The conference brings together many of the world’s leading legal and judicial experts to share insights and strategies in complex class action and mass tort matters. Designed to go beyond information-sharing, the event emphasizes international collaboration and offers practical perspectives from the forefront of global legal practice.

Jonathan will speak on the panel “Cross-Border Litigation of Defective Products,” alongside:

• Sylvie Rodrigue, Ad.E, Managing Partner, Torys LLP (Montréal, Canada)
• Fabio De Dominicis, Founder, De Dominicis Law Firm & Of Counsel, Bonafede Law Firm (Italy)
• Judge Alberto La Manna, Judge, Court of Turin (Italy)
• Rob Okhuijsen, Head of Strategic Planning & Operations, A.B. Data (UK & EU)
• Tom Moore, Managing Director, Angeion Group (UK)

Registration remains open — there’s still time to get tickets via Perfect Law’s website.

About Jonathan D. Selbin

Jonathan D. Selbin is a senior partner in the New York office of Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, where he has practiced for 30 years, and a long-time member of the firm’s Executive Committee.  He has led complex consumer protection, defective products, and sex abuse class action lawsuits in courts around the country against many of the world’s largest corporations and institutions.  Together, cases in which Jonathan played a lead role have resulted in court-approved class action settlements with a combined total cash payout to class members in excess of $3.5 billion, plus other relief such as extended and enhanced warranties and implementation of best-practices institutional reforms.  He has extensive appellate experience, having argued in the 1st,5th, 6th, 7th, 9th, and 11th Circuits, as well as before state supreme and appellate courts.

Winners will be announced at the awards dinner on September 4 at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in Manhattan.

Congratulations to all of this year’s honorees and finalist law firms!

About Lieff Cabraser

Described by The American Lawyer as “one of the nation’s premier plaintiffs’ firms,” Lieff Cabraser enjoys a national reputation for professional integrity and the successful prosecution of our clients’ claims. We possess sophisticated legal skills and the financial resources necessary for the handling of large, complex cases, and for litigating against some of the nation’s largest corporations.

So far in 2025, Lawdragon recognized 7 Lieff Cabraser lawyers as “Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers,” and dozens more across categories including Plaintiff Financial, Consumer, and Antitrust Law.

In 2024 alone, Lawdragon recognized 9 Lieff Cabraser lawyers as “Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers,” 24 as “Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers,” 28 as “Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers,” 14 as “Global Plaintiff Lawyers,” and 10 as “Leading Plaintiff Employment & Civil Rights Lawyers.” We saw 13 lawyers named to Lawdragon’s 2024 “500X: The Next Generation” list, and The National Law Journal honored us with their 2024 “Elite Trial Lawyers” awards for Employee Rights and Anti-Discrimination. Our firm was named “Class Action Department of the Year” by the New York Law Journal, and our JUUL injuries case team shared the Daily Journal’s 2024 “California Lawyer of the Year” award. Two of our lawyers were also recognized as the Daily Journal’s “Leading Commercial Litigators,” and Law360 named Lieff Cabraser its 2024 “Practice Group of the Year” for Class Action, Privacy, and Product Liability.

Rachel will co-lead a panel discussion titled “Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Civil Litigation,” alongside esteemed experts:

Andrea Roth, Berkeley Law

Magistrate Judge Peter H. Kang, US District Court–Northern District of California

Brandie Nonnecke, Berkeley Law

Lucilla Sioli, Director for AI and Digital Industry, DG Connect, European Commission

Tejas N. Narechania, Berkeley Law (Moderator)

For more details, visit Berkeley Law’s website.

About Rachel Geman

Rachel Geman is a partner in Lieff Cabraser’s New York office and the Chair of the firm’s False Claims/Qui Tam practice group. Her practice is dedicated to representing whistleblowers, employees, and consumers in complex class action and False Claims Act matters. Rachel is the employee-side Chair of the ABA’s Workplace and Occupational Safety and Health Law Committee; the Chair of the NELA/NY amicus committee; and a CDRC-trained community mediator.

