Robert Curtis, managing partner at the Santa Barbara-based law firm Foley Bezek Behle & Curtis, has been recognized as one of The Best Lawyers in America for exceptional work representing plaintiffs in mass tort litigation and class action lawsuits.

Curtis is listed in the 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in America. Inclusion in the publication is based on a comprehensive peer-review survey, which for the current edition comprised of more than 13.7 million confidential evaluations.

Curtis, in conjunction with other partners at his firm has successfully pursued $1.15 billion in settlements and verdicts against some of the biggest companies in the country.

With a focus on complex business litigation, wildfire litigation, lender liability, class actions and real estate litigation, Curtis has been with Foley Bezek Behle & Curtis for 24 years.

Among his settlements are multi-million-dollar successes against Southern California Edison, East West Bank, Shell Oil, Verizon Wireless, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, U.S. Airways and Bank of the West.

In 2018, the Superior Court in Los Angeles appointed Curtis to the leadership team for litigation against Southern California Edison over the cause of the Thomas Fire and the Montecito mudslide.

In 2019, another judge in the Superior Court in Los Angeles appointed him to help lead litigation involving another utility-started fire, the Woolsey Fire.

Curtis is currently leading a class action lawsuit with two other law firms against Hawaii’s main electric company and its subsidiaries on behalf of victims and survivors of the Aug. 8 Lahaina Fire in Maui, which killed at least 115 people and displaced thousands.
Curtis is a graduate of UCLA and the Pepperdine University School of Law.