Hall of Fame Recipients

Mark P. Robinson, Jr.

2021 OCTLA Hall of Fame Inductee

Mark P. Robinson Jr. is a prominent, nationally recognized attorney who has devoted his legal career to protecting consumers in their pursuit for justice. He is the founder, senior partner and sole shareholder of Robinson Calcagnie, Inc., based in Newport Beach, California.

Mr. Robinson graduated from Stanford University and Loyola School of Law. Mr. Robinson established a legal practice devoted to consumer safety. Along with co-counsel, he has found success in thousands of products liability, mass tort, personal injury and class action cases, including the landmark Ford Pinto case, Grimshaw v. Ford Motor Company, where a jury in Orange County, California, awarded $128 million in compensatory and punitive damages. The verdict has been recognized as one of the ten most significant civil trials of the past millennium.

Some of Mr. Robinson’s verdicts also include Echeverria v. Johnson & Johnson, where a Los Angeles jury awarded $417 million to a single plaintiff regarding talcum powder; Solorio v. Nissan, where a San Bernardino jury awarded $46 million to a man who suffered serious leg injuries that resulted in the amputation of his left leg; Anderson v. General Motors, (along with Co-Counsel Brian Panish, Jeoffrey Robinson, Chris Spagnoli, and Kevin Calcagnie) where a Los Angeles jury awarded $4.9 billion to burn victims in an automobile crash; and Barnett v. Merck, a $51 million verdict in New Orleans federal court against the manufacturer of the prescription drug Vioxx.

Mr. Robinson is a pillar of the Orange County legal community.  In 2017, 1996 and 1978 he was selected as the “Personal Injury Trial Lawyer of the Year” by OCTLA.  He is also an OCTLA past president (1981).  He has taught law at the UCI School of Law and served on the UCI School of Law Dean’s Advisory Committee. He is also a past president of the Orange County Bar Association Charitable Fund and the Consumer Attorneys of California.

Mr. Robinson’s career did not begin fighting for plaintiffs. It was in the 1970s when Mr. Robinson, a Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney, won 40 cases.  He then began working in civil defense. He recalls successfully representing a defendant in a jury trial then also winning on the cross-complaint against the plaintiff that he defensed.  After that verdict he decided to “switch to the good guys.”   He moved to Orange County in 1974 and has never looked back, embarking on a long, successful career representing individuals injured by others or defective products.

We are honored to welcome Mark P. Robinson, Jr. to the OCTLA Hall of Fame.