The trial bar over the years has been responsible for driving important reform on serious issues that have affected millions of people.  Enterprising trial attorneys and plaintiffs firms have fought long, difficult legal battles against their corporate adversaries to secure victories and compensation for victims of alleged corporate wrongdoing. Tobacco companies and, more recently, opioids producers and distributors are prime examples of industries the trial bar litigated against to secure compensation for victims and at the same time force societal changes in how these products are marketed and used.

Over the past several decades, a group of trial bar law firms has largely moved from one industry to the next, each time seeming to overcome long legal odds to achieve victories against an unpopular industry. Oil and natural gas producers—the current major target of the trial bar—fits the profile the trial bar relishes: an industry with an unpopular image among some progressive circles, garners little sympathy, and provides a product that many people generally do not appreciate or take for granted.