The Cleveland office is equipped with additional specialists in litigation. Executive chair of litigation and vice chairman Joseph Castrodale litigates complex commercial and securities matters on the behalf of corporate clients. He and Gregory Phillips, as lead counsel, represent electric utility company CEI in their constitutional challenge, alleging that Cleveland’s municipal utility, Cleveland Public Power, violated Ohio’s limits on extraterritorial sales by similar municipal utilities. Castrodale and Phillips overturned the summary judgment ruling on appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court in 2021, but the high court left the question of the proper constitutional test to be litigated at trial court. Philips serves as vice chair of the litigation group. He is also defending NASDAQ exchange listed company Springbig in a lawsuit filed by the technology company’s co-founder, who was bought out of his stake in ownership. Phillips dismissed the rescission, fraud and unjust enrichment claims, and continues to vigorously defend the breach of software licensing claims currently in discovery.
Eric Zalud makes his debut as a Litigation Star this year. Zalud specializes in handling litigation for clients in the transportation industry, serving as co-chair of the practice group dedicated to the industry. One of his clients within the industry describes him as “extremely competent” in commercial litigation. In a closely watched case for the transportation industry, he was lead representing Miller Transfer & Rigging in a Carmack Amendment lawsuit. The plaintiffs alleged that the client – and the motor carrier hired to package and transport cargo – were liable for the water damage incurred during the shipment to Austria. The Northern District of Ohio dismissed the case against the client on summary judgment, and Zalud secured the dismissal at the Sixth Circuit on appeal.
Three of Chicago’s partners have been recognized this year for their talent in litigation and leadership at the firm. Another vice chair of the litigation group and co-chair of the business litigation practice, David Remmelt, leads the team in representing SmileDirectClub and its officers and board members in a lawsuit alleging RICO, Lanham Act and state law claims. The lawsuit was filed by the client’s largest competitor in connection with the company’s advertising and marketing. Arbitrations remain pending and the case is being actively litigated.
Nicholas Secco serves as chair of the trial group and maintains an active sophisticated litigation practice. In a high-profile environmental case arising from one of the largest contamination clean-ups in California, the team defended Gould Electronics, which operated a lead smelter outside of Los Angeles, in the lawsuit disputing the impact zone of airborne lead. Under Secco’s leadership, the team cross-examined experts and gave closing arguments on behalf of the client and successfully secured a verdict in favor on all issues and reduced their collective liability by roughly $800 million. Scott Humphrey chairs the trade secrets, restrictive covenants, and unfair competition practice group. His recent practice has involved a large-scale trade secrets dispute for a nationwide insurance company.
Cleveland litigation boutique Ciano & Goldwasser is a team of four attorneys well versed in handling a variety of health care, general commercial and personal injury matters. A client who hired the firm for a dispute resolution describes the partners as “good big-picture thinkers, clear communicators, diligent workers, [and] results-oriented,” all while operating in a timely manner. Phillip Ciano is name partner at the firm and is highly regarded for his work in sports law, representing player agents in baseball, basketball, football and golf. A new addition to this year’s list is Brent Silverman, who has over 20 years of experience in high stakes business litigation. Ciano and Silverman recently served as lead counsel for a sports agency in a dispute with another agency over a former employee’s use of contacts and business opportunities. Fellow name partner Andrew Goldwasser focuses his practice on complex civil litigation, focused on serious injury and wrongful death claims. In addition, Goldwasser also takes on a number of specialty torts involving a variety of irregular business disputes. Among his recent cases, Goldwasser is leading the team representing the estate of a late painter in a matter determining the rightful ownership of artwork.
In the six years since its inception in 2017, DiCello Levitt has made considerable headway in distinguishing itself in the crowded field of plaintiff firms. “I have been very impressed with them,” states a peer. “They file great cases and get great results.” With offices in New York, Chicago, Birmingham, Cleveland, and Washington DC, DiCello Levitt may bear the formal features of a boutique, but its team of litigators continues to outpace the competition in its weight class year after year. The firm, staffed by a broad range of area specialists, is recognized for its diverse arsenal of litigation capabilities across numerous practice areas, a unique trait among firms of its size. DiCello Levitt’s practitioners are applauded by clients for their “strong, enthusiastic, and dedicated approach to representation,” and for “going the extra step to present the best solutions possible.”
The firm recently made a push in the antitrust area, with the auspicious addition of New York’s Greg Asciolla to the firm from plaintiff shop Labaton Sucharow, which made a strategic decision to return to its core areas of securities class actions. “Those are some good people they got,” observes one contemporary, “and those antitrust people are getting a more supportive platform here than they got [at their former firm].”
