Illinois

Firm overview

History: Pomerantz is the oldest law firm in the world dedicated to championing investor rights. Founded in 1936 by Abraham Pomerantz, the Firm’s work during the Great Depression to hold corporations accountable helped secure the rights of investors to bring class actions and derivative suits. Today the Firm’s global clients include more than 100 of the most influential public pension funds, asset managers, and private institutions. Honoring its founder’s legacy, the Firm continues to fight for defrauded shareholders while expanding the rights of global investors and championing transparent markets and good corporate governance.

Securities Litigation: Over the past eight decades the Firm has recovered billions of dollars for defrauded investors, with many settlements achieving new records. Notable matters include:

• A $3 billion settlement in litigation against Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras, involving an alleged decades-long corruption scheme that ensnared multiple former Brazilian presidents, among many others. The recovery stands as the fifth-largest securities class action settlement ever achieved in the United States (In re Petrobras Securities Litigation).
• A $225 million recovery for the Class in a suit against Comverse Technology, Inc., the second-largest recovery involving the backdating of stock options (In re Comverse Technology, Inc. Securities Litigation).
• A $110 million settlement with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. that opened new avenues for discovery in securities litigation (Pirnik v. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V., et al.).
• A $74 million settlement for investors in Arconic, whose insulation panels were implicated in the June 2017 fire at Grenfell Tower in London (Howard v. Arconic et al.).

A Tradition of Innovation: Pomerantz is a recognized leader in developing novel legal theories to address the evolving juridical, social, and corporate landscape. For example, the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Morrison v. National Australia Bank, Ltd (2010) barred investors in foreign securities from using U.S. courts to seek recovery. In the years since, Pomerantz has worked to win back these rights on behalf of investors. In a series of individual cases arising out of the 2010 BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Pomerantz convinced the court to allow, for the very first time post-Morrison, both U.S. and foreign investors seeking recovery for losses in a foreign company’s foreign-traded securities to do so in a U.S. court. In a securities class action against the global pharmaceutical company Perrigo Co., the Firm’s ground-breaking legal arguments led the U.S. court, for the first time since the Morrison decision, to certify a foreign purchaser class. Both decisions have significant precedential value, expanding the options available for domestic and foreign investors seeking recovery in cases of securities fraud.

Portfolio Monitoring: PomTrack®, the Firm’s proprietary portfolio monitoring system, tracks and evaluates suspicious market activity, as well as securities and antitrust class actions and settlements, covering both domestic and international events. This system empowers investment plan fiduciaries to fulfill their duty to preserve investments by quickly identifying fund losses that may have been caused by financial misconduct. Comprising attorneys, forensic economists, damages analysts, paralegals, and support staff, the PomTrack® team monitors assets valued at over $9 trillion, making it one of the largest systems of its kind in the U.S. 

ESG: Pomerantz partners are pioneering securities litigation as a means to address 21st century ESG concerns. The Firm achieved a settlement with Deutsche Bank AG that recoups nearly 50% of estimated damages for investors in a case alleging that the bank failed to adhere to its own due diligence policies for certain high-worth clients, including convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Pomerantz also recently won class certification in its case against Wynn Resorts Ltd., which alleges that former CEO Steve Wynn engaged in egregious sexual misconduct against the company’s female employees, while the company and its directors simultaneously covered up his behavior, assuring investors of the company’s commitment to high ethical standards. 

Corporate Governance: In addition to addressing corporate governance via securities litigation, the Firm’s Corporate Governance Practice Group has achieved significant corporate governance reform at numerous major corporations through shareholder derivative lawsuits. Areas of interest include workers’ health and safety, environmental compliance, pay and gender equity, excess executive compensation, and addressing corporate transactions that result in an unfair price for shareholders. 

Education: Pomerantz partners frequently speak on corporate governance at conferences around the world, and the Firm regularly hosts Corporate Governance Roundtables for institutional investors. The Firm also publishes The Pomerantz Monitor, a bi-monthly journal of attorney-authored articles on securities litigation, corporate governance, and related regulatory and government policies. 

