Mr. Goldman has been a leading voice in aviation accident lawsuits and has a proven track record of success in commercial transportation litigation.

LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, January 18, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Veteran Los Angeles attorney Ronald L. M. Goldman has announced he has retired from the practice of law after reaching his 60th anniversary of being admitted to practice in California. Mr. Goldman served as vice president and senior trial attorney at Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman (now Wisner Baum) for nearly 20 years.

“Ron has been many things for the firm over the last 19 years,” says Michael L. Baum, former managing partner at Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman. “As a litigator, he led several of our most important cases throughout the 2000’s and 2010’s and was someone that opposing counsel both feared and respected. But it’s not just about the case results; what made Ron unique was the way he went about obtaining justice for clients, always with a level of professionalism, class, and sincerity that is hard to come by. That’s why so many of our younger attorneys sought Ron’s counsel, as he graciously mentored them with the steady, sage wisdom that comes with 60 years of experience. We are very fortunate to have had him on our team and benefit from his legacy of success. We wish him nothing but the best as he turns the page on a storied career.”

Ron’s legal career began in 1963. After taking on his first aviation accident case in 1969, Ron worked to establish himself as a leader in aviation accident law, representing airline crash clients in major cases stemming from the:

• 1972 British European Airways (London, United Kingdom)
• 1978 Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182/Cessna 172 Midair Collision (San Diego, California)
• 1986 Aero Mexico Flight 498/Piper Midair Collision (Cerritos, California)
• 2000 Southwest Airlines Runway Accident (Burbank, California)

Ron’s passion for aviation drove him to obtain his pilot’s license in 1980, a time when his case work in general aviation cases involving small planes and helicopters began to grow. Following a 1998 helicopter crash that killed three Los Angeles paramedics, Ron successfully took Bell Helicopter to trial in Los Angeles. He also litigated more than a dozen cases against Robinson Helicopter and became a sought-after legal expert in the media following Robinson crashes.

In 2003, Ron joined Baum Hedlund as a named partner with a leadership role in the firm’s transportation department. Shortly have joining the firm, he was appointed to the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee for the September 11, 2001 tort litigation, representing dozens of families who lost loved ones on the planes involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

One of Ron’s crowning achievements came after the January 8, 2003, Air Midwest Flight 5481 crash in Charlotte, North Carolina that killed all 21 people aboard. Ron led settlement negotiations, which culminated in an agreement where the airline and maintenance company, in an organized ceremony, agreed to deliver an unprecedented official public apology to the families for the crash.

Three years later, Ron and the firm’s clients appeared in a dramatic reenactment of the crash, its subsequent investigation, and the ultimate public apology, which aired on National Geographic Television. Ron made numerous media appearances to discuss the crash and the apology, including an Audible interview for the series “Say You’re Sorry.”

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fatal Air Midwest crash, Ron issued the following statement:

“The 20th anniversary of the tragic Air Midwest 5481 crash is an opportunity to reflect on the ongoing fight for aviation safety. The lives lost, and the loving memories of each precious life, continue to spur our efforts. We believe that, out of this disaster, aviation safety has taken a step forward, as our work has led to concrete training and staffing improvements in maintenance shops. Those improvements are part of the legacy of all those touched by Flight 5481, and I am honored to have played a part in it.”

In total, Ron led or participated in hundreds of aviation cases in private practice and at Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman. His work helped the firm recover more than half a billion for clients in aviation accident cases.

With his decades of experience and successful case record, Ron has made thousands of media appearances to offer his opinions and insights on aviation law and other legal issues. He was featured in TV, radio, and print media as a legal expert for Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News, ABC World News Tonight, CNN, Fox News Channel, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, MSNBC, NPR, Associated Press, and many others.

Success in Commercial Transportation Cases

Ron’s case work was not limited to aviation law. Following a fatal 2004 truck crash in Ohio, he led a team to litigate the case against Tyson Foods. Ron and his colleagues took the case to trial and won a $7 million jury verdict with $1.5 million post judgment interest added after trial. At the time, this was the largest jury verdict of its kind in Ohio’s history.

With his extensive experience litigating train accident cases, Ron was selected as a member of the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee following the 2008 Metrolink train collision in Chatsworth, California that killed 25 people. The crash was the deadliest in Metrolink’s history. Ron’s team successfully represented six passengers who sustained injuries in the crash and the families of two other passengers who were tragically killed. Ron also represented clients after the fatal 2012 Coal Train Derailment in Ellicott City, Maryland.

Ron became an outspoken advocate for train safety improvements, including the implementation of positive train control (PTC). Ron spent years calling for the technology and finally got to see its acceptance and implementation on over 57,000 miles of freight and passenger track.

Beyond the Courtroom

Ron has always been compelled to help other attorneys as a teacher and mentor. For over two decades, Ron was an adjunct professor at Pepperdine School of Law, where he created and taught the course on Aviation Accident Law. He also taught courses in Torts, Insurance Law, Legal Writing, and Analysis.

Ronald F. Phillips, Pepperdine University Vice Chancellor & Caruso School of Law Dean Emeritus, had this to say about Ron’s tenure as a Pepperdine Law School professor:

"Ron Goldman had the well-deserved reputation of being an unusually bright, articulate, demanding, caring, and knowledgeable law professor who wanted his students to stretch beyond their comfort level and excel far past the norm. In visiting with alums of Pepperdine University School of Law about their legal education experience, many mention Ron Goldman as having made a lasting impression on them, whether in his Aviation Accident Law class or the Torts class he taught earlier. Mr. Goldman is a scholar/practitioner who is both well-informed and well-prepared to serve the interests of his clients.”

Many years after leaving Pepperdine, Ron still gets messages like this from his former students who are now successful lawyers:

41 years ago, I took a class from you at Pepperdine Law School in aviation accident law. I remember the many things you taught in that class. I am writing to tell you I appreciate the time you spent sharing with students who knew nothing…You are a giant in the law. Thank you. -- Steven R. Young, Esq.

Ron is humble about his 60 years in law, noting that his greatest accomplishment is “knowing that I have helped people who were in extreme need – individual stories of those who lost loved ones, were catastrophically injured, or whose lives were terrified by the criminal justice system.”

As for his next chapter at the age of 85, Ron is looking forward to traveling and spending more time with his family, including his children and grandchildren.

About Wisner Baum

Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman, one of the country’s leading plaintiffs law firms with billions in recoveries, changed its name to Wisner Baum in January of 2023. The firm announced the name change as it prepared to enter its 50th year representing clients across a broad range of practice areas. Attorney R.
Brent Wisner is Wisner Baum’s new managing partner.

Wisner Baum currently represents more than 18,000 clients in a broad range of practice areas, including (among many others):

• Aviation Accidents
• Bus Accidents
• California Wildfires
• Car Accidents
• Consumer Class Actions
• Medical Device Injuries
• Police Misconduct
• Prescription Drug Injuries
• Train Accidents
• Truck Accidents

The firm has also established itself as a leader in mass tort litigation, with leadership roles in the Monsanto Roundup litigation, toxic baby food litigation, Zantac litigation, Gardasil vaccine litigation, and ECT litigation.

Since 1973, the firm has won more than $4 billion in verdicts and settlements.

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Robin McCall
Wisner Baum
+1 310-207-3233
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