Firm mainstays and founding partners Adam Levitt of Chicago and Cleveland’s Mark DiCello continue to serve in pivotal roles. Levitt, a complex commercial and securities specialist, is identified by a client as “exceptionally bright and creative.” The same client also notes that, “He gets along well with people and is committed to the highest ethical standards. His work is first rate.” Levitt’s practice focuses on complex multidistrict commercial matters, public client representation, and class-action representation across several industries. DiCello, on the other hand, is recognized for his personal injury and mass tort expertise. Levitt represented certified and proposed statewide classes of vehicle owners who purchased GM SUVs with defective V8 5.3-liter engines that allegedly consume an excessive amount of oil, resulting in engine damage and malfunction. Despite having long known of the oil consumption defect, GM failed to disclose it to purchasers and lessees and has refused to offer an effective repair. By so doing, GM has breached its warranties, committed fraud, and violated state consumer protection laws. Levitt has filed 12 class-action lawsuits on behalf of purchasers and lessees of GM vehicles with the defective 5.3-liter engines. In the Northern District of California, Levitt successfully moved for certification of Idaho, California, and North Carolina classes, achieving a $102.6 million verdict for those three states in October 2022. Levitt also served as outside counsel for the State of New Mexico in litigation asserting New Mexico’s consumer protection laws against AbbVie, Abbott Laboratories, and Solvay Pharmaceuticals. These pharmaceuticals companies deceptively marketed the testosterone-replacement therapy drug AndroGel as a cure-all for older men, while concealing its cardiovascular risks.
In Chicago, Amy Keller serves as DiCello Levitt’s privacy, technology, and cybersecurity practice chair, her focuses accordingly lying in data security and consumer privacy matters. Keller acted on behalf of a class of consumers who paid premium prices for Fairlife dairy products because of that company’s promises that their dairy cows were treated humanely, which an undercover operation by Animal Recovery Mission revealed to be false. A $21 million settlement was reached in a class-action lawsuit concerning the defendants’ alleged deceptive labelling and marketing practices. The settlement includes significant monetary relief for consumers, along with meaningful injunctive relief paid separately by the defendants in one of the highest-ever animal welfare labelling practices settlements in history. The stipulated injunction requires, among other things, milk makers who sell to Fairlife to undergo annual farm audits by a third-party group, paid for by Fairlife, over the next three years to ensure the welfare of the animals. It also mandates new employee training focused on proper and safe animal handling with refresher training to be implemented once a year. Also, each supplier to Fairlife must institute a policy barring the hiring of individuals with criminal records for animal abuse or animal cruelty into positions that would involve direct and regular animal contact.
In the firm’s Birmingham office, Diandra “Fu” Debrosse Zimmermann took infant formula entities Abbott and Mead Johnson to task, representing a class of families who suffered premature infant births owing to the defendants’ formulas greatly increasing the risk of a severe gastrointestinal disorder that causes intestinal tissue death and can be fatal.
Litigation boutique Faruki has an established presence in the Buckeye state, with two locations in Cincinnati and Dayton. In particular, the firm has a growing reputation for handling complex business litigation as well as contentious matters involving data privacy, cybersecurity, intellectual property, and class actions.
Based in Dayton, Erin Rhinehart is a star practitioner and leads the firm’s media and communications practice. Rhinehart, who is also recognized in Benchmark Litigation’s
40 and Under Hot List, handles a variety of disputes regarding the First Amendment, defamation, intellectual property, in addition to defending a number of companies in class action suits at both the state and federal level. Notable clients of hers include Cox Media Group, Procter & Gamble, and Cargill. D Jeffrey Ireland also operates out of the firm’s Dayton office and has over 40 years of experience litigating complex business disputes in Ohio as well as across the country. Ireland, who serves as managing partner at the firm, worked alongside Rhinehart in defending Procter & Gamble in a consumer class action case as well as another dispute involving breach of contract claims. Highly respected partner
Jeffrey Cox has a comprehensive litigation practice that has recently focused on data privacy and intellectual property disputes. Among his recent matters, Cox represented Procter & Gamble in a patent infringement case the company brought against Coca-Cola regarding the chemical composition of its beverage products. In addition, Cox defended British information conglomerate Reed Elsevier in front of the Federal Trade Commission in an investigation involving federal data protection compliance.
