Inside the Fourth Annual Shades of Mass Summit: What Happened in Los Angeles and Why It Matters - Playing on Coffee With Q
A look back at the landmark legal conference that brought together judges, attorneys general, and top plaintiffs' lawyers to confront the racial representation gap in mass tort litigation.
Los Angeles, CA, Feb. 23, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Last year, judges from across the country, 3 attorneys general, and plaintiffs' attorneys descended on the J.W. Marriott in Los Angeles for the fourth annual Shades of Mass conference — a gathering that has quickly become one of the most important events on the civil justice calendar. The mission was clear: confront the alarming shortage of Black and Brown attorneys leading mass tort cases in America, even as communities of color continue to bear the heaviest burden of corporate wrongdoing.
Please review the source on this Coffee With Q Podcast episode: Shades of Mass: Legal Advocacy with Rene Perras
Shades of Mass: Legal Advocacy with Rene Perras
What unfolded over those days in Los Angeles produced a series of powerful moments, hard truths, and forward-looking commitments that deserve a closer look.
The Problem That Built This Movement
The foundation of Shades of Mass rests on a stark reality. From toxic hair relaxer products marketed almost exclusively to women of color, to NEC baby formula cases affecting premature infants in lower-income Black and Brown families, to wildfire insurance litigation that has disproportionately impacted Hispanic, Black, and Asian residents in Altadena — the people most harmed by corporate negligence are too often the least represented in the courtroom.
Black and Brown legal representation in these major cases remains alarmingly low, creating what organizers described as a significant cultural imbalance in the legal system. Shades of Mass exists to change that by empowering more attorneys of color to lead these cases and hold corporations and insurance companies accountable.
What Happened: The Key Moments
Ben Crump's Final Year at the Helm
Attorney Ben Crump — widely known as "Black America's Attorney General" — presided over the conference as he winds down his two-year term as president this December. Crump opened the event at the Presidential Awards Luncheon and set the tone for the days ahead.
His track record loomed large over the proceedings: the $27 million pretrial settlement he secured for the family of George Floyd against the Minneapolis Police Department; the $12 million settlement and police reforms won for the family of Breonna Taylor; and his representation of the family of Henrietta Lacks, securing a confidential settlement against a biochemical company that had illegally profited from her harvested cervical cells — a case that spanned seven decades.
Navin Ward, a partner at Beasley Allen in Montgomery, Alabama, and a past president of the American Association for Justice, was announced as Crump's successor, signaling continuity and ambition for the organization's next chapter.
Three Attorney Generals Took the Stage
In a rare showing of state executive office support, three sitting state attorneys general addressed the summit: New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torres, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, and California Attorney General Rob Bonta. Torres and Ford were each honored with awards for their tireless work as champions of justice.
All three had joined the multi-state coalition of 22 Democratic attorneys general supporting Washington, D.C.'s legal challenge against the Trump administration's National Guard takeover, with 23 Republican attorneys general opposing the coalition. U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, ruled the deployment illegal. Around mid-December, the decision was stayed by a federal appeals court— a fact that underscored the political stakes facing communities of color beyond the courtroom, allowing the national guard deployment to continue for the time being.
Bonta closed the conference with a deeply personal keynote, reflecting on his American and Filipino heritage, his years at Yale, and the formative influence of his parents' activism alongside Cesar Chavez and the late Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. His parents, he told the audience, taught him to stand up and stand tall for justice.
Baltimore's Bold Opioid Gamble Paid Off
The keynote dinner featured Baltimore City Solicitor Ebony Thompson, a former Marine and champion litigator who shared the story behind one of the most consequential municipal legal decisions in recent memory. In 2023, Thompson led Baltimore's decision to opt out of the statewide global opioid settlement — the only Maryland county to do so. The gamble paid off: she was instrumental in securing nearly $600 million for the city's residents.