Law360’s profile praises the Lieff Cabraser product liability team for its seasoned expertise and strategic litigation prowess. Richard Heimann, a partner at the firm and a recipient of Law360’s 2022 Product Liability MVP award, attributes these successes to the firm’s judicious approach to case selection and the profound knowledge base of its lawyers. Heimann emphasizes that the firm prioritizes the merit and potential impact of cases over sheer quantity, ensuring that its legal efforts are both effective and meaningful.

Law360 notes that Lieff Cabraser’s victories in the courtroom, particularly the landmark settlements with Walgreens and Juul, demonstrate the firm’s unwavering commitment to holding corporations accountable for their actions. These successes not only provide significant relief to affected communities but also set important legal precedents that will influence product liability litigation for years to come.

Read the full profile on Law360’s website (subscription).

About Lieff Cabraser’s Product Liability Practice Group

Lieff Cabraser has played a leading role in many of the largest, most important personal injury law and wrongful death lawsuits in the U.S. These cases have involved negligent conduct as well as a vast range of defective products — including dangerous prescription drugs like the opioids that were overdistributed and overprescribed to harm communities nationwide and products like talcum powder linked to ovarian cancer, faulty medical devices, unsafe vehicles, and dangerous consumer products. In many cases, in addition to financial recovery, we have assisted our clients in persuading corporate defendants to issue recalls and otherwise improve their safety procedures and oversight for the protection of all consumers and patients.

In June of 2022, Lieff Cabraser and co-counsel filed a federal class action complaint against Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile, and Softbank Group challenging the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint as a violation of the antitrust laws, specifically the Clayton Act and the Sherman Act. The case was brought on behalf of AT&T and Verizon subscribers.

As alleged in the complaint, the merger reduced the number of mobile carriers in the U.S. from four to three and eliminated vibrant competition from Sprint. It left the three remaining behemoth companies, the new T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon, in a far less competitive market and gave them the opportunity to charge more while delivering less. The complaint further alleges that as a result, AT&T and Verizon retail customers have paid higher prices on a quality-adjusted basis.

On November 3, 2023, U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin denied T-Mobile’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit and ordered the company to face the lawsuit from AT&T (T.N) and Verizon (VZ.N) subscribers who claim the mobile communication giant’s deal for rival Sprint hurt competition and caused them to pay billions of dollars more for wireless service. In his 41-page ruling, Judge Durkin noted that the plaintiffs “plausibly” argued that higher prices “flowed directly” from the $26 billion merger.

Judge Durkin denied T-Mobile’s motion to dismiss AT&T and VZW customers on antitrust standing grounds, despite the fact that they did not transact directly with T-Mobile. Judge Durkin also denied the motion to dismiss on the basis of failure to allege anticompetitive effects. The proposed class action on behalf of tens to hundreds of millions of consumers seeks a range of penalties, including the undoing of the 2020 T-Mobile-Sprint merger.

Lieff Cabraser partner Brendan Glackin, who co-represents the plaintiffs in the case, noted he was grateful for the court’s “well-considered order” and eager to move forward with the case, which may be the most significant private merger challenge ever. “This is a major victory, not just in this case, but in creating a path for challenges of mergers post-consummation, when the new merged firm fails to deliver on the promises it made to get the merger past initial review and challenges,” added Glackin. “And this particular merger has harmed hundreds of millions of people.”

Learn more about the T-Mobile / Sprint Merger Antitrust Litigation.

About Brendan P. Glackin

The Chair of Lieff Cabraser’s Antitrust practice group, Brendan P. Glackin has represented direct purchasers of titanium dioxide in a nationwide antitrust class action lawsuit ($163.5 million in settlements); direct purchasers of flat-panel TV screens in litigation against the world’s leading LCDs manufacturers for conspiring to fix prices ($470 million in settlements; retailers in a monopolization pricing lawsuit against Abbott Laboratories charging that the company exploited the market for AIDS medicines used in conjunction with Abbott’s prescription drug Norvir, and employees in the high-tech workers class action alleging that major Silicon Valley firms colluded to reduce competition for workers.

