Tennessee

Firm overview

Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP specializes in complex litigation representing plaintiffs in securities fraud, antitrust, breach of fiduciary duty, consumer fraud, and privacy cases. The Firm’s unparalleled experience and capabilities in these fields are based on the talents of its attorneys, who have successfully prosecuted thousands of class action lawsuits. Robbins Geller has achieved success across several different, entirely distinct practice areas in a way that few firms have in any one practice area– from antitrust to consumer protection to shareholder litigation.

The Firm is widely recognized as a leading law firm worldwide. Judges have described Robbins Geller as one of the most formidable securities law firms in the country. With 200 lawyers in 10 offices nationwide, the Firm has the resources, experience, and tenacity to achieve superior results.

The Firm’s attorneys have obtained many of the largest recoveries in history: the largest consumer class action recovery ($17+ billion in Volkswagen); the largest securities class action recovery ($7.2 billion in Enron); the largest antitrust class action recovery ($5.5 billion in Visa/Mastercard); the largest securities class action recovery following trial ($1.575 billion in HSBC/Household International); the largest pharmaceutical securities class action recovery ($1.21 billion in Valeant Pharmaceuticals); the largest cash recovery in a stockholder merger & acquisition case in the Delaware Court of Chancery ($1 billion in Dell Technologies); the largest stock option backdating recovery ($925 million in UnitedHealth Group); the largest securities fraud class action recovery in the Ninth Circuit in the last decade ($809.5 million in Twitter); the largest opt-out (non-class) securities action recovery ($657 million in WorldCom); the largest biometric class action settlement ($650 million in Facebook); the largest RMBS purchaser class action recovery ($500 million in Countrywide); and the largest personal contributions by individual defendants in a securities class action recovery ($237.5 million of $1.025 billion total recovery in American Realty Capital Properties).

Robbins Geller was named one of the top plaintiff firms in the United States by Institutional Shareholder Services Securities Class Action Services, recovering $1.36 billion for investors in securities-related class action settlements in 2023. The Firm topped the ISS SCAS rankings for total number of investor recoveries, with ten more investor recoveries in 2023 than the next ranked law firm.

Robbins Geller attorneys represent consumers around the country in a variety of important and unprecedented complex class actions. The Firm was one of the originators of the national opioid litigation, filing among the earliest complaints against the opioid industry defendants. Robbins Geller partners served in leadership positions on multiple multidistrict litigations related to the opioid crisis. The litigations have resulted in settlements disbursing more than $50 billion for affected communities nationwide.

Robbins Geller’s Delaware Practice Group specializes in shareholder challenges against corporate fraud, abuse, self-dealing, and recklessness in Delaware courts. Not only have the Firm’s cases changed the law, they have recovered billions for shareholders and secured corporate reforms to strengthen good corporate governance. The Firm regularly represents investors in challenges to corporate mergers and acquisitions that shortchange shareholders while enriching corporate insiders.

Firm overview

What a Law Firm Should Be: Unique in its culture and business model, Polsinelli is a large, national, first-generation law firm with the entrepreneurial DNA of its earliest days. Built 50 years ago on a strong foundation, we now are an Am Law 100 firm with 1,000+ attorneys in over 20 offices. Like-minded legal talent from across the country who hold in high regard the same principles of superior client service, diversity of thought and collaboration has made us who we are today. Our litigation practice encompasses business disputes, white collar investigations and enforcement, health care, intellectual property, bankruptcy, data privacy, real estate, financial services, products liability and toxic tort and labor and employment matters. We have litigators located from coast to coast in major financial centers. Our reputation for dedicated client service and innovative business solutions is a benchmark for excellence in the legal profession.

