Randy Papetti

Randy Papetti of Papetti Samuels Weiss LLP is an experienced litigator and an elite trial lawyer. He has litigated and tried major commercial, intellectual property, and even criminal cases. He is a former Practice Group Leader of Lewis Roca’s Litigation section, one of the premiere litigation groups in the western United States.

He is recognized by nearly every ranking publication and service as one of Arizona’s top litigators.

He takes pride in his clients knowing he will go above and beyond to help them.

Randy’s representations have included:

- Frequent representation of Arizona lawyers when they need counsel, whether to defend them against malpractice claims or otherwise.

- Numerous matters involving disputes between partners, limited liability company members, or corporate shareholders in nearly every type of major industry.

- Several high-stakes trials, including successful defense of a man accused of first-degree murder; a complicated lease and regulatory dispute that resulted in an $11 million jury verdict for Randy’s client; and matters involving complex intellectual property and commercial damages.

- Part of the trial team that in 2016 obtained a nationally publicized jury verdict that the writer, director, and producer of the Broadway play, Jersey Boys, copied from an unpublished manuscript of a deceased lawyer.

- Being brought in as co-counsel in order to help negotiate settlement in cases that had proven difficult to resolve.

Randy’s background in finance and his diverse experience allow him to handle an unusually wide variety of business, commercial, healthcare, regulatory, and intellectual property disputes. In 2011, Randy was invited into and inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the preeminent trial lawyer organization in America. In 2014 and then again in 2020, Randy was selected by Best Lawyers and his local peers as Lawyer of the Year for “Bet the Company Litigation.” In 2021, Southwest Super Lawyers again selected Randy as one of its Top 50 Lawyers in Arizona.

Randy’s pro bono work in an area of wrongful convictions is internationally recognized. Early in Randy’s career, he was asked to help on a case where the defendant had been convicted based on a medical diagnosis known as “Shaken Baby Syndrome.” Randy dug into the case and studied the science behind the diagnosis, concluding it was unreliable and eventually led a team that secured that individual’s release.  Since then, on a pro bono basis, Randy has handled several high-profile murder and other cases in which the defendants had been falsely accused.  In one, after a six-week trial, the jury hung 8-4 in favor of acquittal. In another, Randy helped overturn the conviction of a man who had unjustly served 10 years for allegedly murdering his baby son; the State eventually dismissed all charges. In a third case in Qatar involving murder allegations against an American couple whose child died while the father was in Qatar on a work assignment, Randy’s clients were exonerated by the Qatari courts, a nearly unheard-of result in that region. Recently, Randy’s concern about the unreliability of the science in this area led him to write a leading text, THE FORENSIC UNRELIABILITY OF THE SHAKEN BABY SYNDROME (Academic Forensic Pathology Int’l 2018), which addresses the legal, medical, and scientific complexities surrounding the diagnosis. Randy’s work in this area is utilized around the world. He has received several awards for his pro bono and other community service work.