Take a bow, W. Mark Lanier.

The 53-year old trial lawyer, long known for scoring big verdicts against the pharmaceuticals industry, cemented his reputation on Monday by winning a $9 billion punitive damages award on behalf of a cancer patient who blamed a drug company for his illness. “By comparison, everything I’ve accomplished before is insignificant,” Lanier joked in a phone interview while waiting to tape an appearance on MSNBC. “You could stack up all the verdicts I’ve won before this, and they’d barely hit $1 billion.”