We are 725+ lawyers serving clients from 12 offices located in the leading financial and business centers in the Americas, Europe and Asia. The world’s leading organizations, companies and corporations choose us to be their representatives in their most critical situations. But more, they consider Proskauer a strategic partner to drive their business forward. We work with asset managers, major sports leagues, Fortune 500 companies, entertainment industry legends and other industry-redefining companies.
Proskauer’s Litigation Department wins make-or-break cases, changes laws and establishes precedents. Our litigators cover the full spectrum of complex commercial litigation practice areas, including: antitrust, asset management, bankruptcy, copyright, false advertising, insurance recovery, patent, privacy and cybersecurity, products liability, real estate, international arbitration, securities, sports, trademark and white collar. We are also known for our appellate practice, which handles appeals in federal and state court, and advises on trial issues.
Proskauer’s 150+ litigators have built a track record of success both inside and outside the courtroom. We pride ourselves on being trial lawyers, and we have extensive experience trying cases before juries, judges and arbitral tribunals throughout the U.S. and abroad. Where appropriate, we embrace alternative dispute resolution and have achieved significant success resolving challenging matters for our clients.
Our lawyers include former senior government officials and prosecutors with formidable trial and regulatory experience. Our litigators have served as the U.S. Attorneys for New Jersey and the Southern District of Illinois; chiefs and deputy chiefs of divisions of U.S. Attorney’s offices in New York and the District of Columbia; General Counsel of the SEC; New York Deputy Attorney General; the Corporation Counsel of the City of New York; clerks for justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Our litigators have consistently earned top rankings from Chambers and The Legal 500, U.S. News Best Lawyers, Daily Journal and The American Lawyer. The Firm was also noted in the New York Law Journal as a General Litigation Finalist for Litigation Department of the Year.
Select recent representations include:
Representation of Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico, created by the United States Congress to restore the long-term economic viability of the most populous U.S. territory, Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico has approximately $74 billion of bond debt and $50 billion of underfunded public pension liabilities. We are serving as lead counsel with respect to all aspects of the five Title III debt adjustment proceedings, including over 100 related adversary proceedings and over 60 related appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States. This docket is likely the most active docket in the United States, involving the most sophisticated counsel, and we are involved in literally every filing.
Lead trial counsel for Monsanto and its parent company Bayer in multiple California cases alleging the herbicide RoundUp causes non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (“NHL”). The vast majority of pending cases were settled before trial as part of Bayer’s (nearly) global settlement of the RoundUp cases. A relatively small subset of cases was not settled, however, and Proskauer tried the first of these in San Bernardino beginning in July 2021. In that case, plaintiff Donnetta Stephens alleges that her NHL was caused by her periodic use of RoundUp in her backyard.
Defense of Gilead Sciences in various Northern California state and federal product liability actions brought by ~17,000 plaintiffs related to Gilead’s HIV prevention and treatment drugs. The cases allege that Gilead failed adequately to warn about the increased risk of potential kidney disease and bone injury that could result from its highly effective and FDA-approved HIV medications. The plaintiffs also allege that Gilead held back safer drugs that it could have brought to market sooner.
Defense of Major League Soccer (MLS) against a lawsuit brought by the North American Soccer League (NASL) against MLS and the U.S. Soccer Federation following U.S. Soccer’s decision not to sanction NASL as a Division II professional league for the 2018 season. NASL alleges that MLS and U.S. Soccer are engaged in an antitrust conspiracy to ensure that MLS is the sole Division I soccer league in the United States, and further alleges that MLS is an illegal monopoly in violation of the Sherman Act.
Lead trial counsel for the “Power 5 Conferences” (Pac 12, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, and SEC) in complex antitrust litigation in U.S. District Court in Oakland, CA, against the NCAA and eleven collegiate athletic conferences challenging the limits on compensation and benefits for student-athletes. Following a ten-day bench trial, the Court held that the rules promote demand for college sports by recognizing the distinction with professional sports. The Court rejected plaintiffs’ effort to eliminate all rules limiting athlete compensation and removed only those rules limiting in-kind educational benefits. The ruling was upheld on appeal.
