R. Gaylord Smith

R. Gaylord “Bob” Smith is a partner in the San Diego office of Lewis Brisbois and chair of the Toxic Tort and Environmental Litigation Practice. He specializes in complex business, environmental and energy litigation. The firm’s Environmental Litigation department has over 80 attorneys in offices throughout the nation.

Education :

• Harvard University, Juris Doctor, cum laude, 1976
• Claremont Men’s College, Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, 1973

Admissions : State Bar Admissions, California

Experience :

• 2015: Defense verdict in federal court in Los Angeles for defendant fertilizer company that was formerly the principal source of the nation’s sodium nitrate supply. The plaintiff municipality sued the fertilizer company for alleged perchlorate contamination of its groundwater aquifer. Claimed remediation costs were $33 million.
• 2014: Defense judgment for former landowner of a San Diego shooting range that was sued for $25 million in costs for environmental investigation and remediation of lead and perchlorate contamination. Case tried for 36 days in San Diego Superior Court.
• 2012: Defense judgment after 65 days of trial against major defense contractor sued for contaminating Orange County’s aquifer with VOCs used in manufacturing operations over 40 year period. Alleged remediation costs claimed were $200 million.
• 2006: Obtained injunction based upon NEPA violations against the Department of Interior to halt the construction of a new All American Canal in Imperial Valley, California.
• 2000: Won plaintiff’s verdict of $911,000 on behalf of Lancer Insurance Company which claimed that its own reinsurer wrongfully interfered with its exclusive managing general agency agreement with a producer of non-standard auto policies. Other settlements increased total recovery to $2.4 million.
• 1998: Defense verdict in insurance bad faith case against Homestead Insurance Company arising out of damage to two Beverly Hills’ mansions during the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The plaintiff was a Liechtenstein Corporation owned by the Sultan of Brunei.
• 1995: Defense verdict for Price/Costco, Inc., in a wrongful termination case. The four-week jury trial grew out of claims that the vendor was fraudulently induced to invest $250,000 in start-up costs to establish a photographic “road show” in various Price Club stores, only to be terminated without cause.