Skadden has long been a totem of excellence in the legal community as a full-service one-stop shop. “You appreciate their professionalism,” states an admiring contemporary. While the firm’s offerings are by no means restricted to litigation, the depth and coverage of its dispute-resolution team has etched a status for the firm as one to be reckoned with. “There’s a good deal of diversity there – Skadden seems to do a little bit of everything, even though there are some areas for which they are better known.” The firm’s litigation roster, large and comprehensive already, proved itself to be in growth mode over the past year; Skadden made the strategic hire of
Manuel Cachán to its Los Angeles office. Cachán, a trial lawyer with a diverse commercial practice, has earned his stripes in several major product liability cases as of late, beating stiff odds and making headlines for these wins. A peer declares: “Manuel worked in tandem with [universally revered Proskauer trial lawyer] Bart Williams, getting excellent on-the-ground training in really hard cases, and has emerged as a top trial lawyer in his own right. He was a very good scoop for Skadden.” Another contemporary testifies: “I did a lot of work with him on Monsanto and I was very impressed. I would put him on any list [of trial lawyers.]” Cachán makes his debut on Benchmark’s Top 100 Trial Lawyers in America this year. Even prior to Cachán’s recruitment, Skadden boasted trial firepower in the product liability area, largely on the strength of DC’s
John Beisner and New York’s Allison Brown, the latter of whom has been “knocking it out of the park” for Johnson & Johnson, according to peers. “You don’t win that many of those talc cases unless you’re really good.”
One of the alluded-to practices for which Skadden has been most celebrated is securities.
Jay Kasner has long been a leading figure in this area and continues to be. A peer marvels, “Jay is still humming along strong! He still shows up and delivers the goods like someone half his age. I don’t know how he does it.” Perhaps more remarkably, Kasner has demonstrated his prowess with newer and more novel industries like cryptocurrency. He recently represented Coinbase, which was sued in March 2022 by plaintiffs who alleged that the company operates as an unregistered securities exchange because 79 digital assets traded on the platform are actually securities. The plaintiffs sought to rescind their transactions and to recover monetary damages, including the transaction fees they paid, as well to force Coinbase to register as a national securities exchange or broker-dealer. In February 2023, the claims were dismissed in their entirety, with prejudice.
While Kasner remains the firm’s most seasoned securities partner, others are quickly becoming the names of the next generation.
Scott Musoff has become particularly prominent in terms of visibility and activity. “Scott Musoff is awesome,” extols a peer. “[He’s the] nicest guy in the world, easy to work with, and still relatively young.” The duo of Kasner and Musoff represented BMW AG and certain of its current and former executives and directors in a securities class action concerning allegations regarding the client’s sales practices, which were under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for inflating the client’s North American sales figures. The Skadden pair eventually negotiated a payment of $1.75 million in exchange for releases and a denial of liability. Musoff also paired with Boston partner James Carroll to triumph on behalf of Intercept Pharmaceuticals and certain of its officers, securing the dismissal of all claims of a putative securities fraud class action in the Southern District of New York alleging that the company misled investors about its liver disease drug Ocaliva by making false and misleading statements about the drug’s safety, tolerability and performance.
Susan Saltzstein is also noted for a securities practice incorporating timely issues. A peer states: “I’m seeing a lot of
new 10b-5s securities class actions that are not your standard stock-drop cases and RMBS-type work from the 2008 era. These are more alleging that the company failed to disclose #MeToo issues at the management or executive level, issues with individuals that would clearly have a material impact on the company’s value. When these things go public and people demand scalps to be claimed, and those scalps are of the guys who publicly run the company…there are allegations of failure to have policies in place, proper compliance, etc. So, this is an interesting development. Plaintiffs are getting creative and really making hay with these kinds of claims, and I know Susan Saltzstein had a bunch of these cases in the defense role. She is perfect for them.”
Peers also insist that, “Skadden plays in the antitrust space pretty effectively.” DC’s
Steven Sunshine and New York’s Boris Bershteyn scored for Sabre against US Airways, who alleged that certain terms in a 2011 contract between the parties unreasonably restrained trade, and that Sabre engaged in unlawful monopolistic conduct. In April 2022, a three-week jury trial commenced in the Southern District of New York and in May, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Sabre and awarded US Airways only $1 in damages on the monopolization claim. Neither party is appealing the decision.
