Benchmark Litigation

Ohio

Review

Dispute resolution
Benesch

With offices in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Wilmington and multiple offices in Ohio, Benesch is a firm known for representing companies in high-stakes, complex commercial disputes. Referencing  the firm’s expansion of its bench in and beyond the Cleveland and Columbus markets, one peer confirms, “They’ve been growing.”  

 

Benesch’s litigation practice group has increased by nearly 40% over the last five years with services that include class action, private equity, product liability, securities, real estate, energy, and intellectual property litigation.  

 

In the Cleveland office, Gregory Phillips litigates complex business and commercial cases for companies and individuals. He is the lead attorney representing IMG Worldwide, a global sports, fashion, events, and media company. IMG has been Arnold Palmer’s agent since 1960 and in that capacity received commissions on licensing deals it had negotiated for him. After Palmer’s death, IMG stopped receiving the commissions on the licensing revenue streams it procured. The case is ongoing. 

 

Also in Cleveland, Eric Zalud focuses his practice primarily upon commercial litigation, transportation, logistics, and e-commerce. He is co-chair of the firm’s transportation and logistics practice group. One of his clients describes him as “extremely competent” in commercial litigation. Zalud represents Cargill, a processor and manufacturer of food products, in a motor vehicle accident case pending in Cook County, Illinois. Cargill was not involved in the motor vehicle accident, but was the manufacturer of the cargo that was being transported by a separate trucking company. The plaintiffs filed a complaint of negligence against Cargill for the loading of the cargo. The team won an early summary judgment, but the case remains ongoing.

 

In Chicago, David Rammelt focuses his trial practice on complex business litigation, class actions, intellectual property, and sports litigation. He leads the team in defending SmileDirectClub, a telehealth company, in a lawsuit alleging false advertising and fraud. The case remains pending and is being actively litigated.

 

Nicholas Secco serves as chair of the trial group and maintains an active litigation practice. In a high-profile, multiphase case, he defended Gould Electronics, which operated a lead smelter outside of Los Angeles. The State of California seeks cleanup costs for the former battery recycling smelter in east Los Angeles as well as for 8,000 to 10,000 residential properties within a 1.7-mile radius of the plant. Secco successfully disputed the impact zone of airborne lead, reducing Gould Electronics liability by roughly $800 million.

 

Also in Chicago,Scott Humphrey chairs the trade secrets, restrictive covenants, and unfair competition practice group. His recent practice has involved a large-scale trade secrets dispute for a nationwide insurance company.  

Ciano & Goldwasser

Cleveland litigation boutique Ciano & Goldwasser is a team of four attorneys well versed in handling a variety of health care, general commercial and personal injury matters. A client who hired the firm for a dispute resolution describes the partners as “good big-picture thinkers, clear communicators, diligent workers, [and] results-oriented,” all while operating in a timely manner. Phillip Ciano is name partner at the firm and is highly regarded for his work in sports law, representing player agents in baseball, basketball, football and golf. A new addition to this year’s list is Brent Silverman, who has over 20 years of experience in high stakes business litigation. Ciano and Silverman recently served as lead counsel for a sports agency in a dispute with another agency over a former employee’s use of contacts and business opportunities. Fellow name partner Andrew Goldwasser focuses his practice on complex civil litigation, focused on serious injury and wrongful death claims. In addition, Goldwasser also takes on a number of specialty torts involving a variety of irregular business disputes. Among his recent cases, Goldwasser is leading the team representing the estate of a late painter in a matter determining the rightful ownership of artwork.

DiCello Levitt

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.

Faruki PLL

Litigation boutique Faruki has an established presence in the Buckeye state, with two locations in Cincinnati and Dayton. In particular, the firm has a growing reputation for handling complex business litigation as well as contentious matters involving data privacy, cybersecurity, intellectual property, and class actions.
     Based in Dayton, Erin Rhinehart is a star practitioner and leads the firm’s media and communications practice. Rhinehart, who is also recognized in Benchmark Litigation’s 40 and Under Hot List, handles a variety of disputes regarding the First Amendment, defamation, intellectual property, in addition to defending a number of companies in class action suits at both the state and federal level. Notable clients of hers include Cox Media Group, Procter & Gamble, and Cargill. D Jeffrey Ireland also operates out of the firm’s Dayton office and has over 40 years of experience litigating complex business disputes in Ohio as well as across the country. Ireland, who serves as managing partner at the firm, worked alongside Rhinehart in defending Procter & Gamble in a consumer class action case as well as another dispute involving breach of contract claims. Highly respected partner Jeffrey Cox has a comprehensive litigation practice that has recently focused on data privacy and intellectual property disputes. Among his recent matters, Cox represented Procter & Gamble in a patent infringement case the company brought against Coca-Cola regarding the chemical composition of its beverage products. In addition, Cox defended British information conglomerate Reed Elsevier in front of the Federal Trade Commission in an investigation involving federal data protection compliance. 