Brendan has contributed groundbreaking work in litigation against drug makers for blocking access to affordable generics. This includes the blockbuster brand-name prescription drug Cipro ($399 million in settlements), which led to a 2016 “California Lawyer Attorney of the Year” (CLAY) award. Brendan continued his work in the field of generic drugs as lead counsel for Nashville General Hospital (the Hospital Authority of Metropolitan Government of Nashville) in a class-action antitrust case against defendants for monopolizing enoxaparin, the generic version of the blockbuster life-saving anti-coagulant Lovenox, which in 2019, settled for $120 million, the second largest indirect-purchaser antitrust pharmaceutical settlement fund in history, after Cipro.

Judge Lasnik’s ruling brings an end to a four-year-old class action lawsuit, in which defendants, including coffee roasting companies as well as large resellers such as Costco, Walmart, Amazon and Kroger, have agreed to pay more than $41 million to the Kona growers, and have agreed to a host of labeling and business practice changes to ensure accurate and reliable labeling of Kona coffee products. Those strictures are projected to generate more than $81 million in economic value for the growers over the next five years.

In approving the latest settlement, Judge Lasnik described this litigation as one “of the most impressive class action cases I have dealt with in my time on the federal bench, and the results as “great for justice … a real result that makes people whole again.”

Lieff Cabraser brought the suit on behalf of the farmers in 2019, claiming that only coffee harvested from Hawaii’s Big Island is actually Kona coffee, and that those companies — almost two dozen named in the original suit — were selling beans and ground coffee under the name without buying from them, in violation of the Lanham Act. The David vs. Goliath style case pitted three small, longtime Kona coffee farms against 22 major coffee suppliers and retailers, selling a variety of mislabeled coffee products across the country in multiple channels of commerce.

Learn more about the Kona Coffee Class Action Advertising Fraud Litigation.

“We are proud of this Settlement,” notes Lieff Cabraser senior partner Jonathan D. Selbin, who represents the plaintiffs in the case. “The decades of abuse by Dr. Anderson are a dark stain on the history of the University of Michigan. With this settlement, it takes one critical step toward taking accountability for that period and writing the next chapter in which it will become the Leader and Best in preventing and addressing sexual and gender abuse and violence on campus.”

“We commend the University for doing so.” Selbin concluded, “This settlement also shows the unique power and role class actions can play in making our country and institutions better. We also want to thank our client, Josie Graham, for her vision and courage in stepping forward to improve a university she loves.”

A key part of the settlement includes the creation of a Coordinated Community Response Team (CCRT) for U of M, a multidisciplinary standing committee made up of independent experts such as Title IX and campus sexual misconduct experts and representatives of the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office and SafeHouse Center, students, survivors, community members, and select members of the administration and faculty.

CCRTs are widely recognized by experts on sexual misconduct prevention as an indispensable tool to achieve comprehensive prevention of campus sexual violence. They have been adopted by colleges and universities throughout the country, including the University of South Florida and the University of California. The 2017 Report by the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault identified CCRTs as the first of six primary elements of a comprehensive sexual misconduct prevention plan, and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women requires colleges and universities to establish CCRTs to receive funding under its Grants to Reduce Violent Crimes Against Women on Campus Program.

This working group will bring transparency and diverse perspectives to the University’s response to sexual misconduct to ensure it is driven and considered by all community stakeholders – not just the administration. The CCRT will have a leadership team comprised of three co-chairs which includes an outside expert, and a robust team of members selected from the on-campus and surrounding communities. This group of campus and community stakeholders will be tasked with, among other responsibilities:

• Engaging stakeholders on all aspects of campus prevention and response to sexual violence;
• Developing, reviewing, and advising on policy and practice improvements;
• Educating the community about issues related to sexual violence;
• Regularly meeting with the University President; and
• Providing public updates on its efforts, including the University’s response to the CCRT’s recommended reforms, to provide accountability through transparency.

