Bill Carmody breaks the mold of what to expect in a trial lawyer. As the head of Susman Godfrey’s New York office, Bill leads a booming bet-the-company trial practice – he’s served as lead counsel to industry leaders such as General Electric, Sotheby’s, Uber, TPG, Steve Madden, and industry titans such as Louis Bacon, Daniel Loeb, and Adam Neumann. For plaintiffs, Bill has secured verdicts and settlements in the billions. And, for defendants, he has protected his clients from potential exposure in the billions of dollars.
Bill is best known for stepping into big high-stakes trials shortly before they are set to begin and getting paid on his results. He’s described as a storyteller with a “preternatural ability” to connect with juries – and “someone whose core skill set is persuading a lay jury in a complex business case.” .
LANDMARK WINS
In the last year, Bill tried three of America’s biggest civil cases. His accomplishments earned him National Law Journal’s “2025 Plaintiff’s Attorney of the Year,” a spot on Bloomberg Law’s 2025 Unrivaled list, and the New York Law Journal’s “2025 Attorney of the Year.”
• Serving as co-lead counsel with David Boies, Bill won a record $425.7M jury verdict against Google in a privacy class action. This is the largest jury verdict against Google and a landmark privacy verdict. With equitable relief still pending, final judgment has yet to be entered.
• Bill served as lead trial counsel in the NFL Sunday Ticket Antitrust Litigation, where the jury delivered a historic $4.7B verdict — the largest antitrust award ever. Though the court later vacated the verdict, the jury’s finding that the NFL violated antitrust law remains intact. The case is now on appeal and the Department of Justice has filed an amicus brief in support of plaintiffs.
• For the City of Baltimore, Bill amassed record opioid settlements topping $427M. Then, won a jury verdict of $266M and $100M at a later bench trial. After both trials, a reduced final judgment of $152.4M was agreed upon.
• In hedge fund legend Louis Bacon’s high-profile defamation suit against Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygård, Bill won a $203M judgment—the largest defamation award in New York State history. Though later vacated, Bacon is pursuing reinstatement.
• Bill was retained by the owners of the Denver Broncos and Washington Commanders to secure the sales of both NFL franchises: the Broncos for $4.65B and the Commanders for $6.05B –two of the largest sports franchise sales in history.
CHOSEN LEADER
Bill is often tapped to lead the country’s most significant litigation. Bill is:
• co-lead class counsel for Yale University and investors nationwide in the LIBOR Antitrust Litigation, From the trial court to the U.S. Supreme Court, Bill and his team certified a national class and secured settlements that, in all, are above $781M. Recently, the court granted summary judgment for the remaining defendants and that judgment will be appealed,
• lead counsel to a putative class of Apple customers accusing the company of locking in iPhone users through anticompetitive agreements. The cases were recently consolidated in New Jersey, where the case is being coordinated with a similar case filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, and
• interim lead class counsel in In re MultiPlan, a price-fixing class action brought on behalf of a proposed class of healthcare providers against major insurers for suppressing prices for out-of-network services. Bill’s team has already overcome a motion to dismiss, and trial is expected in 2027.
Updated Oct 2025