Lead counsel for Alvogen and Natco in a complex Hatch-Waxman matter involving at least 18 of AbbVie/Pharmacyclics patents and Janssen Biotech. The case involves issues that relate to Alvogen’s and Natco’s commercialization of a generic version of Pharmacyclics/AbbVie’s blockbuster cancer therapy, Imbruvica, which is among the world’s bestselling drugs. We obtained a very favorable accelerated schedule—one year to trial, which is virtually unprecedented in a Hatch-Waxman case where a 30-month stay of FDA approval allows for trial dates at least 2.5 years out. This accelerated schedule will facilitate a possible earlier entry to market of the clients’ products.
Lead counsel for toy company, Mattel and their co-defendants in 35 separate product liability wrongful death cases in Delaware and California state courts related to the Fisher Price Rock-n-Play Sleeper (RNPS). The cases allege that the RNPS was not safe for use as a sleeping device for infants.
Representation of Shamrock Capital Advisors, a private equity firm that was one of the principal investors in FanDuel, a bookmaker and fantasy sports provider, in a litigation brought by FanDuel’s founders and other minority shareholders in New York state court. The lawsuit, which was filed after a merger between FanDuel and Paddy Power Betfair (PPB), a European sportsbook, alleges breach of fiduciary duty, aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty, and unjust enrichment against FanDuel board members and shareholders.
Trial counsel for Tiffany & Co. in a closely-watched retrial of a trademark infringement and counterfeiting case brought against Costco in the Southern District of New York based on Costco’s use of the term “Tiffany” on point-of-sale signs for diamond engagement rings. The case settled favorably before trial.
Representation of Wayne Farms, one of the largest producers of broilers (chicken) in the U.S., defending numerous class actions filed both by classes of direct purchasers and indirect purchasers, who assert a damages claim against the defendants of $48 billion. The case is the largest current antitrust case in the U.S. in the food industry.
Updated Sep 2021
Founded in 1982, Berman Tabacco is a national law firm with offices in Massachusetts and California. The firm has devoted its practice to complex litigation, primarily under the securities and antitrust laws, as well as related services requested by and provided to its institutional clients. The firm also has an active whistleblower practice, among others.
Securities Litigation
Berman Tabacco has approximately 40 years of securities-litigation experience and has represented public pension funds and other institutional investors in that area since 1998. The Firm has prosecuted some of the largest securities cases and has recovered billions of dollars on behalf of investors. Indeed, Berman Tabacco appears as one of the firms with the most settlements on the list of the top 100 largest securities class actions in ISS Securities Class Action Services' published report, Top 100 U.S. Class Action Settlements of All Time (as of 12/31/2020). The firm has successfully prosecuted and recovered billions of dollars for defrauded investors in some of the most significant shareholder lawsuits of the last 20 years, having been appointed as lead or co-lead counsel in more than 100 actions. Recent successes include:
Berman Tabacco's dismissal rate for cases brought under the federal securities laws is less than half the overall dismissal rate for such cases (based on the reported dismissal rate by one authoritative study[A1] ). The firm serves as monitoring, evaluation, and/or litigation counsel to over 100 institutional investors, which includes 17 statewide public employee retirement systems with more than $50 billion in assets.
Antitrust Litigation
Berman Tabacco's antitrust practice also has a national reputation for prosecuting class actions that involve anticompetitive conduct and conspiracies to fix or maintain prices. Over the years, the firm has played a major role in the prosecution of numerous landmark antitrust cases and has been at the forefront of some of the largest antitrust settlements—recovering over a billion dollars for class members and changing business practices of defendant companies. The following are examples of the antitrust group's recent efforts:
Whistleblower Representation
Berman Tabacco's whistleblower practice group assists individuals wishing to expose fraud perpetrated against the federal government, states, and corporations, working to obtain the compensation and protections afforded by the False Claims Act, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Whistleblower Program, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission Whistleblower Program, and the Internal Revenue Service Whistleblower Program. Berman Tabacco helps whistleblowers engage appropriate government entities to right wrongs—enforced either by those agencies or through separate litigation. In April 2021, the SEC awarded over $50 million to joint whistleblowers represented by the Firm. It was the second largest whistleblower award by the SEC when it was made.
