For Immediate Release
June 24, 2026
Media Contact:
Nicole Funaro, Director of Media & Storytelling, Public Justice, communications@publicjustice.net
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — Public Justice has announced the finalists for the 2026 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award. The TLOY Award celebrates and recognizes the accomplishments of an attorney or a team of attorneys who made the greatest contribution to the public interest within the past year by trying or settling a precedent-setting, socially significant case. This year’s award will be presented at the organization’s 44th Annual Gala and Awards Dinner on Monday, July 27, 2026 in Chicago.
The three finalist teams for Public Justice’s 2026 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award include an impressive group of attorneys from across the country, who took on cases that address toxic consumer products, gun trafficking and the financing of genocide and mass human rights abuses.
“Now more than ever before, it’s crucial to see people push back on corporations and institutions that seemingly hold all the cards — and bring them to justice in the end,” said Public Justice CEO Lauren Barnes. “Each of our Trial Lawyer of the Year finalists are shining examples of what our legal community can achieve when it harnesses the machinery of public interest litigation to hold powerful institutions accountable for public health crises, human rights abuses, and community gun violence and trafficking. We are so proud to celebrate the groundbreaking and tenacious work of these attorneys and their teams.”
Below are the case profiles for the 2026 finalists:
Doe v. Artificial Stone Defendants
In one of the first civil cases to highlight a growing public health crisis fueled by toxic artificial stone, the legal team behind Doe v. Artificial Stone Defendants secured $27 million in settlements for a plaintiff who developed fatal silicosis from exposure to toxic dust particles.
John Doe, now 51 years old and dependent on supplemental oxygen, spent many years cutting, grinding, and polishing crystalline silica artificial stone slabs. His job as a countertop fabricator exposed him to extraordinarily fine, nano-sized silica particles that are extremely toxic and penetrate deep into the lungs. Doe was later diagnosed with accelerated silicosis with pulmonary massive fibrosis, a terminal disease caused by exposure to the nano-sized crystalline silica particles released during routine fabrication.
His 2022 lawsuit alleged that artificial stone manufacturers designed, marketed, and distributed a product inherently unsafe to fabricate by human beings. Additionally, the lawsuit alleged that warnings accompanying the slabs were inadequate and failed to disclose that even the most rigid adherence to wet cutting, ventilation, and respirators cannot prevent workers from inhaling dangerously high concentrations of respirable crystalline silica.
During jury selection in April 2025, the defendants agreed to pay more than $27 million to Mr. Doe and his family. This settlement represents one of the most significant recoveries in the United States for artificial stone–induced disease and reflects the catastrophic harm caused by fabricating crystalline silica artificial stone.
Legal team: Alan R. Brayton, Gilbert Purcell, David Donadio, James Nevin, Jason Rose, Hugh Cook, Charley Velasco Ariza, Eric Solomon, and Heather-Ann Young of Brayton Purcell LLP; and Raphael Metzger and Brian Barrow of Metzger Law Group.
Kashef v. BNP Paribas SA
After nearly a decade of litigation, three Sudanese refugees representing more than 23,000 Sudanese survivors of mass atrocities secured a verdict against French bank BNP Paribas of $20.75 million, the first U.S. jury verdict holding a major international bank civilly liable for materially supporting human rights abuses and genocide.
In the early 2000s, Sudan’s regime unleashed a campaign of terror in Darfur marked by systematic killing, village burnings, rape, forced displacement, and the targeted destruction of Black African communities. That campaign depended on hard currency. After the United States imposed an economic embargo aimed at halting the genocide, the regime was on the brink of collapse. To survive, it needed a financier willing to launder billions in illicit petrodollars through New York, falsify records, and deceive regulators.
Filed in 2016, the plaintiffs’ class action was litigated for nearly a decade. Across years of hard-fought litigation, the plaintiffs defeated motions to dismiss, overcame complex jurisdictional, foreign law, and discovery challenges, and secured class certification for more than 23,000 Sudanese survivors residing in the U.S. The case then moved through expert battles and pretrial motion practice before selection for bellwether trial.
