Former magistrate judge Jay Gandhi joins neutral firm PADRE

Former U.S. Magistrate judge Vijay "Jay" C. Gandhi, who recently sued - as plaintiff and lawyer - the City of Los Angeles and its Department of Water and Power over the January wildfires that destroyed parts of Pacific Palisades, has joined Phillips Alternative Dispute Resolutions Enterprises, PADRE.

Gandhi, who was a partner at Paul Hastings LLP before he joined the bench, has been a neutral at JAMS for the past several years.

In announcing the move, PADRE noted that Gandhi had resolved several high-profile cases, including the $1.2 billion Discover settlement related to card misclassification, the $725 million class action settlement accusing Facebook of allowing Cambridge Analytica to access user data, and the $648 million Monsanto class action settlement over environmental contamination from polychlorinated biphenyls.

As a U.S. magistrate judge for eight years, Gandhi oversaw the Central District of California's ADR program and its mediation panel of more than 200 neutrals.

"Judge Gandhi's exceptional skill in dispute resolution and his dedication to justice align perfectly with PADRE's relentless, merits-based approach to resolving complex disputes," said retired federal judge Layn R. Phillips, founder and CEO of PADRE. "The world is more complicated and so are its legal disputes and, accordingly, sophisticated parties desire bespoke approaches, with deep preparation and strategic solutions, that go beyond a one-size-fits-all mindset." 

Phillips, a former U.S. District Court judge, has settled several national matters. Among them, the NFL Concussion Litigation, the Petrobras U.S. Securities Litigation, the Bonneville Power Administration Residential Exchange Litigation, the DOE Rockwell Rocky Flats Nuclear Plant Litigation, the Michigan State University Sexual Abuse Cases, the Merck Vioxx Securities Litigation, the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Acquisition Litigation, the High Tech Employees Antitrust Litigation, the Activision Blizzard Stockholder Litigation, the Anthem Data Breach Litigation, the Walmart Consolidated Wage and Hour Litigation, and the Wells Fargo Financial Accounts Securities Litigation. He has also served for several years as the NBA Systems Arbitrator.

Gandhi said he joined PADRE "because of its unwavering commitment to integrity, excellence, and results.

"Judge Phillips has built a singular platform for resolving the most complex and consequential disputes in the country, and I'm honored to collaborate with professionals who share my passion for principled, solution-based peacemaking," he said.

In April, Gandhi announced that he had teamed with Robertson & Associates LLP and Foley Bezek Behle & Curtis LLP to sue the City of Los Angeles and its Department of Water and Power over the wildfires that destroyed his home. In a rare move, Gandhi is both a plaintiff and an attorney in the litigation, which also includes U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson as a plaintiff. The suit alleges that inadequate water pressure in fire hydrants and an empty Santa Ynez reservoir severely hindered firefighting efforts.

Gandhi, who has previously mediated PG&E wildfire cases such as the Camp Fire, argued the disaster was preventable and blamed the city's failure to act on well-known risks.

At a news conference held in front of his destroyed home, Gandhi criticized the city's reliance on outdated legal defenses and highlighted precedent from a Yorba Linda case in which a water district was held liable for similar failures. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, contends that DWP's lack of a public safety power shut-off program--unlike other major California utilities--contributed to the fire's ignition and spread. Gandhi learned of the fire while in court working on a landmark homelessness settlement. By the time he returned home, his family had evacuated and their possessions, including sentimental heirlooms and his childhood comic book collection, were gone.

The case is Vijay C. Gandhi, et al. v. City of Los Angeles acting by and through the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, 25STCV11721 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed April 21, 2025).