Lexi J. Hazam
Partner, San Francisco Office
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415 956-1000
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Lexi J. Hazam

A leader within the plaintiffs’ bar, Lexi J. Hazam Chairs the firm’s Mass Torts Practice group and represents clients in mass tort cases and environmental class actions, as well as whistleblower/false claims act actions.

In November 2022, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the Northern District of California appointed Lexi as Co-Lead Counsel of MDL 3047, In re Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation, the nationwide multi-district litigation against major social media platforms including Facebook Instagram (owned by Meta), TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube (owned by Google) alleging that the platforms cause addiction and mental health problems in adolescents, including body image issues, anxiety, suicidality, depression, and eating disorders, due to the defective and profit-driven design of their algorithmic recommendations and inadequate parental controls and age verification. As detailed in the Meta complaint, studies and internal documents from Instagram itself “confirmed what social scientists have long suspected: social media products like Instagram—and Instagram in particular—can cause serious harm to the mental and physical health of young users, especially to teenage girls [….] Worse, this capacity for harm is not accidental but by design: what makes Instagram a profitable enterprise for Meta is precisely what harms its young users.”

Lexi is also Court-appointed Interim Co-Lead Class Counsel for the Plaintiffs in litigation arising from the October 2, 2021 oil pipeline rupture off the coast of Orange County, which resulted in contamination of beaches, harbors, and fisheries with toxic oil. Plaintiffs’ complaint alleges that that two container ships damaged the pipeline by negligently dragging their anchors over it, and that the pipeline owner, Amplify Energy, failed to respond adequately to the spill. A proposed $50 million class settlement with Amplify has been reached and preliminarily approved by the Court.

Lexi is also Court-appointed Co-Lead Counsel for the thousands of Individual Plaintiffs in the Thomas Fire (No. 4965) and Woolsey Fire JCCPs (No. 5000), litigations against Southern California Edison arising from the colossal wildfires and ensuing mudslide Edison’s faulty equipment caused in recent years. In the Thomas Fire JCCP, Plaintiffs surmounted a demurrer to their inverse condemnation claim. After extensive discovery and shortly before a multi-plaintiff bellwether trial, the litigation entered into a settlement protocol. Shortly thereafter, the Woolsey Fire litigation entered into the same protocol. Together the individual plaintiffs in the Thomas Fire and Woolsey Fire cases have recovered over $1 billion thus far.

Lexi also served on the Plaintiffs Executive Committee in the consolidated lawsuits against Pacific Gas & Electric relating to losses from the 2017 San Francisco Bay Wine Country Fires.

Lexi also specializes in developing regulatory and epidemiological evidence and scientific experts in pharmaceutical and device cases. She was appointed by the court overseeing the nationwide Abilify gambling injuries MDL litigation to the Plaintiffs Executive Committee and the Science and Expert Sub-Committee for the case, and was also appointed by the court overseeing the nationwide Benicar MDL litigation to the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee and as Co-Chair of the Benicar MDL Plaintiffs’ Science and Experts Committee. Lexi also co-led a team handling the key FDA expert for the nationwide Opioids MDL litigation. Lexi additionally represented hundreds of hip replacement patients in the DePuy ASR and DePuy Pinnacle hip implant injury lawsuits.

Lexi’s false claims act cases include the Office Depot whistleblower litigation, a lawsuit alleging that Office Depot knowingly overcharged California cities, counties, and school districts on office and school supplies, that settled for $68.5 million. Lexi has also represented whistleblowers in false claims act cases alleging Medicare fraud by hospices.

Lexi also has international litigation experience. She previously represented hemophiliacs worldwide who contracted HIV and/or Hepatitis C from contaminated blood factor products in America. A confidential settlement was reached in 2009. Lexi played a key role in litigating the case and in negotiating and administering a settlement of the claims of over a thousand clients in 15 countries, utilizing her multilingual skills in work on several continents. The blood factor litigation constitutes one of the only cases in which major U.S. pharmaceutical companies entered a settlement with plaintiffs worldwide. Lexi also has significant experience representing the families of victims in major international aviation disasters.

