Brian J. Perkins

Partner

Brian Perkins joins Peiffer Wolf as a partner in the firm’s San Francisco Office. He handles cases in the areas of childhood sexual abuse, sexual assault, complex pharmaceutical and medical device mass torts, personal injury, medical negligence, wrongful death, and product liability.

Brian is a career trial attorney who has tried over 35 jury trials to verdict in addition to hundreds of hearings and bench trials. He is a relentless and creative advocate who leverages his courtroom experience to obtain tremendous results on behalf of his clients.

He began his career as a prosecutor where he was appointed to a special unit which fought for justice on behalf of child victims of sexual abuse and severe physical abuse. In civil practice, Brian has represented a wide variety of clients from catastrophic injuries involving a single plaintiff to complex international mass torts involving thousands of plaintiffs.

Licensed in Illinois and California, Brian represents clients in cases nationwide. He was appointed as Co-Lead Counsel before Judge Mary Wiss in the Superior Court of California, San Francisco in In re: Pradaxa Products Liability Litigation (JCCP No. 4863). Brian also served as Co-Liaison Counsel before Judge Matthew Kennelly in the Northern District of Illinois in In re: Testosterone Replacement Therapy Products Liability Litigation (MDL No. 2545). Prior to these appointments he actively worked in the State Court and/or Federal MDL litigations regarding Proton Pump Inhibitors, Pradaxa, Actos, DePuy ASR, Stryker Rejuvenate and ABG II Hip Implant, and Zimmer NexGen Implant litigations.

Brian is currently focused on representing survivors of childhood sexual abuse in cases filed pursuant to California Assembly Bill 218 which revives previously time-barred claims. He also represents adult survivors of sexual assault and sex trafficking. Brian has also been working with plaintiff’s leadership committees on the Lyft and Uber sexual assault coordinated proceedings pending in the Superior Court of San Francisco, taking key depositions of Lyft employees and expert witnesses as plaintiff’s prepare for trial.

Brian is a proud member of the American Association for Justice and the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association. He has spoken and lectured on topics of litigation and trial advocacy and has taught continuing legal education courses. He has been recognized by his peers as a Super Lawyer for each of the past 10 years and was an elected member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association Board of Managers from 2013 – 2016.

Brian was born in Aurora, Illinois and attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where he played for the Illinois Hockey Club and graduated with a B.A. in Political Science. He then attended the Chicago-Kent College of Law where he was a member of Kent’s ATLA Trial Team.

Education