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 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 12/31/2021). 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 18 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 Sep 2022
McDermott Will & Emery partners with leaders around the world to fuel missions, knock down barriers and shape markets. Our team works seamlessly across practices and industries to deliver highly effective solutions that propel success. More than 1,200 lawyers strong, we bring our personal passion and legal prowess to bear in every matter for our clients and the people they serve.
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 Oct 2022
Mintz is a leading national law firm with more than 500 diverse and talented attorneys working to provide our clients with unmatched legal advice in the global market’s most competitive industries. Ours is a firm built on excellence and driven by change. We create breakthrough legal strategies that help clients solve problems and forge ahead. Through a combination of legal and business insights, we have continuously helped our clients navigate shifting challenges, comply with evolving regulations and compete in emerging markets.
To ensure our clients continue to see excellent results, we emphasize talent retention through the mentorship of our world class associates and a commitment to a diverse and inclusive culture. As such, we are able to integrate a full spectrum of viewpoints into all that we do, recognizing that a range of perspectives drives the best legal solutions.
We have one of the largest and most distinguished litigation practices nationwide, with a deep bench of trial lawyers and regulatory experts who cover all aspects of complex business litigation. Our attorneys approach problems with an aggressive drive and a strong sense of doing what’s best for the client. While our litigators are experienced trial lawyers who are fully prepared to take every case to trial, we keep a singular focus on the client’s business objectives in every case to make sure that the litigation strategy will help achieve those objectives, and employ tactics designed to achieve successful, early resolutions of cases wherever possible.
Central to our approach is immersing ourselves in our client’s business and tackling problems as if they were our own. We strive to be the leading legal counsel in our client’s industries — dedicating ourselves to developing the canny, insider insight needed to create successful, nimble strategies. Clients trust us with their most complex litigation issues because we approach problems with the understanding that each business has its unique challenges and characteristics. As litigators, we work closely with our colleagues in other disciplines to advise on key legal and industry matters that can impact a client’s dispute resolution. This collaborative, holistic approach allows us to ensure that we are leaving no stone unturned when it comes to crafting the best strategy for our clients’ businesses.
At Mintz, we understand that litigation is our business, not our client’s and that with each new engagement we must work to earn our reputation for excellence. Our top tier team of attorneys focuses on delivering prompt, high quality resolutions for our clients so that they can continue to compete above the rest, today and down the road.
Updated Sep 2022
We are 800+ 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; New York Deputy Attorney General; the Corporation Counsel of the City of New York; and 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:
Secured the historic Plan of Adjustment, filed by the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico, on behalf of the Commonwealth of Puerto Ricoand other entities, which was confirmed by U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain. This first territorial debt restructuring in the history of the United States is a critical victory for Puerto Rico as it puts an end to its almost five-year bankruptcy, cut billions in debt, fixes a broken pension system and returns the Commonwealth to balanced budgets. Although several objecting parties have appealed the confirmation order, the Oversight Board has already successfully defeated one such appeal, and the others are currently pending. Notably, the restructuring and all related litigation took place under a brand new statute the U.S. Congress designed for Puerto Rico.
Secured a landmark victory for Monsanto and its parent company Bayer in a case brought by a woman claiming that use of the herbicide Roundup caused her non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. A California jury rejected the claims, returning a defense verdict on all counts. The San Bernardino County jury concluded not only that Roundup did not cause Mrs. Stephens’s cancer, but that Roundup performs safely and does not pose a cancer risk. This defense verdict on “general causation” was the first of its kind in Roundup litigation.
Lead counsel to Miramax in a path-breaking lawsuit filed against director Quentin Tarantino on allegations of intellectual property infringement and breach of contract in connection with Tarantino’s offering of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) relating to the Miramax film Pulp Fiction. The case is one of the first of its kind relating to NFTs.
Lead trial counsel for Monsanto in a five-week, multi-plaintiff trial for Monsanto in St. Louis, Missouri, alleging that use of the herbicide Roundup caused the three plaintiffs’ non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The jury rejected plaintiffs’ claims entirely, returning a defense verdict on all counts in under three hours.
Lead trial counsel for Gilead Sciences in various 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 drugs were defectively designed and failed adequately to warn about the increased risk of potential kidney disease and bone injury that could result from use of its highly effective and FDA-approved HIV medications.
Lead counsel for the National Football League in actions filed by apparel distributors and NFL merchandise purchasers in federal court in New York alleging that the NFL’s agreements with Fanatics, Inc., a manufacturer, supplier and distributor of licensed sportswear and merchandise, violate state and federal antitrust laws.
Lead counsel for Shamrock Capital Advisors, LLC and related entities in connection with pending claims brought by the founders and early employees of FanDuel against Shamrock and other private equity firm investors in New York state court alleging that FanDuel’s merger with European bookmaker Paddy Power Betfair improperly diluted the plaintiffs’ interests in FanDuel prior to the company’s multi-billion dollar valuation.
Defense of MLS against a federal lawsuit brought by the North American Soccer League against MLS and the US Soccer Federation following US 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.
Representation of Wayne-Sanderson 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.
Representation of ATP Tour and WTA Tour on:
Updated Sep 2022