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Paul J. Hedlund is a senior partner and trial lawyer for the national law firm of Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman which handles major transportation accidents and pharmaceutical drug product liability cases. Paul focuses his practice on commercial transportation accidents including, aviation, bus, train and truck crashes. He received his degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan and his law degree from UCLA.
In the last 20 years Paul and his firm have handled more than 800 commercial transportation personal injury and wrongful death cases across the country. Paul was appointed to the Plaintiffs Steering Committees in the United 232 Sioux City crash, the Alaska Airlines crash off Pt. Mugu, CA, and the September 11, 2001 Tort Litigation. He was also part of the team that negotiated, as a term of the settlement, an unprecedented public apology by the president of Air Midwest in a formal ceremony to the families of the victims of the crash of Air Midwest Flight 5481, which crashed on January 8, 2003 at the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport.
http://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/bhl2_press/midwest_apology.php
Mr. Hedlund is AV® Peer Review Rated through Martindale Hubbell and is listed in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in the World. He is also listed in Aviation Counsel Magazine's List of Recommended High Flyers, believed by the International Air Transport Association's Legal Dept. to be one of the most elite lists of aviation law practitioners ever produced.
Because of his expertise as a mechanical engineer, Paul was the only attorney to testify about train configurations and safety at a California state hearing in 2005, looking into the cause of the worst train disaster in Metrolink’s history, in which his firm represents 15 passengers.
http://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/train2/main_train.php#paul
Paul was also the only attorney to testify in 1990 about the need for labeling earthquake susceptible buildings, before the California State Legislature Seismic Safety Commission hearing regarding the October 17, 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. His client’s son died when a commercial building known to be vulnerable to tremors, collapsed on him during the quake.
Paul is among the relatively few attorneys who have argued a wrongful death case before the United States Supreme Court.
The press have interviewed Paul on numerous occasions. He has appeared in the media more than 150 times on TV and radio programs such as, ABC’s PrimeTime Live with Sam Donaldson, ABC World News Tonight, CNBC, CNN, Court TV, EXTRA, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, NPR, and all of the Los Angeles news stations. He has also appeared in print media such as, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, National Law Journal, and the Washington Post.
http://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/bhl2_news/video_center.php
Born:
- Abington, Pennsylvania, 1946
Education:
- University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan (B.S.M.E., 1968)
- University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law (J.D., 1973)
Admissions:
- California, 1973
- U.S. District Court, Central District of California, 1977
- U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, 1978
- U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California, 1991
- District of Columbia, 1994
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, 1994
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York, 1994
- U.S. Supreme Court, 1997
Certified:
- Patent Law, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, 1978
Member:
- State Bar of California
- District of Columbia Bar
- The Bar Association of the District of Columbia
- The American Association for Justice, formerly ATLA, Aviation Law Section
- American Bar Association, The Forum on Air and Space Law, Litigation Section and Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section
- Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles
- Los Angeles County Bar Association
- Staff Engineer, Southern California Edison, 1968-1970
- Moot Court Judge, Pepperdine University School of Law
- Plaintiffs' Steering Committee, MDL 817, United Airlines Crash, Sioux City, Iowa, 1989
- Trial Team Member, 1991-1992, United Airlines Crash, Sioux City, Iowa: Member, 1989
- Plaintiffs' Steering Committee, MDL-00-1343-CAL, Alaska Airlines Crash, off Point Mugu, California, 2000
- Plaintiffs' Executive Committee, September 11, 2001 Tort Litigation
Lectures/Speeches:
- "Mapping the Maze of Considerations in Disaster Litigation," Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles, October 6, 1996
- Lewis v. Sacramento County Re: High Speed Police Pursuits, University of San Diego School of Law, 1998
- Panel Moderator: Aviation Issues in the New Millennium - Ramifications of the RAND Report ("Safety in the Skies - Personnel and Parties in NTSB Aviation Accident Investigations") presented by the Aviation and Space Law Committee of the American Bar Association Tort and Insurance Practice Section and the Aviation Litigation Committee of the ABA Section of Litigation, October 19, 2000
- "Successful Handling of Wrongful Death Cases in California," Lorman Education Services, August 2001 and January 2002
- "Plaintiff's Marketing Strategies In The New Millennium," ABA - American Bar Association, Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section, Aviation and Space Law Committee Presents: On The Horizon Securing Safety, Insuring Fully and Litigating Fairly--Part II, October 26-27, 2006 Washington, D.C.
Author:
- "Successful Handling of Wrongful Death Cases in California: The Law, The Traps, The Tricks", "Trying Your Case to Verdict or Settlement," "What Damages Do You Get?," "Quirks of Courts" Lorman Education Services, January, 2002
- "Another Level of Justice: The Public Apology" Published in Andrews Aviation Litigation Reporter,Volume 24, Issue 5 / April 2006 by Thomson West and ATLA-Association of Trial Lawyers of America Aviation Law Section Newsletter Vol. 13, No. 3, Spring 2006
Awards and Honors:
- Listed, Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers
- Who's Who in the World
- Who's Who in America
- Who's Who in American Law
- Who's Who in the West
- Aviation Counsel Magazine's List of Recommended High Flyers, believed by the International Air Transport Association's Legal Dept. to be one of the most elite lists of aviation law practitioners ever produced
- National Air Disaster Foundation Safety Award, 2002
- Southern California Super Lawyer 2005
Governmental Testimony :
- California State Legislature, Seismic Safety Commission hearing re October 17, 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damage after the death of our client's son due to the collapse of a building known to be vulnerable to tremors during an earthquake, 1990
- California State Assembly Hearing on California commuter rail safety as a result of the January 26, 2005 Metrolink derailment, July 20, 2005
Published Cases:
- Curry v. Continental Airlines
513 F. 2d 691 (9th Cir. 1975)
- Sigala (Rachelle) v. Anaheim City School District
Court of Appeal, Fourth District, 19 Cal.Rptr.2d 38, 15 Cal.App.4th 661, 82 Ed. Law Rep. 143 (1993)
- Lewis v. Sacramento
United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, 98 F.3d 434, 65 USLW 2319, 96 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 7501, 96 Daily Journal D.A.R. 12353 (1996)
- County of Sacramento v. Lewis,
523, U.S. 833, 140 L. Ed. 2d 1043, 118 S. Ct. 1708 (1998)
- Prudential Home Mort. Co. v. Superior Court
66 Cal.App.4th 1236 (1998)
- In re Air Crash Off Point Mugu, California, on January 30, 2000
145 F.Supp.2d 1156 (N.D.Cal., 2001)
- Butler v. Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc.
109 Cal.App.4th; 135 Cal. Rptr. 2d 762 (2003)
Practice Areas:
- Aviation Accident Law
- Catastrophic Injury
- Class Actions
- Complex and Multi-District Litigation
- Mass Disaster Litigation
- Personal Injury Law
- Product Liability Law
- Railroad Accident Litigation
- School Bus Accidents
- Truck Accidents (commercial)
- Wrongful Death Law
PAUL J. HEDLUND 