Commercial Litigation: Polsinelli’s nationally recognized Litigation practice is composed of attorneys committed to providing practical, industry-specific business litigation strategies informed by substantive and procedural knowledge, real courtroom experience, and a keen awareness of how legal outcomes impact our clients’ bottom lines. Our attorneys advise clients on business litigation matters, including contracts, mergers and acquisitions, and class actions and we represent public and private entities of all sizes. Our vast experience spans numerous industries, including real estate, telecommunications, technology, financial institutions, food and beverage, retail and hospitality, manufacturing, energy, aviation and transportation. We also have significant experience identifying and advising on evolving areas of law, including those based on consumer protection statutes such as privacy statutes, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), and the Fair Credit and Reporting Act (FCPA).

Government Investigations: Polsinelli’s Government Investigations team is highly qualified to quickly and effectively help companies and individuals respond to and defend against civil, criminal and regulatory government actions. Many of our attorneys are former federal prosecutors with specific experience.

Our team takes the guesswork out of navigating investigations involving the government. Clients seek out our team’s counsel at all stages of their interactions with government agencies, whether a client needs help responding to a subpoena or civil investigative demand, a comprehensive internal investigation, preemptive counsel on a compliance program, or a trial lawyer to defend against allegations of white-collar crimes. Our team has experience with governmental entities, including the Department of Justice, SEC, Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, EPA and States’ Attorney General Offices.

Health Care Litigation: Polsinelli Health Care Litigation attorneys combine their in-depth knowledge of the evolving health care industry with clients’ business needs to devise practical litigation strategies. We advise clients in managing risk and resolving complex disputes. When litigation is necessary, we collaborate with clients to effectively and efficiently protect their interests. Our attorneys are experienced in litigating government investigations and health care disputes in different forums, including lawsuits, arbitrations, administrative hearings, audits and investigations.

Our team is well known and respected by judges, regulators, arbitrators, health care industry leaders and the legal community. Members include former Department of Justice attorneys, including Assistant United States Attorneys, former experienced state Medicaid fraud unit attorneys, a former realtor attorney and former in-house counsel to private and publicly traded health care companies.

Intellectual Property Litigation: Polsinelli’s Intellectual Property Litigation practice takes creative and strategic approaches to resolving intellectual property disputes for local, regional, national and global companies and individuals. With more than 1,300 intellectual property litigation filings over the past six years, we frequently try high-technology intellectual property cases tied to diverse subject matter including patent litigation, trademark, copyright & branding, anti-counterfeiting and grey markets, restrictive covenants and trade secrets litigation, ITC Section 337, IP litigation funding and design patent litigation.

Labor & Employment Litigation: Our attorneys defend clients before administrative agencies and in trials, mediations, arbitrations, and appeals of lawsuits arising over virtually every conceivable employment-related action including age, religion, gender, pregnancy, race, national origin, disability, harassment, wrongful termination, discrimination, retaliation, FMLA and OSHA violations.

Our Employment Litigation practice group has substantial experience representing management in the administrative charge and litigation phase of cases involving issues such as but not limited to The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), The Equal Pay Act (EPA), Whistleblower claims, work-related torts and wrongful termination.

Products Liability and Toxic and Mass Tort: Polsinelli’s litigators have deep experience defending and protecting our clients against defective design, defective manufacturing, premises liability, catastrophic injury, and toxic exposure claims that oftentimes go to the heart of our clients’ businesses.

Our experienced Products Liability and Toxic Tort team assesses cases early, identifying potential risks and working with our client’s legal, business, technical and regulatory teams to craft effective litigation strategies. Our electronic discovery (e-discovery) lawyers and other professionals are adept at coordinating and managing the often- burdensome discovery process that comes with defending these high-stakes cases. Our trial lawyers have the skills and experience to take cases to trial in any courtroom in the country.

These trial teams work hand in hand with our certified appellate specialists, who identify appellate issues and represent clients at the appellate level in state and federal courts throughout the United States.

Updated Aug 2024

Firm overview

Clients from global brands and household names to cutting-edge startups and individuals trust Loeb litigators to resolve their thorniest legal disputes, whether that’s litigation in state and federal trial and appellate courts across the country; investigations and enforcement actions before government agencies; or mediation, arbitration and regulatory agency proceedings.

Loeb litigators deliver practical and strategic counsel with a consistent focus on our clients’ business objectives and a steady determination not only to achieve the best possible outcome — in or out of the courtroom — but also to minimize risk, protect their brands and secure their competitive advantages in their markets and industries. Our lawyers have deep fluency in the law, courtroom-proven skills and well-earned reputations for effective advocacy based on decades of experience working with — and across the table from — clients, opposing counsel, judges and government regulators.

We approach every case as if trial is inevitable, and we are ready to go when the courtroom is the right answer, as we have in hundreds of cases and arbitrations. We know that this trial-focused approach is the best way to present a formidable case to a judge or jury — and to avoid a costly trial through a favorable settlement or quick disposition.

Our decades of litigation experience also enable us to provide valuable counsel to clients on risk avoidance, and our litigators often work closely with colleagues from practices across the firm to help identify and avoid potential disputes and areas of exposure that could turn contentious down the road.

Loeb litigators handle disputes across a wide range of services, including:

Practices:

Antitrust
Bankruptcy, Restructuring & Creditors’ Rights
Consumer Class Action & Regulatory Defense
Employment & Labor
IP & Patents
Insurance Coverage & Defense
Privacy
Securities
Tax
Trust & Estates
White Collar

Industries:

Advertising & Media
Energy
Entertainment, Music & Sports
Family Office
Financial Services
Life Sciences
Nonprofit
Professional Services
Public Sector
Real Estate
Retail & Consumer Brands
Technology

Updated Sep 2023

Firm overview

Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight is a nationwide, plaintiffs-side law firm that was founded in 2004 by David Sanford and Jeremy Heisler to litigate public interest and social justice cases that make a significant difference in society. In 2017, Kevin Sharp, a former Chief Judge of the United States District for the Middle District of Tennessee, joined the firm as its third named partner. In 2024, H. Vincent McKnight Jr., Co-Chair of the firm’s Whistleblower and Qui Tam Practice Group, became a fourth named partner.

David Sanford has served as lead counsel in more than 50 class actions and numerous significant qui tam fraud cases; he has represented over 100 general counsel, in-house counsel, and lawyers in claims against their law firms and companies. Over the course of his 42-year legal career, Jeremy Heisler has achieved notable success in employment, civil rights, and consumer class actions and complex multiparty and multistate litigation, producing hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements to class members and individuals. Judge Sharp has nearly 30 years of experience litigating and/or presiding over complex civil litigation cases, qui tam and whistleblower matters, products liability claims, malpractice cases, class action matters, ERISA claims, and civil rights matters. H. Vincent McKnight Jr. is a leading voice on whistleblower law who has generated approximately $5 billion for the U.S. government and clients during the past ten years.

The firm has offices in New York, Washington, D.C., Palo Alto, San Francisco, San Diego, and Nashville. The firm has recovered over a billion dollars for its clients, and continues to move the needle in high-profile, precedent-setting litigation not only by winning significant compensation, but also through achieving real change in companies and institutions to create a more equitable environment and enlightened management policies.

The firm is committed to helping and giving a voice to disadvantaged groups and individuals, assisting whistleblowers litigate their claims, representing employees seeking relief from employers’ retirement fund mismanagement and abuses, and advocating for employees and executives in a wide range of employment disputes, including severance negotiations, wrongful termination, retaliation, wage and hour violations, sexual harassment, and gender, sexual orientation, race, national origin, and disability discrimination. The firm also promotes social and economic change by increasing media awareness and stimulating public dialogue.