Thompson Hine

A full-service law firm, Thompson Hine is equipped with a team of litigators routinely sought out by clients to handle their most complex product liability and business disputes. The firm has offices in Los Angeles, Georgia, Illinois, Washington DC, and New York, along with multiple offices in Ohio. A client describes the firm’s bench of litigators as “subject-matter experts who provide extremely responsive communication, client services, and trial advocacy.”

That same client also shares praise for Atlanta-based partner Marla Butler. “Marla is a superb strategist and partner to our company,” notes the client. “She and her team work harder, smarter, and more efficiently than most other firms I deal with. Marla has a mastery of IP law and related issues, and she is a delight to deal with. Marla is humble, open to creative ways of solving problems, and is an authentically terrific person.”

Cleveland-based product liability specialist Elizabeth ‘Missy’ Wright is national counsel for a major manufacturer across the country. Timothy Coughlin is a fellow Cleveland partner who chairs the mass & toxic tort group and leads the chemical industry group. In a recent case, he was called upon to use his industry knowledge in developing expert opinions. He is the lead trial counsel for several chemical companies.

William Hubbard focuses on the construction industry, representing a wide variety of clients including owners, contractors, architects, engineers, and construction managers. His practice includes representing property owners in mass-tort and class-action litigation, as well as litigation involving allegations of exposure to chemicals or environmental contamination.

Dayton-based Christine Haaker serves as the vice-chair of the group for the office. Haaker has served as defense counsel to several high-profile entities in numerous business disputes. Anthony White serves on the Executive Committee while maintaining a practice involving class actions, most notably on behalf of a freight transportation company. He has recently been named the firm’s managing partner.

In the group’s DC office, Eric Heyer has emerged as one of the office’s leading litigators with expertise in the growing nicotine vaping industry. He has petitions pending before the US Supreme Court. Heyer advises clients on compliance and enforcement issues, contractual and transactional matters, and intellectual property issues.

Scott Young advises employers on labor and employment law, counseling on claims of employment discrimination, wrongful discharge, harassment, whistleblower retaliation, non-compete agreements, and breach of contracts. He is the lead attorney defending AEP Generation Resources, an electric-power company in a complaint by plaintiffs alleging negligence over an alleged defective forklift.

UB Greensfelder

Ulmer & Berne is one of Ohio’s powerhouse boutiques, spanning the state with a network of offices in Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Columbus. The firm is highly regarded for its expertise in the financial services industry. Clients have expressed their appreciation for the firm’s deep focus, describing the team as “extremely knowledgeable.” In addition to business disputes, the firm is equipped with litigators well established in employment-related litigation, as clients note them for being “excellent counsel on restrictive covenants and business litigation.”

     A member of the elite list of Top 100 Trial Lawyers and chair of the firm’s litigation group, Michael Ungar is one of the backbones of the firm’s business litigation practice. He is an all-purpose business and commercial trial lawyer, well known for representing financial institutions, among others. He is lead partner in a shareholder arbitration alleging breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty claims. Cleveland’s Frances Floriano Goins serves as co-leader of the firm’s financial services and securities group, as well as the dedicated cybersecurity and privacy group. She continues to defend the Trustee of certain revenue bonds, Huntington National Bank, in a dispute related to the operation and ownership of a parking garage whose revenues contributed to servicing the bonds. The plaintiffs asserted 22-counts in their First Amended Complaint, naming eight Defendents, and seeking roughly $8 million in damages, fees, and expenses. The plaintiffs have also sought declaratory judgment on the rights of the Trustee, which Floriano Goins prevailed against on a successful motion for judgment on the pleadings in February 2022. Amanda Martinsek serves clients in the private and public sector. She has previously represented school districts, as well as counties, in litigation. She was brought in to represent county commissioners in a dispute with a city’s Board of Education after the County imposed tax increment financing for districts. Cincinnati-based partner Jeffrey Peck is a product liability specialist recently involved in matters related to the high-profile opioid litigation. He serves as lead national counsel on numerous cases, including state and federal multidistrict litigations. Peck is handling the pleadings, motion practice, and written and deposition discovery Elevated to the status of Litigation Star this year, Patrick “PJ” Cosgrove serves as the firm’s product liability practice group leader. He serves as lead national counsel to a large pharmaceutical company in the multidistrict litigation styled In Re Zantac (Ranitidine) Products Liability Litigation. Vice-chair of the litigation section, Jeffrey Dunlap is the group’s go-to for employment-related Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitrations, as well as disputes before the American Arbitration Association (AAA). He defended one of the largest banks against a whistleblower retaliation claim filed under the Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank acts. After a successful OSHA investigation that the plaintiff appealed, the case was tried before the Department of Labor, which denied all claims and dismissed the case.