Kimberly Branscome is a partner in the Century City Office, and co-chair of the Mass Torts and Product Liability practice. She is a first-chair trial lawyer and litigation strategist whose practice covers product liability, mass torts, and complex commercial litigation. She serves as lead counsel in pharmaceutical, medical device, consumer product, and industrial litigation, and has tried cases to verdict in federal and state courts across the country. Her practice also includes professional liability, environmental and toxic tort matters, and securities class actions.
Kim serves as national counsel in large multidistrict litigations and coordinated proceedings, including matters brought on behalf of thousands of claimants, and advises clients at every stage of a case. Her work spans case strategy, bellwether selection, expert development, and dispositive motion practice through trial, and extends to crisis management. She is frequently brought in to try cases that are especially sensitive or that carry the risk of threatening a client’s business. Chambers USA has reported client comments describing her as one of the leading lawyers in this area and as a lawyer clients trust to try their cases.
Kim’s clients are principally large multinational manufacturers and life sciences, consumer products, energy, and automotive companies.
Representative Experience:
- Lead trial counsel for Bayer in a consolidated proceeding in Washington state court alleging injuries from polychlorinated biphenyl exposure caused by its subsidiary Monsanto Company, securing complete defense verdicts on the claims of 11 of the 15 plaintiffs.
- Lead trial counsel for Johnson & Johnson in securing multiple complete defense verdicts in litigation alleging that its talc-based baby powder contained asbestos that caused plaintiffs to develop mesothelioma. The Daily Journal named the results Top Defense Verdicts in 2018 and 2019, and Law360 included them among the Top Product Liability Cases of 2018.
- Lead defense and lead trial counsel for 3M in the multibillion-dollar Combat Arms earplug multidistrict litigation, one of the largest federal MDLs in U.S. history, brought by service members alleging hearing loss from a product supplied to the military, securing multiple favorable verdicts.
- Liaison and lead trial counsel for GSK in the coordinated California Zantac proceedings brought by thousands of claimants alleging that the medication has carcinogenic properties.
- Defense counsel for General Motors in federal multidistrict and parallel state litigation concerning vehicle ignition switches, securing victories in the second federal bellwether trial and the first state bellwether trial.
- Counsel for BP in the multidistrict and related civil litigation arising from the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion and Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and in the parallel multidistrict securities fraud litigation alleging that the company and other defendants materially misrepresented its stock before and immediately after the explosion.
- Counsel for Aon in professional liability litigation.
- Defense counsel for Omega Flex in product liability litigation alleging that its CSST flexible steel gas piping was defective.
Kim has also represented pharmaceutical companies including Merck, Pfizer, Hoffmann-La Roche, and AstraZeneca.
Kim is a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, The Trial Lawyer Honorary Society. Law360 named her a Product Liability MVP in 2025, and International Financial Law Review named her Product Liability Lawyer of the Year the same year. The Daily Journal has included her among the Top 100 Lawyers in California in 2019 and 2025 and among the state’s Top Women Lawyers from 2019 to 2021, and the Los Angeles Business Journal named her one of its Most Influential Women Lawyers in 2025. She has also been named to Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Lawyers in America for 2025 and 2026 and its 500 Global Leaders in Crisis Management for 2026, to Forbes’ America’s Top 200 Lawyers in 2024, and to The American Lawyer’s West Trailblazers in 2022. Recently, Kim was recognized in the 2027 edition of The Best Lawyers in America for Product Liability Litigation – Defendants.
Chambers USA has ranked Kim in Product Liability & Mass Torts (USA) since 2023, where a client described her as a “fearless trial lawyer.” The Legal 500 US recognizes her in its product liability, mass tort, and class action defense categories across consumer products, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and toxic torts.
Prior to entering private practice, Kim served as a law clerk to the Honorable J.L. Edmondson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit from 2007 to 2008.
Kim earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2007. She received a Bachelor of Engineering in biomedical engineering and chemical engineering from Vanderbilt University in 2004.
Capabilities
Credentials
Education:
- Harvard University - 2007 Juris Doctor
- Vanderbilt University - 2004 Bachelor of Engineering
Admissions:
- California Bar
- District of Columbia Bar
Clerkships:
- US Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit, Hon. J .L. Edmondson, 2007 - 2008