Mr. Kelner is the author of numerous publications and serves as co-columnist of
the New York Law Journal’s monthly column on Trial Practice.
Karen L. Campbell, Esq.
Karen L. Campbell is a partner in the New York office of Lewis Brisbois and a chair of
the General Liability Practice. Ms. Campbell is a trial attorney with 30 years of
experience. Her practice focuses on defending hotel industry clients against human sex
trafficking claims. Other practice areas include litigation under the NY and NJ Child
Victims Act and general liability litigation at both the primary and excess levels. She also
defends food franchisee/franchisors, long-term care providers, assisted living facilities,
and home health aides in a variety of matters including professional liability, negligence,
sexual abuse/misconduct, discrimination, and errors in judgment claims. She has also
represented social services clients such as foster care agencies, outpatient mental
health, addiction and counseling clinics, senior citizen and day care centers, and
medical, beauty, and personal care facilities.
Prior to entering private practice in 1991, Ms. Campbell was an Assistant District
Attorney with the Kings County District Attorneys office in Brooklyn, New York where
she prosecuted and tried violent felony crimes. After leaving the District Attorney’s office
in 1991, she became associated with a mid-sized firm specializing in environmental
insurance coverage and defense of personal injury actions. In 1996, Ms. Campbell
became a member of the firm. In 1998, Ms. Campbell joined the New York office of a
large California firm as Special Counsel and served as one of the office’s trial counsel.
She handled a variety of general liability cases and also concentrated her practice on
the defense of hospitals, physicians and podiatrists in medical malpractice litigation
arising from cardiovascular, pulmonary, neurological, eye, ear and nose, podiatry
diseases or disorders.
Most recently, in 2002, she joined a regional Massachusetts firm
as the Managing Attorney of the New York office. Ms. Campbell served as the principal
trial attorney in New York while overseeing the overall growth and development of the
office from two attorneys to more than 17 employees. Ms. Campbell has successfully
tried more than 55 cases in Kings, New York, Bronx, Suffolk and Westchester counties
and in the Southern District of New York. She has obtained defense verdicts, directed
verdicts and verdicts awarding minimal damages as well as handling the negotiation of
favorable settlements both before and during trial.
She received a BA from the University of Virginia and a JD from Tulane University
School of Law.
Paul Kiesel, Esq.
Paul Kiesel received his Juris Doctorate from the Whittier College School of Law in Los
Angeles in 1985. In 2005, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Law from Whittier
Law School. His practice is devoted to representing consumers in personal injury, class
action, environmental, and toxic tort litigation.
Mr. Kiesel has repeatedly been selected as one of the top plaintiff attorneys in the State
of California and the country. The Los Angeles Business Journal recognized Mr. Kiesel
as one of the Top 50 Trial Lawyers. The Daily Journal named Mr. Kiesel one of the 100
most influential attorneys in the State of California. He was also selected as one of the
top 500 attorneys in the United States by Law Dragon. In addition, Mr. Kiesel is rated
A.V. (highest rating) by Martindale-Hubbell.
Paul Kiesel is very active in the legal community. He was the president of the Los
Angeles County Bar Association for 2015-2016 and was the past Chair of the Litigation
Section. He was appointed by former Chief Justice Ronald George to the State of
California Judicial Council Civil and Small Claims Advisory Committee. He served on
the Board of Governors for the Consumer Attorneys of California and the Consumer
Attorneys Association of Los Angeles for over 25 years. In recognition of his service, Mr.
Kiesel was elected an emeritus (lifetime) board member of both organizations. From
2001-2005, Mr. Kiesel sat on the Board of Governors of the Association of Business
Trial Lawyers. Mr. Kiesel is currently the Co-Chair of the Open Courts Coalition, a
bipartisan committee of attorneys from throughout California advocating full-funding of
the civil justice system. Members of the Open Courts Coalition include Niall McCarthy,
president of the Consumer Attorneys of California, the Honorable Carlos Moreno,
former Governors Gray Davis and George Deukmejian, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio
Villaragosa, and former California Attorney General John VanDekamp. Recently, Mr.
Kiesel was named a Senior Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, a trial lawyer
honorary society composed of less than one-half of one percent of American lawyers,
dedicated to promoting superior advocacy, professionalism and ethical standards in the
legal profession.
Mr. Kiesel has extensive experience in complex litigation, including environmental,
construction defect, product defect, and pharmaceutical actions. Mr. Kiesel currently
serves as national Lead Counsel in the federal Multi-District Litigation against Glaxo
Smith Kline for injuries caused by its pharmaceutical drug, Avandia. There are over
20,000 personal injury cases, a half-dozen consumer class cases, and several state
actions pending in the Avandia MDL. Mr. Kiesel served as Liaison Counsel in the
litigation arising out of the 2008 Chatsworth Metrolink crash that killed 24 individuals
and injured over 100 people. As Liaison Counsel, Mr. Kiesel coordinated the successful
resolution of the cases for $200 million, the maximum recovery allowed by law.
Currently, Paul Kiesel represents many individuals and their families in significant
personal injury and wrongful death cases. Among his many clients, Mr. Kiesel
represented former Governor Gray Davis in a challenge to the qualification of the 2003
recall election. Mr. Kiesel currently represents numerous municipalities, including the
City of Los Angeles, in a class action on behalf of all cities in the State of California for
payment of occupancy taxes owed by the online travel industry.