The National Law Journal named Lexi a “Plaintiffs’ Lawyer Trailblazer” for 2022. In 2021, Lexi was named to The National Law Journal’s 2021 list of Elite Trial Lawyers – Elite Women of the Plaintiffs’ Bar. In 2020 and 2021, Lexi was also named one of the “Top Women Lawyers in California” by the Daily Journal. Lexi is a past Chair of both the American Association for Justice’s Section on Qui Tam Litigation and its Section on Toxic, Environmental, and Pharmaceutical Torts (STEP). Lexi has published regarding the use of technology-assisted review in litigation. Lexi has spoken at many conferences on mass disaster, pharmaceutical, device, and Whistleblower/False Claims Act litigation.

Long form bio (click to open pdf).

  • University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Berkeley Law), Berkeley, California
    J.D. – 2001
    Law Review: California Law Review, Articles Editor
    Law Journal: La Raza Law Journal, Articles Editor
  • Stanford University, Stanford, California
    M.A. – 1996
  • Stanford University, Stanford, California
    B.A. – 1995
  • California, 2003
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit, 2008
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit, 2006
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit, 2008
  • U.S. District Court, Central District of California, 2012
  • U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California, 2009
  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, 2003
  • U.S. District Court, Southern District of California, 2013
  • U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts, 2016
  • U.S. District Court, Western District of Michigan, 2017
  • American Association for Justice (Vice-Chair, Section on Qui Tam Litigation, 2018; Co-Secretary, Section on Qui Tam Litigation, 2016)
  • American Association for Justice (Chair, Section on Toxic, Environmental, and Pharmaceutical Torts, 2016)
  • Bar Association of San Francisco (Court Funding and Litigation Challenge Group Task Force)
  • Board of Governors, Consumer Attorneys of California, 2015
  • Law360 Editorial Advisory Board, Product Liability, 2018, 2019
  • San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association (Diversity Committee)
  • State Bar of California
  • Panelist, “Mass Torts & Class Actions,”  62nd Annual Consumer Attorneys of California Convention, November 2023
  • Floods, Fires & Hurricanes, Oh My! – Litigating Climate Change,” American Bar Association, Toxic Torts & Environmental Law Committee Conference,  April 4-6 2019
  • “Supreme Court Review of Escobar,” Qui Tam Litigation Group, American Association for Justice Annual Convention, Boston 2017
  • “Discovery Following the 2015 Federal Rules Amendments: What Does Proportionality Mean in the Class Action and Mass Tort Contexts?” American Bar Association 4th Annual Western Regional CLE Program on Class Actions and Mass Torts, San Francisco 2017
  • “Increasing the Number of Women and Minority Lawyers Appointed to Leadership Positions in Class Actions and MDLs,” Duke Law Center for Judicial Studies Conference, Atlanta 2017
  • “Technology-Assisted Review: Advice for Requesting Parties,” Practical Law, October/November 2016
  • “2015 Rules Amendments,” “Search Methodology and Technology,” “New Forms of Communications and Data Protection,” Innovation in eDiscovery Conference, San Francisco 2016
  • “Technology-Assisted Review,” Sedona Conference Working Group 1 Drafting Team, 2015
  • “The Benicar Litigation,” Mass Torts Made Perfect, Las Vegas 2015
  • “The Benicar Litigation,” HarrisMartin’s MDL Conference, San Diego 2015
  • “Now You See Them, Now You Don’t: The Skill of Finding, Retaining, and Preparing Expert Witnesses For Trial,” Women En Mass, Aspen 2014
  • Selected for inclusion by peers in The Best Lawyers in America in fields of “Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs” and “Qui Tam Law,” 2015-2024
  • “Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America,” Lawdragon, 2023, 2024
  • “Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers in America,” Lawdragon, 2022-2024
  • “Top Women Lawyers in California,” Daily Journal, 2020, 2021, 2023
  • “Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers in America,” Lawdragon, 2019-2023
  • “Elite Women of the Plaintiffs Bar,” National Law Journal, 2021, 2023
  • “Super Lawyer for Northern California,” Super Lawyers, 2015-2023
  • “West Trailblazer,” The American Lawyer, 2022
  • “Plaintiffs’ Lawyer Trailblazer,” National Law Journal, 2022
  • “Lawyer of the Year,” The Best Lawyers in America, Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions-Plaintiffs for San Francisco, 2017
  • “California Litigation Star,” Benchmark Litigation, 2016
  • “California Future Star,” Benchmark Litigation, 2015
  • Legal 500 recommended lawyer, LegalEase, 2013
  • “Rising Star for Northern California,” Super Lawyers, 2009-2011, 2013