In 2025, the case went to trial, and after weeks of testimony, the jury returned a $20.75 million verdict in favor of the three bellwether plaintiffs — approximately $7 million for each — and found that BNP Paribas had aided and abetted the Sudanese government’s human rights abuses. The verdict affirmed that a bank’s financial backing of a regime committing mass atrocities can result in civil liability and that knowingly providing economic support can materially contribute to human rights violations.
Legal team: Bobby DiCello, Kenneth P. Abbarno, Carrie Syme, Greg G. Gutzler, Scott Gilmore, Mark A. DiCello, and Adam J. Levitt of DiCello Levitt LLP; Michael D. Hausfeld, Amanda Lee-DasGupta, Claire Rosset, Percy Metcalfe, James D. Gotz, and Mary Sameera Van Houten Harper of Hausfeld LLP; Kathryn (Lee) Boyd, Maxim Price, Kristen Nelson, Michael Eggenberger, and David L. Hecht of Hecht Partners LLP; and Cy Smith, Aitan D. Goelman, and Josh Mathew of Zuckerman Spaeder LLP.
Mayor and City Council of Baltimore v. Polymer80, Inc.
The gun industry has long assumed that it cannot be held accountable for conduct that would result in astronomical tort liability in any other industry. But a 2025 Baltimore City jury challenged that, delivering a verdict of $62 million against Hanover Armory, LLC in a case holding the gun dealer accountable for trafficking and violence arising from its ghost guns.
Hanover Armory sold ghost gun kits, a set of parts that could be assembled into a functioning firearm, without serial numbers and without conducting background checks. These kits appeal to individuals who cannot otherwise lawfully obtain a firearm, including teens and gun traffickers. Hanover Armory sold 2,347 kits about 10 miles from the city’s border, accounting for 85% of all kits sold by area dealers who were subpoenaed as part of the case.
The sales led to more gun trafficking operations, as well as teens getting their hands of these firearms. A community leader, Dante Barksdale, who dedicated his life to preventing gun violence, was also murdered with a ghost gun.
In June 2022, the city filed a complaint with two claims against Hanover Armory: public nuisance and negligence. Discovery proceeded after a motion to dismiss was denied, and the city settled claims against Polymer80, the biggest manufacturer of ghost gun kits, for $1.2 million and substantial injunctive relief.
But the case against Hanover Armory proceeded to summary judgment, and then trial. The city estimated that it would take $31 million to remedy the ghost gun crisis, by funding evidence-based intervention programs like Safe Streets, the Mayor’s Gun Violence Reduction Strategy, and ROCA. The jury doubled the number.
After trial, the City, Hanover Armory, and Hanover Armory’s insurer settled for meaningful injunctive terms, including a ban on selling ghost gun products, measures to prevent sales to straw purchasers and gun traffickers, and regular reporting to the City, in addition to a $2 million monetary settlement, an amount reached in light of Hanover Armory’s limited assets.
This case demonstrates how versatile a public nuisance claim can be, and how remedies for a public nuisance can be found in new contexts.
Legal team: James Hannaway of Berger Montague; Saba Bireda of Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight; Philip Bangle and Jenna Klein of Brady: United Against Gun Violence; and Thomas Webb of Baltimore City Department of Law.
Public Justice will premiere short video documentaries about each case during the July 27th ceremony in Chicago, which will be livestreamed on the organization’s YouTube channel. Tickets and sponsorships for the awards dinner are available at www.public-justice.org.
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Public Justice takes on the most significant systemic threats to justice of our time—abusive corporate power and predatory practices, the assault on civil rights and liberties, and the destruction of the earth’s sustainability. We link high-impact litigation with strategic communications and the strength of our partnerships to combat these abusive and discriminatory systems and achieve social and economic justice. For more information, visit www.public-justice.org.