On May 9, 2025, an Orange County jury awarded $5.8 million to Dr. Mark Linskey, a board-certified neurosurgeon and tenured professor at UC Irvine, in a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit against the University of California Regents. The verdict marked the second time Dr. Linskey prevailed in court over the same pattern of retaliatory conduct, following a $2 million judgment in 2019.
Trial lawyers Mark Quigley and Ivan Puchalt of Greene Broillet & Wheeler, LLP led the litigation, which exposed over a decade of institutional retaliation. Dr. Linskey had raised serious concerns beginning in 2014 about patient safety, administrative misconduct, and systemic failures at UC Irvine’s medical center. Instead of addressing the issues, university leadership sidelined him from core academic and clinical responsibilities.
“This time around, the focus was really on the failure to reinstate Dr. Linskey to the residency program despite a prior court order,” said Puchalt. Evidence showed UC Irvine repeatedly defied that order and continued to marginalize Dr. Linskey by excluding him from teaching residents and the neurosurgical on-call rotation.
The jury concluded that UC Irvine retaliated against Dr. Linskey from 2015 through the present. The awarded damages covered past and future economic losses as well as compensation for emotional distress, reputational harm, and mental suffering.
“This verdict reinforces that whistleblowers who speak out about patient safety and institutional misconduct must be protected, not punished,” said Quigley. “We’re proud to have stood by Dr. Linskey in both trials and to hold the university accountable.”
Dr. Linskey joined UC Irvine in 2004 and served as Chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery. Since 2014, he faced repeated acts of retaliation after filing internal complaints detailing unsafe patient handling and economic pressures that he believed compromised care quality.
“Having two sequential, unanimous jury verdicts is a very good feeling,” Dr. Linskey told The Los Angeles Times. “It’s vindication that good, honest people on a jury can see through to the truth and that our system works.”
Greene Broillet & Wheeler expects the defense to file post-trial motions or appeal, but the firm remains confident in the outcome. “The jury sent a strong message that retaliation—especially in an academic medical setting—will not be tolerated,” Quigley added.
Details were originally shared by Los Angeles Biotech Networks via LinkedIn:
