Class Action and Financial Products Litigation
With more than 700 lawyers and other professionals in offices across the U.S. and in Europe, Sonnenschein efficiently and effectively handles class action litigations across the country, defeating class certification, disposing of class allegations at the earliest stages of litigation, successfully settling and, where warranted, trying class cases to verdict, and working with our clients to manage crises and respond effectively to regulatory investigations.
Specialty Areas
Our Focus
Massive document cases, thousands of potential plaintiffs, government/regulatory scrutiny and huge corporate implications — these are the hallmarks of class action litigation today. Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP has acquired a national reputation as the law firm of choice for enterprises facing bet-the-company situations. We have distinguished ourselves by achieving successful outcomes for our clients and by establishing favorable precedents in myriad areas of the law affecting numerous industries.
Our clients receive guidance and counsel from Sonnenschein lawyers who understand what it means to serve our clients. Our longstanding relationships with prominent national clients attest to a track record of both significant successes and client satisfaction. Sonnenschein's Litigation Practice is our largest, consisting of more than 250 attorneys coast-to-coast. With 50-100 class actions under our management at any given time, we provide corporate clients with the strategic experience and tactical know-how to wage a successful defense against class actions.
Our Services
We represent major corporate clients in class action litigation across a wide range of substantive areas, including consumer fraud, insurance, employment, telecommunications, antitrust and securities actions.
We bring to this work:
- A significant track record defeating class certification, prevailing on dispositive motions, successfully trying class cases to verdict, defending putative class arbitrations, settling complex class actions on a nationwide basis and litigating multi-district matters.
- Acclaimed leadership as national coordinating counsel.
- Broad experience counseling clients through the crises and challenges that often accompany class actions, including regulatory inquiries, document retention matters, copycat class actions and public relations concerns.
- Refined technological know-how and capabilities for large-case management.
- Customized and fully secured extranets to keep clients, outside counsel and the Sonnenschein litigation team informed and involved.
- Cutting-edge command of e-discovery issues, efficient data manipulation and management, and state-of-the-art investigatory techniques.
We offer customized extranets (fully secured Web sites) to keep clients, outside counsel and the Sonnenschein litigation team informed and involved.
Defending Against Class Action Certification
There is more than one way to defend against an alleged class action. When approaching a case, we conduct an investigation and provide the client with our insights on the likelihood of class certification, litigation strategy and, where warranted, "best practices" for crisis management. In some situations, the optimal strategy may be to knock out the claims of the named plaintiffs and dispose of the action without addressing class certification. In others, an early class battle may be best. Still other situations call for settling the case on a class basis. Some of our successes in defeating class certification or otherwise effectively disposing of class allegations include:
- Defeating class certification in a consumer fraud case involving long-term care insurance by convincing the court that the named plaintiff's definition of the putative class was overly broad, and that, when appropriately narrowed to reflect the circumstances of the named plaintiff, it could not meet the numerosity requirement for class treatment.
- Defeating class certification in a Fair Credit Reporting Act case, arguing that the named plaintiff's statutory damages class still would be subject to individualized proof of injury and causation, thus rendering plaintiff's trial plan untenable.
- Defeating nationwide class certification in a matter challenging modal premium calculations by convincing the court that the plaintiffs had failed to establish the uniformity of the laws of the multiple jurisdictions.
- Defeating class certification in a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) action by convincing the Fifth Circuit that the predominance requirement could not be met because of individualized issues of reliance and causation.
- Defeating class certification of three opt-out class actions filed in the face of a nationwide class settlement of the very same claims by convincing three separate state court judges that the opt-out actions did not meet the class certification criteria of those states.
- Mooting the claims of the sole named plaintiff in an insurance fraud case by making the named plaintiff an offer of judgment in a case of first impression in a New York state court.
- Winning the dismissal of claims of named plaintiffs on standing grounds in a series of conspiracy class actions filed throughout the country.
- Using third-party estoppel theory to compel the named plaintiff to accept individual case arbitration, and enforcing class waivers, undermining the prospects for class litigation.