In an exclusive conversation with Coffee With Q, Thompson also revealed that she had persuaded Baltimore to adopt blockchain technology to tackle the city's nearly 13,000 blighted properties, with plans to use blockchain to register all future property transactions. She credited a course she took at MIT with sparking the idea.
The Altadena Fire Panel Brought the Room to Silence
The most emotional segment of the conference was the closing panel on the January 2025 Altadena wildfire, led by attorney Anne Andrews of Andrews & Higgins, Stephen Lopez of Gibbs Mura LLP, and Lyssa A. Roberts of Panish Shea Ravipudi LLP.
The panel painted a devastating picture. Altadena, an unincorporated and deeply multicultural community in L.A. County, had close to 10,000 homes destroyed — and nearly ten months later, residents were still unable to rebuild. Southern California Edison had been identified as responsible due to its alleged negligence and mismanagement of infrastructure, with a trial date set for January 2027 — an extraordinarily fast timeline by litigation standards.
But the obstacles to recovery were stacking up: contaminated soil requiring remediation, an electric grid that needed to be rebuilt from scratch, and a fractured drinking water system served by multiple companies. The dismantling of FEMA had stripped away the federal relief that would normally be on the ground. And Governor Newsom faced a tightrope walk between holding those responsible accountable and ensuring they stayed solvent enough to fund the community's rebuilding.
An Impressive Bench Showed Up
The judicial presence at the conference was extraordinary. Active judges in attendance included Michelle Childs of the D.C. Appellate Circuit Court, Senior Judge William Orrick of the Northern District of California, and L.A. County Superior Court Judge David Cunningham. Retired jurists included Central District of California Chief Judge Philip Gutierrez, Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Denise Langford Morris, Southern District of Texas Judge Vanessa Gilmore, and Judges Randa M. Trapp and Glenda Sanders. Their participation sent a clear signal about the judiciary's recognition of the representation gap.
From the plaintiff's bar, the attendee list read like a who's who of mass tort litigation: Larry Taylor of the Cochran Firm (president-elect), Deandra Fu DeBros of DicelloLevitt (immediate past president), former South Carolina State Senator Marlon E. Kimpson of Motley Rice, Priscilla Jimenez of Kline & Specter, Shreedhar Patel of Simon Greenstone Panatier, LaRuby May of May and Young, Gregory Cade of the Environmental Litigation Group, and Carl Solomon of the Solomon Law Group.
The Key Takeaways
The representation gap is not abstract — it has real consequences. When the communities most affected by corporate harm lack attorneys who understand their lived experience, the imbalance shows up in settlements, in courtroom strategy, and in outcomes. Shades of Mass is building the pipeline to change that.
Municipal governments are finding creative legal paths. Baltimore's decision to go it alone on opioid litigation — and Thompson's pioneering use of blockchain for property management — demonstrated that cities willing to take calculated legal risks can deliver outsized results for their residents.
The Altadena fire is a slow-moving crisis that demands national attention. Close to 10,000 homes destroyed, no federal relief in sight, contaminated land, and a fractured infrastructure — all in a community that was disproportionately home to families of color. The January 2027 trial date is fast by legal standards, but agonizingly slow for displaced residents.
State attorneys general are stepping into the breach. With federal support uncertain, state-level legal leadership from officials like Bonta, Ford, and Torres has become a critical backstop for communities of color facing corporate and governmental harm.
Leadership transitions matter. As Ben Crump prepares to hand the presidency to Navin Ward, Shades of Mass enters its next phase with growing momentum, a broadening network of judicial allies, and an ever-expanding caseload that proves its founding mission was right on time.
For more information about Shades of Mass and the work they do, visit shadesofmass.org.
Rene Perras is a legal news reporter for Coffee With Q covering civil justice, mass torts, and consumer protection in America.
Kami Ayyagari is a legal news reporter for Coffee With Q.
Kamala Ayyagari
Email: rp@CoffeeWithQ.org
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