In his first medical-malpractice trial,young lawyer Luân Phan won a $96.4 million verdict while representing a 4-year-old suffering brain damage due to untreated jaundice.

That victory a year ago topped California’s highest plaintiffs’ verdict for 2007. Recently, Phan, the father of four, emerged in the limelight again with his election as president of the Vietnamese American Bar Association, in addition to being voted a ""Rising Star"" in 2004, 2005 , 2006 and ""Super Lawyer"" in 2008 by Law & Politics and Los Angeles Magazine.

The managing partner at Richardson & Patel in Los Angeles says he’s ""constantly fortunate"" to learn from his work and to find work that keeps him ""fascinated.""

Judges refer cases to him. Lone attorneys in the field are eager to team with him. The malpractice trial has become part of legal lore in Los Angeles, where Phan attended Loyola Law School. On campus, he had met Kevin Leung, whose son, Aidan, eventually became his client in the landmark suit, Leung v. Nishibayashi.

Aidan, born in March 2003 at Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale, a Southern California suburb, had scored 100 percent on an exam measuring a newborn’s general health. The baby’s doctor, Steven Nishibayashi, discharged him less than 24 hours after birth — even though he had an accumulation of blood on either side of his brain and before he was breastfeeding successfully, according to legal documents.

Aidan’s symptoms, along with being a male of East-Asian descent, placed him at risk for kernicterus, a form of brain damage caused by excessive jaundice. He soon developed brain damage, cerebral palsy and motor impairment. Kevin Leung, also a partner at Richardson & Patel, said he never doubted his friend, Phan, could handle the case.

""He’s aggressive, strong. If you’re on the other side, you could have viewed him as mean,"" Leung said. ""He’s just prepared. I trusted him to focus on a health issue largely being ignored by the medical industry when it has a huge impact on Asian Americans. What he has done is create a solid amount of awareness for our community.""

Phan said he and his legal team put in $2 million in time and nearly $400,000 in costs. For two months, he hardly slept and he often prayed.

Here, he shared his thoughts with Nguoi Viet 2:

NV2: Bring us back to that courtroom. How did you feel when the jury announced its decision?

Phan: Total ""thank God"" relief. It had taken nine days for the jury to deliberate. The decision was 9-3 in our favor. If it had been 8-4 it would have been a hung jury. There were six men, six women — four Caucasians, three African Americans, Hispanics and Asians.

NV2: What turned the tide in your client’s favor?

Phan: Whether the parents had been warned properly of the risks.

NV2: What was your strategy?

Phan: Try not to act like a lawyer. I try to talk like a normal person. No matter how complex the issue is, boil it down to the simplest of terms. In the closing argument, I said, ""Listen, do you believe in your heart of hearts that these parents — if they had been warned of the health risks — would not have done everything possible to protect their child?""

NV2: Do you get nervous speaking in front of the jury?

Phan: I do get nervous, but once I get going … The nervousness shows that you care. Isn’t it great that we have a system where you can settle disputes without violence? All you have to do is turn on CNN to see other countries resolve situations and there is violence.

NV2: Did you always have this ability to connect with an audience or with people you don’t know?

Phan: With new people, I think you need to become very engaged in the person you meet with. Get them to talk about themselves. Try to find commonalities between what they like and do with what you like and do.

NV2: And if you want to become successful in the practice of law?

Phan: Not all of this stuff we’re taught. Sometimes you have to self-promote. Clients expect that. They want to hear what you can do for them. … I was always a very competitive kid. I played tennis. I liked to debate and argue.

NV2: You were raised by your mom?

Phan: Yes, she was a secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam, which is how we got out (after the war ended in 1975, when he was 3 and a half years old. )

NV2: What’s an important life lesson for you?

Phan: I was one out of six students, from a class of 400, at Loyola (Law School) invited to interview with O’Melveny & Myers (a prestigious law firm.) I was very quiet. It was at the Water Grill in L.A. But of the six, I was the only one who didn’t get an offer. … I got some good advice. In America, you can’t do that at an interview. You have to be proactive. You have to speak up for what you want.

—As lead trial counsel, Luân Phan successfully defended a New York hedge fund and its general partners in a $50 million securities lawsuit filed by more than two dozen of the wealthiest individual investors in the country.

—Obtained a $9.5 million settlement on behalf of beneficiaries of a trust who sued trustees for breach of fiduciary duty.

—Obtained millions in settlements on behalf of clients in professional malpractice actions.

—Successfully defended a California investment group in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by its former chief financial officer.

—Successfully defended a public company sued for breach of a multimillion dollar contract in a proceeding before the National Association of Securities Dealers

—As co-lead trial counsel in an insurance coverage dispute arising out of damage to a commercial building from the Northridge earthquake, Phan obtained a $7.1 million jury verdict against several insurance companies.

—Obtained a $9.2 million judgment on behalf of a public company client in a fraud action against its former chief executive officer.

—Obtained an eight-figure settlement on behalf of an owner of 157 acres of land in Carson, Calif., in an environmental case against ARCO, Shell Oil Co., UNOCAL, Shell Chemical Co., among others.

—As part of a team of lawyers, Phan helped to obtain the release of former nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee. Lee, a U.S. citizen born in Taiwan, was accused of spying for China and charged with 59 counts of mishandling classified information.