Updated Sep 2023

Firm overview

Who We Are: BFKN was founded in 1984 with a vision focused on delivering efficient team-oriented services of the highest quality. The firm has continued to focus on this vision and has grown and evolved into a sophisticated, first-class legal practice with a diverse client roster of national and international clients. We’ve accomplished this by practicing law in a different way. Our strategic vision is to continue growing organically by helping our clients succeed, by constantly evaluating and implementing ways to better serve our clients, and by recruiting the highest caliber of diverse talent. Our growth has been steady and measured and we’ve chartered our own unique path to success which is different than any other firm.

BFKN has more than 120 attorneys in ten practice groups. BFKN regularly serves a wide array of industries, but has particular experience serving: Luxury, Financial Services & Fintech, Manufacturing & Distribution, Motor Vehicle, Private Equity & Venture Capital, and Real Estate.

BFKN represents a wide array of clients, from start-ups to Fortune 50 corporations across all industries. Our clients are sophisticated and located across the globe, from the Midwest to the East and West coasts to Europe and Asia. Our firm is lucky to have nurtured several generational client relationships, where we have served as outside counsel to those clients for many decades and have grown with them through changes, challenges, and triumphs. We also have a mix of new generation clients that appreciate our creative and customized approach to representation.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: BFKN is committed to the establishment, maintenance, and growth of a culture where diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are respected and intentionally valued by implementing initiatives and programs that will foster collaboration and accountability. We strive to attract the most qualified professionals from all backgrounds, perspectives, and abilities and to create a rewarding and fulfilling environment in which our people feel valued and appreciated and can grow and advance their careers. BFKN’s DEI Committee oversees equitable reviews of the firm’s policies and procedures, its accreditation into and implementation of the Midsized Mansfield Rule program, diversity, equity and inclusion training, and holistic recruiting procedures on an ongoing and forward-looking basis.

BFKN is proud to have achieved Midsize Mansfield Rule Certification Plus in 2023 and 2024. The Mansfield Rule, an initiative from Diversity Lab, measures the achievement of certain structural metrics designed to better ensure our paths to leadership – including lateral hiring, client pitch teams, promotions, and appointments – are open and transparent to all qualified attorneys. BFKN remains dedicated to broadening our networks for recruiting highly-qualified candidates from groups that have been historically underrepresented in the legal profession.

Litigation: Our firm has assembled a group of highly skilled trial lawyers – seasoned partners and well-trained associates – who represent clients both forcefully and efficiently. Unlike some litigators, who spend years engaging in expensive discovery only to recommend settlement on the eve of trial, we are always ready to try cases when necessary, but strive to achieve business resolutions early and economically when appropriate.

BFKN is a mid-sized firm that handles many of our clients’ most significant matters. We take pride in our efficient approach to dispute resolution. Even for the biggest matters, our litigation teams are lean, typically comprised of experienced partners and small numbers of associates and paralegals who can manage large amounts of data by leveraging our in-house discovery technology. A litigation team is assembled for each assignment based on the skill and experience required for that engagement.

We represent a diverse group of businesses in resolving these disputes, ranging from the world’s largest luxury goods company to large financial institutions, major telecommunications service providers, REITs, motor vehicle manufacturers, hedge funds, law firms, and consumer goods companies.

Our litigators have extensive experience in state and federal courts throughout the United States, at both the trial and appellate levels. We understand that we are asked to help resolve business problems, and we recognize that a trial is only one potential solution.

Because our clients’ success often rests on our ability to design thoughtful, cost-effective solutions to complex scenarios, a significant part of our time is focused on strategic counseling and alternative dispute resolution.

Alternative Dispute Resolution: Members of our group are experienced in a broad range of alternative dispute resolution techniques, including mediations, binding and non-binding arbitrations, mini-trials, and settlement trials with floors and caps.