Mr. Kiesel is also a frequent presenter for continuing legal education programs. As an
early-adopter of technology in the practice of law, Mr. Kiesel has frequently written and
spoken on technology-related subjects. In addition, he co-authored two legal treatises
for Lexis Nexis, “California Pretrial Civil Procedure” and “California Civil Discovery.”
Brian Panish, Esq.
Brian Panish, a founding partner of Panish Shea & Boyle LLP, is one of the country’s
leading trial attorneys. He has obtained some of the most significant jury verdicts in
United States history on behalf of plaintiffs. His courtroom victories include a $4.9 billion
record verdict in the landmark products liability case Anderson v. General Motors, over
100 verdicts and settlements in excess of $10 million, six verdicts in excess of $50
million, and more than 500 verdicts and settlements over one million dollars in personal
injury, car accident, wrongful death and business litigation cases.
Mr. Panish consistently serves in a leading role in the largest personal injury cases in
California and the country — he currently serves as Plaintiffs Co-Lead Counsel in the
Woolsey Fire litigation, Plaintiffs Co-Lead Counsel in the Southern California Fire
Cases litigation arising from the 2017 Thomas Fire and subsequent debris flows in
Montecito, California and serves on the Plaintiffs Executive Committee for the 2017
North Bay Fires in Northern California. Additionally, Mr. Panish has been appointed as
Co-Lead Trial Counsel in the Porter Ranch/Aliso Canyon Gas Well Blowout Litigation
and has served in leadership roles in the Asiana Airlines Crash Litigation, the Olympus
Superbug CRE Litigation and DePuy ASR Hip Implant Litigation, among others.
Since 2011, Mr. Panish has obtained more than $500 million in verdicts including,
among others, a landmark $53,745,374 verdict for two Southern California brothers who
were severely injured following a head-on collision with CRST big rig, a $41,864,102
jury verdict and subsequent $46,000,000 settlement for a United States Air Force
Captain who suffered catastrophic injuries after being struck from behind while on his
motorcycle and then dragged the length of a football field and a half by a Southern
California Gas Company truck, a $36.5 million jury verdict against Schneider National
for a big-rig crash that left a woman with severe spinal cord injuries, a $34.5 million
verdict for a man who suffered a below the knee amputation after being hit by a tractor
trailer, a $21,503,420.48 jury verdict for a Southern California man who suffered
catastrophic injuries after a vehicle illegally exiting the 405 Freeway HOV lane struck his
motorcycle and sent him careening across three lanes of traffic and into a passing
flatbed trailer, a $17.4 million verdict for a Ph.D. student who suffered brain and jaw
injuries during a rear end chain collision accident, a $17 million jury verdict against the
Los Angeles MTA in the wrongful death of a visually impaired passenger, a $17.845
million award in a wrongful death case involving four family members killed when a
Marine jet crashed into their home, a $20 million jury verdict for a woman who suffered
a brain injury in a hit-and-run accident involving a J.B. Hunt tractor trailer, a $17 million
jury verdict for a 84-year old man hit by a bus resulting in a leg amputation, a $15.3
million jury verdict for a woman and her daughter after the woman was severely injured
on a negligently driven Alameda Contra-Costa Transit District bus, a $10.45 million jury
verdict for the family of a security guard killed on the CBS studio lot and a $8.3 million
jury verdict in the first DePuy ASR Hip Implant case to go to trial.
Because of his expertise in personal injury, wrongful death, mass tort and product
liability cases, Mr. Panish has been appointed to serve on the Plaintiffs’ Steering and
Executive committees in numerous high profile mass torts and major disaster cases,
including litigation involving train crashes (co-lead counsel in the the Chatsworth
Metrolink disaster, the Glendale Metrolink crash, and the Placentia Metrolink
collision), airplane disasters (Alaska Airlines Flight 261 and Singapore Airlines Flight
006 crashes), pharmaceuticals (Vioxx and diet drugs), and defective product cases
(Welding Rods, DePuy ASR Hip Implant Litigation, and Toyota Unintended Acceleration
cases.) He is currently handling numerous cases involving the Asiana Flight 261 plane
crash as well as serving as Plaintiffs Co-lead Trial Counsel, representing over 7,000
clients in the Porter Ranch Gas Leak litigation.
In addition to his numerous honors, Mr. Panish currently serves as President of the
prestigious Inner Circle of Advocates, comprised of 100 of the nation’s top plaintiffs’
lawyers. He is also a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers (including serving
on the State Selection Committee), the International Society of Barristers, the American
Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), and was the 2011 President of the Los Angeles
Chapter of ABOTA. He is a member of the American Bar Association (formerly a
Litigation Section Board Member), the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles
(formerly on the Board of Governors), and the Consumer Attorneys of California
(formerly on the Board of Governors). He also serves on the Best Lawyers® Board of
Advisors.
Mr. Panish received his law degree, with honors, from Southwestern Law School, and
received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Southwestern in 2011. He received
his B.S. from California State University Fresno, where he was named Scholar Athlete,
was the recipient of the Athletic Directors Award and was named an outstanding
alumnus at the school’s Centennial Celebration in 2010.
