Milberg

Melvyn Weiss convinced his partner, Lawrence Milberg, to fund class-action securities litigation against Dolly Madison Industries. Dolly Madison acquired at least 30 companies over an 18-month period. Dolly Madison was allegedly facilitating these deals by falsifying its balance sheet to artificially increase its stock price. Weiss and Milberg thought they could win a large payout from Dolly Madison's accounting firm, Touche Ross and Co., a "big eight" firm in the 1960s. Like most defendants in class actions, Dolly Madison delayed as long as possible and the case did not go to trial until 1973. Shortly before a verdict was rendered Touche settled for $2 million, resulting in a $500,000 fee for Milberg.[2]

In May 2004, Milberg was the largest plaintiff law firm in the United States, with over 200 attorneys, responsible, at least in part, for over 50 percent of all securities class action cases settled in 2002.[3]

In 2006[4][5][6][7] and 2007, the number of staff in the firm shrunk by more than half. As of June 2008, the firm's website lists only 53 full-time attorneys (29 partners and 24 associates). The firm was extensively restructured over the subsequent years.

In 2018, Milberg merged with Sanders Philips Grossman, a mass tort firm known for its class action lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies, to form Milberg Tadler Phillips Grossman.[8][9][10] In 2019, former partner Steven Schulman sued the firm, and settled.[11][12] In 2021, Milberg Phillips Grossman LLP partnered with Greg Coleman Law PC and Whitfield Bryson LLP to form Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman, PLLC.[13] The firm opened its first international office in the United Kingdom in 2019. Milberg London was ranked as Band 2 in Chambers and Partners’ category of ‘Group Litigation: Claimant’ in 2023.[14]

The firm's offices are located in New York, London, California, Georgia, Mississippi, Washington, Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Puerto Rico.[15]

Milestones in the firm's history include its involvement in the "US Financial" litigation in the early 1970s, one of the earliest large class actions, which resulted in the $50 million recovery for purchasers of the securities of a failed real estate development company. Other cases included the Ninth Circuit decision in Blackie v. Barrack[16] in 1975, which established the fraud-on-the-market doctrine for securities fraud actions; the Firm's co-lead counsel position in the In re Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPSS) Securities Litigation,[17] a seminal securities fraud action in the 1980s in terms of complexity and amounts recovered; the representation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in a year-long trial to recover banking losses from a major accounting firm, leading to a precedent-setting global settlement; attacking the Drexel-Milken "daisy chain" of illicit junk-bond financing arrangements with numerous cases that resulted in substantial recoveries for investors;[18] and representing life insurance policyholders defrauded by "vanishing premium" and other improper sales tactics and obtaining large recoveries from industry participants. Milberg's attorneys also argued another important case in 2007 before the high court in Tellabs Inc. v. Makor Issues & Rights Ltd.[19]

Milberg was co-lead counsel in a securities fraud class action case against French conglomerate Vivendi. After nearly eight years of litigation, the case was tried to a jury for three months in late 2009, and resulted in a verdict for plaintiffs in January 2010. The jury found Vivendi liable for 57 false or misleading class period statements. Even with claimants who made foreign purchases removed from the class after the Supreme Court's Morrison v. National Australia Bank decision, total damages claims exceeded $1 billion.[20]

Also in 2010, Milberg won a victory before the United States Supreme Court, which issued a decision (Merck & Co., Inc. v. Reynolds) addressing when an investor is placed on "inquiry notice" of securities fraud violation sufficient to trigger the statute of limitations under 28 U.S.C. § 1658(b).[21]

On August 24, 2011, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York approved a $180 million settlement to resolve antitrust claims brought by a class of consumers, represented by Milberg, against Sirius XM Radio. The case stems from the 2008 merger between Sirius Satellite Radio, Inc. and XM Satellite Holdings, Inc. that created Sirius XM, now the nation's only satellite radio company. The plaintiffs alleged that the merger of the only two U.S. satellite radio providers was an illegal move to eliminate competition and monopolize the satellite radio market.[22]

Milberg represented a healthcare worker in a whistleblower suit against his former employer Medline Industries, Inc., along with its charitable arm, The Medline Foundation. The Firm negotiated an $85 million settlement on behalf of the federal government, announced on March 11, 2011. The suit was filed under the False Claims Act ("FCA"), which allows private citizens to sue companies that are defrauding the government and to receive an award for their efforts when the case is successful. Although a party to the settlement agreement, the U.S. Department of Justice chose not to intervene in the lawsuit. Milberg pursued the case and obtained one of the largest settlements of an FCA case in which the government declined to intervene.[23][24]

On April 15, 2021, Milberg received a $11.1 million verdict on behalf of client Scott Kingston, who alleged IBM wrongfully terminated him after raising claims of racial bias in the treatment of his subordinates.[15] The award was recognized as one of the top-ten verdict of the year in Top Verdict's Labor & Employment Category.[25]

In 2022, Milberg successfully won $50 million in a California oil spill lawsuit against Amplify Energy, the operator of a pipeline that spilled thousands of gallons of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean.[26] Other notable cases in 2022 include winning a dam collapse case in Brazil[27] and representing FanCentro in a lawsuit against rival company OnlyFans.[28] Milberg also represented dozens of plaintiffs in a case against the Tennessee Valley Authority in 2022.[29]

In November 2022, Milberg brought suit against Exxon Mobil, Chevron Corp., Royal Dutch Shell, and BP, accusing the fossil fuel giants of misrepresenting the dangers of their carbon-based products. Milberg represents 16 municipalities in Puerto Rico seeking damages for the devastating impact of Hurricane Maria and other storms.[30][31]

In January 2023, Milberg helped reach a $106 million settlement with the City of Charlotte over Charlotte Water's ability to charge development fees prior to 2017 and the methodology used to determine how much developers would pay in order to comply with state law. Milberg argued Charlotte Water's charges were ultra vires, or beyond its powers.[32]

In May 2023, Milberg reached a confidential settlement with Jacobs Solutions on behalf of workers sickened during the cleanup of a coal ash spill in East Tennessee. Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) contracted Jacobs Solutions to enforce sitewide safety and health. Milberg twice made law in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the case, first by winning a general causation verdict and then by raising the possibility that TVA and other coal ash producers could face similar lawsuits in the future.[33]

In 2009, 2010 and 2011, The National Law Journal included Milberg in its "Plaintiffs' Hot List."[46][47][48]

• Lexecon Inc. v. Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach
• Mauldin v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

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