Full-service law firm Thompson Hine is equipped with a team of litigators routinely sought out by clients to handle their most complex product liability and business disputes. With offices in Georgia, Illinois, DC, and New York, along with a significant footprint in Ohio featuring four distinct locations, Thompson Hine has developed a reputation for exemplary representation and success. A client describes the firm’s bench of litigators as, “subject matter experts who provide extremely responsive communication, client services, and trial advocacy.” The same client shares their praise for Atlanta-based partner Marla Butler. “Marla is a superb strategist and partner to our company,” notes the client. “She and her team work harder, smarter, and more efficiently than most other firms I deal with. Marla has a mastery of IP law and related issues, and she is a delight to deal with. Marla is humble, open to creative ways of solving problems, and is an authentically terrific person.”
Cleveland-based product liability litigator Elizabeth ‘Missy’ Wright is national counsel for a major automotive manufacturer in separate cases related to alleged defective products. Timothy Coughlin is a fellow Cleveland partner who chairs the mass & toxic tort group and leads chemical industry group. In a recent case, he utilized his industry knowledge in developing expert opinions. William Hubbard focuses on the construction industry, representing a wide variety of clients. He defends Elliott Bay Design Group, a naval engineer and architect firm, in a lawsuit alleging that they improperly designed a new ferry boat for Miller Boat Line. The plaintiff sought over $4 million in repair costs and lost income. Hubbard brought a third-party claim against the shipyard that built the vessel. The case challenges whether Ohio’s anti-indemnification statute applies to the construction of a vessel.
Dayton-based Christine Haaker serves as the vice-chair of the group for the office. Haaker has served as defense counsel to several high-profile entities in numerous business disputes. Anthony White serves on the Executive Committee while maintaining a practice involving class actions, most notably on behalf of a freight transportation company.
In the group’s DC office, Eric Heyer has emerged as one of the office’s leading litigators with a growing expertise in the growing nicotine vaping industry. Heyer represents Wages & White Lion Investments (d/b/a Triton Distribution) in a rare petition for rehearing en banc granted by the Fifth Circuit. The case involves a marketing denial order (MDO) issued by the FDA against a group of flavored marketing products under the Administrative Procedure Act. In 2021, prior to the latest petition for rehearing, the Fifth Circuit stayed the MDO and published an opinion finding that the FDA acted arbitrarily and capriciously. However, in July 2022, a different three-judge panel upheld the FDA’s actions in a 2-1 vote. The case is similar to pending cases in the Second and Ninth Circuits, and one Heyer won at the Eleventh Circuit in August 2022.
Ulmer & Berne is one of Ohio’s powerhouse boutiques, spanning the state with a network of offices in Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Columbus. The firm is highly regarded for its expertise in the financial services industry. Clients have expressed their appreciation for the firm’s deep focus, describing the team as “extremely knowledgeable.” In addition to business disputes, the firm is equipped with litigators well established in employment-related litigation, as clients note them for being “excellent counsel on restrictive covenants and business litigation.”
A member of the elite list of Top 100 Trial Lawyers and chair of the firm’s litigation group, Michael Ungar is one of the backbones of the firm’s business litigation practice. He is an all-purpose business and commercial trial lawyer, well known for representing financial institutions, among others. He is lead partner in a shareholder arbitration alleging breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty claims. Cleveland’s Frances Floriano Goins serves as co-leader of the firm’s financial services and securities group, as well as the dedicated cybersecurity and privacy group. She continues to defend the Trustee of certain revenue bonds, Huntington National Bank, in a dispute related to the operation and ownership of a parking garage whose revenues contributed to servicing the bonds. The plaintiffs asserted 22-counts in their First Amended Complaint, naming eight Defendents, and seeking roughly $8 million in damages, fees, and expenses. The plaintiffs have also sought declaratory judgment on the rights of the Trustee, which Floriano Goins prevailed against on a successful motion for judgment on the pleadings in February 2022. Amanda Martinsek serves clients in the private and public sector. She has previously represented school districts, as well as counties, in litigation. She was brought in to represent county commissioners in a dispute with a city’s Board of Education after the County imposed tax increment financing for districts. Cincinnati-based partner Jeffrey Peck is a product liability specialist recently involved in matters related to the high-profile opioid litigation. He serves as lead national counsel on numerous cases, including state and federal multidistrict litigations. Peck is handling the pleadings, motion practice, and written and deposition discovery Elevated to the status of Litigation Star this year, Patrick “PJ” Cosgrove serves as the firm’s product liability practice group leader. He serves as lead national counsel to a large pharmaceutical company in the multidistrict litigation styled In Re Zantac (Ranitidine) Products Liability Litigation. Vice-chair of the litigation section, Jeffrey Dunlap is the group’s go-to for employment-related Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitrations, as well as disputes before the American Arbitration Association (AAA). He defended one of the largest banks against a whistleblower retaliation claim filed under the Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank acts. After a successful OSHA investigation that the plaintiff appealed, the case was tried before the Department of Labor, which denied all claims and dismissed the case.