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The Life and Career of Attorney Luan Phan the Med Mall Novice with a $100 Million Judgment

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  6. The Life and Career of Attorney Luan Phan the Med Mall Novice with a $100 Million Judgment

published February 25, 2008

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( 128 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
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With parents who hoped for him to become an engineer or a doctor, Phan, who was bored by math and hated blood, always veered in a different direction.

"It's kind of corny, but I always knew," Phan says of why he became an attorney. "I was always very competitive and loved to argue and debate. As early as high school, I knew that was the path for me."

Phan attended Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles for undergraduate and law school. Once he had graduated with his bachelor's in economics, Phan moved on to get his J.D., which he received in 1996.

Phan was hired by monster-sized firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP, after he graduated and passed the bar exam.

"They gave great training, and I enjoyed most of the people that I worked with," he says. "The problem was it didn't take me long to figure out that junior associates never got any real opportunities to get into the courtroom — and that's specifically why I wanted to become a lawyer. I didn't want to do research memos and motions for 10 years straight. That's not something they advertise during the summer associate position interview process."

In search of more litigation opportunities, Phan took a huge pay cut by transitioning to a smaller gig with greater room for growth and experience.

"The best thing that I have ever done," he says of his transition to boutique trial firm O'Neill, Lysaght & Sun, LLP. "They threw me into the fire. I got a lot of trial experience. They had small, medium, and large high-profile cases. I got tremendous trial experience right away."

O'Neill, Lysaght & Sun, LLP, provided the foundation that Phan was looking for in his career. The opportunity also opened the doors for three career mentors.

"I definitely got a lot of great advice from the three Brians — Brian O'Neill, Brian Lysaght, and Brian Sun. Trying cases with them and learning from them was unbelievable — Brian Lysaght especially; he would throw me in the fire and see what I could handle. My very first trial, my very first witness, I'm getting up to the stand to cross-examine the witness — my very first debut. Lysaght grabs my arm and says, 'Don't f--- it up.' He knew me, so that just made me laugh and relax."

<<Phan was able to handle a variety of cases in areas like corporate law, securities, and white-collar criminal defense, as well as some plaintiff's work. The palette of diverse work strengthened Phan, and he remained with the firm for approximately eight years before he decided he was ready to start up his own office with a former law school classmate in 2003.

"We did very well. For two guys, we had $2 million in revenue in our only year of existence," says Phan of his short-lived firm, Paz & Phan.

Around this time another classmate from Loyola, Kevin Leung, approached Phan about starting up a litigation department at his firm, Richardson & Patel.

"I took one look at their client list, which was something like 40 or 50 public companies, and I saw tremendous opportunity," he says. Phan moved to Richardson & Patel in 2004 and has remained there ever since.

During his time with Richardson & Patel, Phan has developed his forte in business litigation with a series of million-dollar settlements in securities, labor and employment, trusts, and other areas.

Even before he joined Richardson & Patel, though, Phan was presented with a new type of case: a medical malpractice one that hit very close to home. Phan's friend who later recruited him to join Richardson & Patel, Kevin Leung, has a son who developed kernicterus, a form of brain damage caused by excessive jaundice, because he and his wife were told by their doctors and nurses that jaundice was no big deal.

When Leung approached him about representing his son's case against Verdugo Hills Hospital, Phan, who was a med mal novice, suggested he consider some more specialized attorneys for the case.

"I had never done a medical malpractice trial before. All my experience had primarily been in business litigation and white-collar criminal defense matters," he says.

But after some convincing Phan finally agreed to take the case for his friend.

Leung's son, Aidan, who was born with a number of risk factors, developed jaundice within the first week of his life in 2003. Based on outdated information the hospital gave Leung and his wife and wrong advice their pediatrician gave them, the Leungs held off on getting their son medical attention for his jaundice. Finally, when severe conditions developed, the couple took their son to the emergency room. This was the first time they were told their son was in serious danger.

"If you just go to the Centers for Disease Control website, or any similar organization, and type in kernicterus, they lay it all out — they lay out all the risk factors of the disease," says Phan.

"The bottom line is Aidan was born with a number of these risk factors, and nobody put it together, identified him as a high-risk child, or warned his parents that if he got jaundice, it could be a really big deal," he says. "The hospital medical staff gave the Leungs outdated information going back 20 or 30 years saying, 'Jaundice is no big deal; it's very common. It will go away on its own in a couple days. It will have no lasting impact on the health of your child.'"

It soon became apparent that the hospital where Aidan was born, Verdugo Hills Hospital, could be in some legal hot water.

"All of the hospitals, including Verdugo Hills Hospital, received national emergency alerts warning them that kernicterus was rising, it was posing a high-risk threat, and that these hospitals and medical facilities should be implementing policies and procedures to identify and protect these babies. The hospital admitted that they had zero policies and procedures in place and didn't do anything to make sure high-risk babies were identified and protected," says Phan.

Despite the facts, the hospital was very resistant to settling with the Leungs.

"We went to an initial mediation about a year into the case, and after about eight hours with a very reputable mediator, they offered us zero. They were telling us, 'You have no chance,'" says Phan.

"At the end of another eight hours with two different mediators, they offered us $50,000. At that point, we had already spent $300,000 in experts. It was a joke," he continues.

Even during the trial, Phan and his team offered the other side an option to settle for $2.4 million, and they still refused to talk. Phan and his team even approached them halfway through the 10 days of jury deliberations, and they still refused to talk.

"I mean, what do you think the jury is debating when they're in there for 10 days?" Phan says.

All in all, it was a good thing Verdugo Hills Hospital refused to talk because the judge awarded the Leungs' case a whopping $96 million. The judgment was so significant that the Los Angeles Daily Journal named the case the top verdict for California in 2007.

Now that the case is over, the real question is whether Phan will continue taking medical malpractice cases or quit while he's at the top.

"I've certainly gotten a lot of calls, and to this day, I have not taken any of them," he says. "I've referred them all out. I'll never say never, but at this point, I prefer to stay in the business litigation; it's a lot less emotional."

"This was such a unique situation. Some of the jurors that were with us were crying during testimony and the closing arguments. It was a very emotionally charged case," he adds.

Throughout his decade-long career, Phan has learned that the legal profession is not for wimps by any means.

"This is such a tough profession — you better make sure you love it," he says. "Don't be afraid to try different things because one area of law is certainly not like another, and one firm or partner is certainly not the same as others. Try to find something that you really enjoy with people you really love working with, and that will make it so you can be successful — because if you love it, you'll work harder, and you'll do well."

Phan advises that lawyers, especially those who are new to the profession, should find mentors and examples whom they can model their careers after.

''Try to find people who are willing to mentor you. They are out there; it's just sometimes you have to work to find them. It's really hard to make it on your own. You've got to be able to get good advice and support from people who have done it. This will help you avert a lot of the pitfalls.''
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  6. The Life and Career of Attorney Luan Phan the Med Mall Novice with a $100 Million Judgment

published February 25, 2008

( 128 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
What do you think about this article? Rate it using the stars above and let us know what you think in the comments below.

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