Source/Contact

Jonathan D. Selbin
Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP
212 355-9500
jselbin@lchb.com

Powell Miller
The Miller Law Firm, P.C.
(248) 843-0997
epm@millerlawpc.com
www.millerlawpc.com

Joseph Sauder
Sauder Schelkopf LLC
(888) 711-9975
jgs@sstriallawyers.com
www.umsexabuselawsuit.com

The complaint charges that National Grid violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), a federal law which prohibits abusive telephone practices, and places strict limits on the use of automated calls to cell phones.

The $38.5 million non-reversionary cash settlement includes sweeping business practice changes requiring that National Grid maintain compliance with the TCPA going forward. Over 400,000 class members have made claims thus far, and will each receive a $50 cash payment.

The LCHB National Grid team was led by Douglas Cuthbertson and John Nicolaou and included Jonathan Selbin, Daniel Hutchinson, Avery Halfon, among many others. We are delighted to have achieved such a strong result for our clients after seven+ years of extremely hard-fought litigation.

Lawyers, scholars, and activists will gather (via Zoom) at this virtual conference to examine the law and policy issues governing harassment of students, staff, and faculty at schools, colleges and universities in the U.S. and globally, through a series of plenary sessions, workshops, and keynote addresses, with opportunities to meet and network with others in the field. Plenary topics include new developments in Title IX law and policy, harassment prevention education, and the development of toolkits to address the problem of sexual harassment in education.

For more information regarding speakers, agenda, and registration, visit Berkeley Law’s website.

About Annika K. Martin

A partner in Lieff Cabraser’s New York office, Annika K. Martin served as co-lead counsel for plaintiff abuse victims in the USC student sexual abuse lawsuit that led to a $215 million settlement with USC and Dr. Tyndall and significant institutional changes. She is currently representing men who were sexually abused as students by University of Michigan physician Robert Anderson.

Annika also represents plaintiffs in class action and mass tort litigation concerning consumer fraud, environmental issues, and products liability. She served as co-lead counsel for plaintiffs in the successful national consumer fraud class action brought against General Motors Company over allegedly defective air conditioning systems, and has a similar role in the more recent similar product defect case against Mercedes over their allegedly defective vehicle HVAC systems.

Annika represented individuals, property owners, and business owners across the Gulf Coast in class action litigation against BP, Transocean, Halliburton, and other companies responsible for the 2010 blowout on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig which resulted in the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Annika was deeply involved in negotiating, implementing, and gaining court approval for the economic and medical class action settlements with BP that are compensating hundreds of thousands of victims of the tragedy.

Annika has also represented plaintiffs with physical and economic injuries arising from GM vehicles with defective ignition switches, and patient’s nationwide suffering from the widespread outbreak of meningitis and other serious maladies caused by contaminated medication. Annika is the current co-chair of AAJ’s Class Action Litigation Group.

Members of the class include women who worked at Google in California over the past seven years and who were primarily employed as software engineers.

“This is a significant day for women at Google and in the technology sector, and we are so proud of our brave clients for leading the way,” noted Lieff Cabraser partner Kelly M. Dermody, who represents the plaintiffs in the case. “This order shows that it is critical that companies prioritize paying women equitably over spending money fighting them in litigation.”

The former Google workers are represented by Lieff Cabraser attorneys Kelly M. Dermody, Anne B. Shaver, and Michelle Lamy, and co-counsel from Altshuler Berzon LLP.

You can learn more about the Google Gender Discrimination lawsuit and the legal rights of women who feel they have been harmed by gender discrimination by visiting www.googlegendercase.com.