Massachusetts

Firm overview

Firm overview

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:

• In re BP plc Sec. Litigation, No. 4:10-md-02185 (S.D. Tex.) The firm recovered $175 million on behalf of the class—one of just four mega securities class action settlements in 2017 (settlements of $100 million or more), according to Cornerstone Research—in this hard-fought litigation on behalf of shareholders of BP American Depository Shares arising out of BP's Deepwater Horizon explosion, one of the worst oil spills in history. Class members who submitted claims received approximately 115% of their recoverable losses.
• California Public Employees' Retirement System v. Moody's Corp., No. CGC-09-490241 (Cal. Super. Ct. San Francisco Cty.) As sole counsel, the firm recovered $255 million from Moody's and Standard and Poor's entities in this landmark individual action on behalf of the California Public Employees' Retirement System in this individual action alleging negligent misrepresentations in connection with rating three structured investment vehicles.
• In re Fannie Mae 2008 Sec. Litigation, No. 08-cv-07831 (PAC) (S.D.N.Y.) Representing co-lead plaintiff Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board, the firm resolved claims for $170 million alleging that Fannie Mae failed to disclose (i) growing exposure to high-risk mortgages as well as (ii) problems with the company's risk controls, both of which led to federal conservatorship in 2008.
• In re IndyMac Mortgage-Backed Sec. Litigation, No. 1:09-cv-04583 (LAK) (S.D.N.Y.) As lead counsel, the firm recovered $346 million on behalf of the class against investment-bank underwriters and officers, which was one of the largest mortgage-backed-securities class action settlements to date and the largest paid by underwriter defendants.

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:

• In re Lithium Ion Batteries Antitrust Litigation, No. 13-md-02420-YGR (N.D. Cal.) Berman Tabacco was co-lead counsel for the class of direct purchasers of lithium-ion rechargeable batteries in a class action alleging that defendant manufacturers participated in a conspiracy in violation of federal antitrust laws to fix the prices of lithium-ion rechargeable batteries (which are commonly used in devices such as notebook computers, cell phones, and digital cameras). The firm successfully negotiated settlements totaling $139.3 million, which was approved in May 2018.
• Laydon v. Mizuho Bank, Ltd., No. 1:12-cv-03419 (GBD) (S.D.N.Y.) & Sonterra Capital Master Fund, Ltd. v. UBS AG, No. 1:15-cv-05844 (GBD) (S.D.N.Y.) Berman Tabacco is counsel for plaintiffs representing two large public pension funds in actions alleging that bank traders and their affiliates colluded in violation of antitrust laws to manipulate the Euroyen TIBOR and Yen LIBOR rates—benchmark rates used to determine interest rates and to price Japanese Yen-based financial instruments. As of August 2021, partial settlements totaling $307 million have been achieved and approved by the court.
• Sullivan v. Barclays PLC, et al., No. 13-cv-02811 (PKC) (S.D.N.Y.) Berman Tabacco represents a public pension fund in a class action that it joined as named plaintiff, which alleges that over a dozen major banks colluded in violation of the antitrust laws to manipulate the EURIBOR, a global reference rate used to benchmark and price over $200 trillion of financial products. As of August 2021, partial settlements totaling $491.5 million have been achieved and approved by the court.

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

Firm overview

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.

Firm overview

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:

• Accountant Defense
• Appellate Law
• Antitrust Litigation
• Class Action
• Commercial Litigation
• Employment Litigation
• ERISA Litigation
• Insurance Litigation & Counseling
• Intellectual Property Litigation
• International Arbitration
• Privacy Litigation & Governmental Investigations
• Product Defense
• Securities Litigation
• Trade Secrets Litigation
• Trust & Estates Controversy

Updated Sep 2021