Counseling: The Litigation Group also has extensive experience in strategic counseling designed to minimize the likelihood of litigation or reduce the exposure to litigation when potential problems arise. For engagements requiring a certain legal or industry focus, we assemble strong interdisciplinary teams designed to leverage the talents of attorneys in other practice areas. BFKN’s Litigation Group is often involved in complex corporate and real estate disputes that benefit from the comprehensive experience of our corporate, real estate, and bankruptcy attorneys. Such a cross-functional approach has proved successful in resolving controversies ranging from dissenting shareholders’ rights disputes to take-over litigation.

Firm overview

Bartlit Beck has achieved an unparalleled record of success in complex litigation.

The firm is renowned for delivering extraordinary results to clients in difficult situations. Our successes include trial wins, victories on motions and appeals, and creative settlements across the gamut of commercial litigation, including intellectual property, breach of contract, product liability, antitrust, and shareholder disputes.

As a result of the firm’s success at trial, Bartlit Beck was named 2020 Trial Firm of the Year by Benchmark and was identified as one of the top nine firms in the United States for “striking the utmost fear into the hearts of seasoned General Counsel and legal decision makers” in a survey conducted by consulting firm BTI of 350 in-house leaders.

The average Bartlit Beck lawyer has more than 18 years of experience and has participated in multiple high-stakes trials. This is a product of our unique structure in which more than three-quarters of our lawyers are experienced partners and fewer than a quarter are associates. Thus, each case team is comprised mainly of experienced partners.

Our trial experience informs our overall approach: we focus on the key facts and issues that will drive the outcome, we make complex things simple, we win by showing the evidence rather than telling why we should win, we use demonstratives to boil down the key concepts to a few memorable images, and we establish ourselves as the reliable source of information.

Our lawyers intensely focus on a small number of cases at a time, allowing each team member to have command of the entire case. We believe our approach ensures better quality and results for our clients because each team member has a thorough understanding of the client’s goals and the path to success.

Our success is also due to the way we align our clients’ interests with our own. Our fixed and success-based fee structure is designed to eliminate the usual and often conflicting incentives present in the traditional hourly billing model.

We have extensive experience partnering with other law firms and service providers as part of a “virtual law firm.” Our highly collaborative approach means that we view in-house counsel and co-counsel as invaluable members of the team.

The information contained herein is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice or a substitute for legal counsel. Please contact any of our lawyers using the contact information found at  bartlitbeck.com

Content may include attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Firm overview

DiCello Levitt was founded in 2017 as a new kind of law firm—one that is organized around the basic premise that everyone at the firm is a vital team member with a voice and talents that add value in any situation. Boasting best-in-class teams across a wide array of practice areas, DiCello Levitt cultivates a diverse roster of skilled litigators to advance the cause of justice for individuals, businesses, and government clients through class action, business-to-business, public client, whistleblower, personal injury, civil rights, and mass tort litigation.

The firm’s attorneys are highly respected for their ability to litigate and win cases, resulting in billions of dollars in recoveries for their clients and other class members. They are regularly appointed to leadership positions in headline-grabbing, high-stakes cases, including groundbreaking climate change litigation, some of the largest environmental contamination cases of our time, landmark privacy and data breach cases, some of the most significant private antitrust litigation over the past several decades, and numerous historic product liability multidistrict litigations.

Composing some of the most diverse leadership teams in multidistrict litigation history, DiCello Levitt’s attorneys continually achieve landmark victories across the firm’s practice areas, earning accolades and recognition for their innovative approaches to complex matters and tireless advocacy on behalf of their clients. Built on a strong foundation of integrity and experience and driven by results, DiCello Levitt has helped raise the bar for corporate conduct, governmental responsibility, and civil and human rights, paving the way for a more just and equitable world.

