Since its 2017 formation, DiCello Levitt has emerged as one the most expansive and diverse plaintiff shops. Foregoing a linear path devoted entirely to one practice area more typically seen at other plaintiff firms, DiCello manages a portfolio of cases dedicated to a host of novel issues without sacrificing quality control. “One thing that impresses me about DiCello is that they take on more than many other plaintiff firms would, but they do this well and they avoid the ‘BS’ cases,” observes a peer. “I won’t mention any names but other firms who take this approach and wind up bringing a bunch of weak junk that is embarrassing to the plaintiff bar. DiCello doesn’t do this – they are very analytical about the cases they work up.” With offices in New York, Chicago, Birmingham, Cleveland, and Washington DC, DiCello Levitt may bear the formal features of a boutique, but its team of litigators continues to outpace the competition in its weight class year after year.
The firm recently made a push in the antitrust area, with the auspicious addition of New York’s Greg Asciolla to the firm from plaintiff shop Labaton Sucharow, which made a strategic decision to return to its core areas of securities class actions. “Those are some good people they got,” observes one contemporary, “and those antitrust people are getting a more supportive platform here than they got [at their former firm].” Asciolla leads a firm team that, acting with several other firms, filed a landmark antitrust case on behalf of a class of players and associations against several US and Canadian hockey leagues, aimed at exposing what plaintiffs allege to be egregiously anticompetitive collusion that targets teenage hockey players across North America. Specifically, the plaintiffs allege that the leagues conspired to restrain competition for players, rendering them nothing more than the property of the major junior teams that draft them, and compensate those players at artificially suppressed, noncompetitive levels.
Firm mainstays and founding partners Adam Levitt of Chicago and Cleveland’s Mark DiCello continue to serve in pivotal roles. Levitt, a complex commercial and securities specialist, is identified by a client as “exceptionally bright and creative.” The same client also notes that, “He gets along well with people and is committed to the highest ethical standards. His work is first rate.” Levitt’s practice focuses on complex multidistrict commercial matters, public client representation, and class-action representation across several industries. DiCello, on the other hand, is recognized for his personal injury and mass tort expertise. Levitt represented certified and proposed statewide classes of vehicle owners who purchased GM SUVs with defective V8 5.3-liter engines that allegedly consume an excessive amount of oil, resulting in engine damage and malfunction. Despite having long known of the oil consumption defect, GM failed to disclose it to purchasers and lessees and has refused to offer an effective repair. By so doing, GM has breached its warranties, committed fraud, and violated state consumer protection laws. Levitt has filed 12 class-action lawsuits on behalf of purchasers and lessees of GM vehicles with the defective 5.3-liter engines. In the Northern District of California, Levitt successfully moved for certification of Idaho, California, and North Carolina classes, achieving a $102.6 million verdict for those three states in October 2022. In another automotive-related action, Levitt represents plaintiffs who allege that the Nissan vehicles, including Rogue and Rogue Sport, have defective emergency braking systems that are prone to sudden, unintended brake activation when there are no hazardous objects in the vehicles’ path, posing a substantial risk. After overcoming a September 2022 motion to dismiss, Levitt and his team triumphed in securing class certification in 10 states in March 2023.
In Chicago, Amy Keller serves as DiCello Levitt’s privacy, technology, and cybersecurity practice chair, her focuses accordingly lying in data security and consumer privacy matters. Keller, along with Levitt, worked as one of the teams acting on behalf of more than 300 million customers who were impacted by a data breach announced by Marriott Hotels in 2018, resulting in dozens of nationwide class action lawsuit filings across the US. The plaintiffs’ successful 2022 certification of the case was overturned on appeal before finally being recertified in November 2023. Keller made her fourth consecutive appearance as one of Benchmark’s Top 250 Women in Litigation this year, an accomplishment all the more impressive due to her being considered one of the youngest nominees.
In the firm’s Birmingham office, Diandra “Fu” Debrosse took infant formula entities Abbott and Mead Johnson to task, representing a class of families who suffered premature infant births owing to the defendants’ formulas greatly increasing the risk of a severe gastrointestinal disorder that causes intestinal tissue death and can be fatal. Debrosse also led the filing of the first three lawsuits in the US alleging that long-term exposure to hair relaxers made by Revlon, L’Oréal, and others causes uterine cancer and other significant health problems. In November 2023, the court materially denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss and granted the plaintiffs the ability to continue prosecuting this multidistrict litigation.
