In this episode of Repast, Michael and Diana chat with Michael L. Baum and Pedram Esfandiary from the national law firm, Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman, about their current work in the ongoing toxic baby food litigation. In these cases, Baum and Esfandiary represent families whose children developed autism and ADHD after consuming baby foods contaminated with high levels of toxic heavy metals.  In addition to discussing this litigation, Winters, Roberts, Baum, and Esfandiary talk about the role of litigation in filling regulatory gaps, the role of science in the law and their work in particular, and how students can get involved in these issues.

Michael L. Baum is the Senior Managing Shareholder and President of the national law firm Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman, based in Los Angeles. He is proud to be a UCLA undergraduate and law school alum.  With 30 years of experience in pharmaceutical litigation and biological products’ litigation, Michael concentrates on litigating plaintiff product liability consumer products, pharmaceutical cases and consumer class actions.

Pedram Esfandiary is an attorney at Baum Hedlund in Los Angeles and works on many of the firm’s mass tort cases. By the age of 26, Pedram had worked on the first three historic Roundup cancer Monsanto trials with Michael and UCLA alum Brent Wisner, resulting in verdicts of $2.42 billion.

Michael T. Roberts is the Executive Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law.

Diana Winters is the Deputy Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law.

You can find information about Baum Hedlund’s toxic baby food litigation, including links to important documents, here.

The 2021 Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy Report on tainted baby food can be found here.

Information about the Kiss the Ground documentary can be found here.