The firm’s lawyers are successful in protecting plaintiffs’ rights in federal and state courts, in settlement negotiations, and in arbitrations nationwide. The firm has forged ahead, often against the odds, and achieved success against major technology firms, including Oracle, Western Digital, and Alaska Communication Systems; pharmaceutical giants like Merck, Novartis, Sanofi, and others; premier law firms in the United States such as Chadbourne & Parke (now Norton Rose Fulbright), Sedgwick, Morrison & Foerster, and Proskauer Rose; and top universities, including Dartmouth College, Columbia University, New York University, and the University of Arizona. The firm has waged and won lawsuits that have protected thousands of employees’ rights to have their 401(k) retirement plans appropriately managed as required by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”).

The firm excels at holding institutions accountable when they cause harm, consistently advocating for victims of discrimination, harassment, and sexual assault, including employees at Fortune 500 companies, attorneys in Big Law, and university faculty and students, and routinely pursues cases against institutions such as schools, daycares, and religious institutions that fail to keep children safe from sexual abuse.

Most firms would shy away from challenging the most powerful interests in society. Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight has taken on the largest corporations in the world and has succeeded.

Among the Firm’s Notable Successes.

In re: GE ERISA: In 2024, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted final approval of a $61 million settlement of a nationwide class action lawsuit against General Electric (“GE”). Our firm originated the lawsuit, filed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) in 2017, alleging that GE failed to offer any alternative investments to its own proprietary, under-performing mutual funds in its employee 401(k) plan. Our firm regularly represents employees invested in 401(k) plans against their employers for alleged breaches of ERISA, including by allowing investment advisors to charge plans unreasonable fees and for failing to monitor and remove poorly performing investment options.

Crime Victims’ Rights Appeal: On August 30, 2024, the Maryland Supreme Court ordered the Baltimore City Circuit Court to conduct a new hearing to determine whether Adnan Syed’s 1999 conviction for the murder of Hae Min Lee, the subject of the podcast “Serial,” should be vacated. Our appeal on behalf of Ms. Lee’s brother, Young Lee, argued that the Circuit Court violated Mr. Lee’s constitutional and statutory rights as a crime victim’s representative in 2022 by failing to give Mr. Lee adequate notice to appear, hear the evidence overturning Mr. Syed’s conviction, and comment meaningfully on whatever evidence the state could produce in support of vacating Mr. Syed’s conviction.

Robinson v. De Niro and Canal Productions: In 2023, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, a jury found Canal Productions liable for gender discrimination and retaliation and awarded our client, Graham Chase Robinson, $1.2 million. Ms. Robinson was Robert De Niro’s former longtime executive assistant. The jury also rejected Canal’s counter-claims of conversion, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of the duty of loyalty.

Military Sexual Assault: The firm is representing 18 John Doe plaintiffs in Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) administrative complaints against the U.S. Department of the Army and the U.S. Department of Defense (collectively, “the Army”). The FTCA complaints seek to hold the Army responsible for failing to protect the plaintiffs from being sexually abused by an Army doctor who has been criminally charged for the sexual abuse of numerous soldiers and veterans in his care at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, Washington.

Whistleblower/Qui Tam: In 2023, our firm and the U.S. government settled a whistleblower action under the False Claims Act (FCA) with International Vitamin Corporation (“IVC”), a leading importer of dietary supplements. As part of the settlement, IVC agreed to pay the U.S. government $22.865 million to resolve claims that it systematically skirted customs duties on thousands of imports of nutritional supplements from China between 2015 and 2019 by fraudulently reporting incorrect tariff classifications and duty rates on the imports. The Complaint also alleged that IVC knew that it had evaded more than $10 million in duties but failed to inform the government and pay the duties as required under applicable law.

United States Marshals Service: In 2024, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) granted final approval of a $15 million settlement in a nearly 30-year-long race discrimination class action alleging that the United States Marshals Service (“USMS”) discriminated against African Americans in its promotions, recruitment, and hiring policies for Deputy U.S. Marshals positions. As part of the settlement, the USMS agreed to institute significant programmatic reforms to its hiring practices.

Updated Oct 2024