We’re proud to publish the Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers. This Guide, first published in 2007, presents our curated look at the best of the U.S. plaintiff bar who specialize in representing individual investors and shareholders, as well as businesses and other organizations harmed by corporate misconduct or other failures. The 500 lawyers selected bring their cases as individual matters as well as in class actions that are increasingly going global. We also are excited to include 13 members of the plaintiff financial bar who have previously been selected for Lawdragon’s Hall of Fame; they are denoted with an asterisk.
Among these is Steven Susman, who decided in the 1970s to create a law firm specializing in contingency work, often for corporations and largely for financial dealings. To validate his vision, he traveled the country talking to the best of the plaintiff securities litigation, antitrust and related bar organizations to figure out how to build what has become Susman Godfrey. What was once a twinkling in his eye is now represented by more lawyers than any other firm in this year’s guide, led by firm managing partner Neal Manne and rainmaker Bill Carmody. They are accompanied by 35 other Susman Godfrey lawyers , including Max Tribble and Kalpana Srinivasan who hit one out of the park last year on behalf of House Canary – a case that started out hourly and switched to contingency not long before a jury awarded their client $706.2 million.
Which gives you almost a billion reasons (actually there are many more) why plaintiff financial litigation is the practice du jour. Also abundantly represented here are Quinn Emanuel; plaintiff securities litigation firms including Robbins Geller, Bernstein Litowitz and Pomerantz; and antitrust litigators and whistleblower standouts galore from Cohen Milstein, Hausfeld and Phillips & Cohen. And while the big corporate firms are hoping to catch a piece of this action, there are also relatively young firms making a big mark including Selendy Gay, Reid Collins and the upstart Keller Lenkner.
Much has changed since we first published this guide. We’ve now broken our plaintiff reporting into three guides – Employment; Consumer; and Corporate-Financial – to more accurately represent the expertise of the lawyers available to represent consumers seeking justice. The composition of the lawyers in this guide have evolved, as well. The practice is increasingly global and complex beyond measure yielding verdicts and settlements in the billions. Like the Plaintiff Consumer guide, it is also an area in which there is – for lack of a better term – increased slosh. Those firms noted above as well as class action standouts like Hagens Berman, Seeger Weiss, Lieff Cabraser, and Cotchett can try a financial case just as well as a tort. So these days, bring it.
We are particularly pleased to recognize the 170 female lawyers in this guide. Much has been said about the lack of representation of women in the plaintiff bar, and after much research and discussion with the elite lawyers of this bar, it’s clear times have are changing – just keep an eye on lawyers like Srinivasan, who are nabbing lead counsel spots at an impressive clip. The guide includes 66 lawyers who are inclusive, by ethnicity or LGBTQ. This is not one of the most inclusive bars, but a work in progress. We’ll be watching.
Another change is that Lawdragon will be publishing additional practice guides in the year ahead as a companion to our annual look at the lawyers of the year, the Lawdragon 500. Intellectual property lawyers, general commercial litigators, global dispute specialists and a host of other practices are slated for coverage next year.
One thing that has not changed is our methodology. We research top verdicts and settlements, and talk nonstop to lawyers nationwide about whom they admire and would hire to seek justice for a claim that strikes a loved one. From securities fraud to blowing the whistle – and everything in between, these 500 lawyers are those to whom they’d turn.
