Robert A. Curtis is the current managing partner. Robert earned his undergraduate degree from UCLA and his J.D from Pepperdine University School of Law. Robert is admitted to the State Bar of California and is also admitted to practice in the U.S. District Courts for the Central, Eastern, Southern, and Northern Districts of California, the Western District of Michigan, and before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Robert has been with the firm for 26 years and practices in the areas of complex business litigation, mass torts, lender liability, class actions, wildfire litigation, and real estate litigation. He, in conjunction with other partners at the firm, has litigated cases which have resulted in over $1.15 billion in settlements and verdicts against some of the biggest companies in the country. Among his settlements are multi-million dollar successes against Southern California Edison, East West Bank, Shell Oil, Verizon Wireless, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, U.S. Airways, and Bank of the West.
Robert is an accomplished big-case trial attorney who has not lost a jury trial in over 20 years. In 2021, Robert was selected as an “Elite Trial Lawyer Finalist” by the National Law Journal. And in 2024, Robert was recognized as one ofThe Best Lawyers in America® for exceptional work representing plaintiffs in mass tort litigation and class action lawsuits. Best Lawyers in America is the legal industry’s oldest peer-review guide and is widely considered to be the premier list for showcasing the country’s leading attorneys. Best Lawyers honorees are selected through a rigorous survey process that includes confidential evaluations by other lawyers in the same and related specialties.
In 2011, Robert was awarded the rating of “AV – Preeminent” from Martindale-Hubble. The “AV – Preeminent” rating is a nationally-recognized acknowledgment of Robert’s accomplishments and skills as an attorney and is the highest rating offered by the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory. Robert has maintained his “AV–Preeminent” rating for the last 13 years.
In each of the last nine years, Robert was designated as a Super Lawyer. The annual Super Lawyers list, published by Thomson Reuters, is a comprehensive and diverse guide to outstanding attorneys from a wide range of practice areas, firm sizes, and geographic regions.
Robert had previously been recognized as a “Rising Star” in the 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 editions of the Super Lawyers publication. Super Lawyers’ Rising Stars are selected based on peer recognition and professional achievement and according to Law & Politics Magazine, only approximately 2.5 percent of the best up-and-coming attorneys in Southern California are selected for inclusion on the “Rising Stars” list.
Experience
In 2014, Robert was lead trial counsel for the plaintiff and obtained a $38.9 million jury verdict in a 7-week lender liability trial in Los Angeles Superior Court against East West Bank. The East West Bank verdict was the 12th largest verdict in California and the 54th largest verdict in the entire United States for 2014.
In 2016, Robert, as lead or co-lead counsel, settled cases totaling $91.2 million to the firm’s clients.
In 2018, Robert was appointed by the Superior Court in Los Angeles to the leadership team for the litigation against Southern California Edison over the cause of the Thomas Fire and the Montecito mudslide. In those cases, the firm represented over 500 individual plaintiffs and garnered settlements in excess of $290,000,000.
In 2019, Robert settled a 5-year long real estate partnership dispute for $109,000,000 and a class action against U.S. Airways for $9,850,000.
Also in 2019, Robert was appointed by the Superior Court in Los Angeles to the leadership team for the litigation involving another utility-started fire, the Woolsey Fire. In the Woolsey Fire, the firm represented over 1200 individual plaintiffs and obtained settlements in excess of $429,000,000 for the victims of the Woolsey Fire.
Contact info:
(805) 962-9495
rcurtis@foleybezek.com