Updated Aug 2021
We are a 875+ lawyer business litigation firm with offices in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Houston, Seattle, Boston, Salt Lake City, Tokyo, London, Mannheim, Hamburg, Paris, Hong Kong, Munich, Sydney, Brussels, Zurich, Shanghai, Perth, Stuttgart, Austin, Neuilly-La Defense, Atlanta and Miami. We aggressively litigate a wide variety of business disputes for Fortune 500 companies as well as smaller companies. We do not simply “handle” cases for years before settling them on the courthouse steps. Our goal is to seize the initiative and resolve them quickly, because it is in our clients’ interests to do so. If a case cannot be resolved short of trial, we have the experienced trial lawyers who can try it. Our business is winning cases—and we do.
Our Lawyers: Attorneys at our firm have tried over 2,500 cases and won 86%. When we represent defendants, our trial experience gets us better settlements or defense verdicts. When representing plaintiffs, our lawyers have won over $70 billion in judgments and settlements. We have also obtained seven 9-figure jury verdicts, fifty-one 9-figure settlements, and nineteen 10-figure settlements.
Our attorneys include top graduates from Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Chicago, Michigan, Columbia and other distinguished schools. At last count, 221 of our attorneys (or 25%) were law review editors in law school and/or clerked for judges; nineteen have taught law; and many have been or are general counsel for corporations. Over 25 of our attorneys are former Assistant United States Attorneys, including the former Los Angeles United States Attorney. Three of our partners have worked in the White House: two for Democrats, one for Republicans.
Trial Lawyers, Not Paper Litigators; Why Trial Lawyers Are Also Best for Settlement: Trying cases is a key element of our firm culture. Trials are zero sum games – they are no place for beginners. We try more major business cases than any other law firm. At least once each year, we are in a trial or an arbitration pursuing or defending against a claim for over $1 billion in damages. Many of our partners are very highly experienced trial lawyers, having tried dozens of cases to verdict. Seven have taught trial advocacy. We do not believe the same level of jury trial experience can be found at any other business law firm. Our trial experience is an obvious advantage in the courtroom, and is important both for the relatively rare case which must be tried and for the cases which settle. Plaintiffs’ lawyers know we will not hesitate to go to trial and know what we can do in a courtroom. Our well-known ability to try cases diminishes the lawsuit “hold up” factor and causes adversaries to re-think their demands. We believe that our firm can get better settlements because of our credibility as trial lawyers.
McDermott Will & Emery partners with leaders around the world to fuel missions, knock down barriers and shape markets. With more than 20 locations on three continents, the team works seamlessly across practices, industries and geographies to deliver highly effective – and often unexpected – solutions that propel success.
Key capabilities:
Litigation and Dispute Resolution: Our litigation and dispute resolution lawyers are dedicated to providing passionate client advocacy through superior trial skills and incisive industry knowledge. Our litigation lawyers collaborate with colleagues across the Firm, to bring our clients fully developed solutions that make meaningful progress toward their business goals, in and out of the courtroom.
White Collar: Our white-collar team has tried hundreds of cases in courts throughout the United States and internationally, and draws on the unmatched insights of our lawyers who previously served as senior federal prosecutors. We are able to assemble strong, lean teams of seasoned legal counsel, to spot—and mitigate—potential compliance risks, respond quickly to government investigations and provide world-class defense in qui tam actions, criminal charges and parallel proceedings.
Antitrust Litigation: We provide effective, coordinated counsel on US antitrust law, EC competition law, China’s Anti-Monopoly Law and other competition regimes worldwide to help our clients eliminate roadblocks and achieve business goals. Our top-ranked lawyers are deeply familiar with all major US and international regulatory frameworks and dispute-resolution forums. We assist clients with challenges resulting from increasing antitrust activity, cross-jurisdictional government investigations and private litigation.
Intellectual Property Litigation: For business leaders leveraging intellectual property to drive growth or defend market position, we are your secret weapon in the boardroom and the courtroom. We help you respond quickly to changing market dynamics with actionable recommendations designed to capitalize on opportunity and mitigate risk. We work to uncover value at every stage of the IP lifecycle and we marry our business savvy, technical acumen and personal passion to help you benefit from it.
Employment: Pairing deep resources with broad geographic coverage, we meet the rapidly evolving needs of employers in virtually every sector, delivering a complete legal offering covering the full spectrum of employment and labor issues. We help develop and implement effective employment policies, defend clients in government investigations and compliance audits, and bring first-chair trial skills when defending employers in courts around the world.
Our team engages in every aspect of civil, regulatory and commercial defence litigation, including:
Updated Sep 2021