Venture Partners With Clients

DiCello Levitt has forged a reputation for success in complex litigation and arbitration, and the firm delivers results in innovative ways by venturing cases with its clients as partners, aligning its collective interests and enhancing its clients’ management of litigation risk. Because of these close venture partnerships, the firm’s clients are confident that DiCello Levitt will pursue their matters with unmatched tenacity and assess their mission-critical needs as the firm would for its own business. In case analysis and preparation, DiCello Levitt focuses on the end result—a successful settlement or trial verdict. The firm’s singular focus delivers cohesive and compelling thematic and evidentiary foundations. DiCello Levitt doesn’t use a set playbook; rather, its attorneys adapt their broad toolkit to each client’s unique goals and needs. Correspondingly, the firm’s flexible billing arrangements demonstrate its commitment to every client’s particular circumstances, creating opportunities to litigate the most challenging of cases to a successful resolution.

Innovation in Trial Science

Through its trial-first approach, DiCello Levitt crafts practical and effective legal and business solutions for its clients. At the heart of that approach is the DiCello Levitt Trial Center.

The Trial Center is founded on a proprietary, scientific system that reveals the nuances of a jury’s mindset and enables the pursuit of truth with clear insights into what persuades, connects, and wins. The center’s seasoned team leads high-stakes trials for clients, wielding the firm’s advanced strategies to gain an edge over adversaries who cling to traditional trial methods. The Trial Center team also trains lawyers to achieve a higher-level performance in their trial strategies, case preparation, and courtroom presentations.

DiCello Levitt has led more than 500 focus groups in the last ten years, including comprehensive studies about a myriad of issues. The Trial Center’s attorneys are among the nation’s most sought-after trial lawyers because of their knowledge of and experience in the art and science of modern courtroom advocacy. They are frequently called on to teach workshops and speak about the art of courtroom messaging and the neuroscience of communication to help other attorneys develop and shape how they convey critical concepts to judges and juries.

The insights and strategies that DiCello Levitt has developed through the Trial Center have materially enhanced the firm’s productivity and effectiveness. By researching and testing the biases, schemas, and prejudices of thousands of mock jurors, DiCello Levitt attorneys have sculpted their arguments to achieve successful outcomes in litigations concerning AndroGel, General Motors engine defects, and a host of other matters, including an opiate overprescription case, police misconduct litigation, and the largest individual civil rights verdict in U.S. history. This hard work resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements—and that doesn’t even account for the Trial Center’s contributions to victories by other firms across the United States.

Taken as a whole, the Trial Center’s success, support, and research efforts continue to set DiCello Levitt apart as a truly unique and cutting-edge firm.

Steadfast Consumer Advocates

DiCello Levitt has a strong reputation as one of the foremost consumer advocacy firms in the country, having secured more than $20 billion in recoveries since our founding. The firm’s attorneys have successfully led—and are presently leading—many large class actions and other multidistrict litigations, including against industry titans such as Abbott Laboratories, Apple, BNY Mellon, Coca-Cola, Ford, Equifax, General Motors, Google, Honda, Intel, JP Morgan, L’Oréal, Marriott, and Meta, and they represent businesses and investors in litigation and arbitration in multiple courts across the United States and internationally. In addition to their extensive expertise in matters including product liability, financial services, environmental law, biotechnology, and cybersecurity, DiCello Levitt’s attorneys have decades of experience representing plaintiffs in cases involving defective products, unfair competition, insurance fraud, faulty pharmaceuticals and medical devices, and other instances of corporate misconduct.

Areas of Practice

• Agriculture and Biotechnology
• Antitrust and Competition Litigation
• Civil and Human Rights Litigation
• Class Action Litigation
• Commercial Litigation
• Environmental Litigation
• Labor and Employment Litigation
• Mass Tort Litigation
• Personal Injury
• Privacy, Technology, and Cybersecurity
• Product Liability
• Public Client
• Securities and Financial Products Litigation
• Whistleblower Representation

Updated Sep 2024