Stroock & Stroock & Lavan

Stroock & Stroock & Lavan is a multidisciplinary firm composed of more than 300 transactional, regulatory, and litigation attorneys. Known for providing legal services to some of the nation's leading corporations, the firm routinely represents investment funds, entrepreneurs, and financial institutions.

Hailing from the New York office, arguably the firm's most celebrated commercial litigator and seasoned trial attorney James Bernard specializes in corporate, financial services, securities, and class-action litigation. He recently served as lead counsel representing plaintiffs, victims of terrorism links to Iran, in the largest civil forfeiture in U.S. history. The plaintiffs were deemed entitled to more than $1 billion in assets from entities controlled by the Iranian government. Alan Klinger, a noted labor and employment litigation expert, has maintained an active practice defending the United Federation of Teachers in an ultimately dismissed class-action complaint concerning pleading standards for claims against unincorporated associations, primary jurisdiction and the limits of the duty of fair representation in connection with most recently negotiated ground-breaking collective bargaining agreement. He also serves as lead counsel for the Uniformed Sanitationmen's Association in connection with a challenge brought before the New York Supreme Court to a policy change by the NYCERS, which divested several hundred active employees of their existing public pension Tier status and benefits years after they started working.

National Head of the firm's Entertainment Litigation Practice group and Managing Partner of the Miami office James Sammataro is a media and entertainment litigation expert. He has successfully represented high-profile clients such as Lee Daniels in a defamation action brought by actor Sean Penn, co-producers BTF Media in their fight against Jenni Rivera Enterprises' and their attempt to prohibit the production and broadcast of an unauthorized television series on Univision, and most recently the Spanish Broadcasting System in a swift bench trial verdict on an alleged copyright infringement suit. Miami-based partner Laura Besvinick focuses her 30-plus years of expertise representing bad faith actions, coverage disputes, and consumer class actions. She recently secured a win on behalf of client ZTE USA in an international arbitration case which has significant implications for future arbitration cases: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled that once a case is filed in federal court and compelled to arbitration, the federal court retains jurisdiction to confirm the arbitration award. Los Angeles-based, but nationally recognized litigator Julia Strickland continues to shine with her national practice specializing on the defense of class action suits. She served as lead counsel representing HSBC in a series of nationwide class actions pending in New York challenging retail bank overdraft fees. She has successfully limited the claims in these actions to putative New York and California cases, and was able to negotiate a nationwide $32 million settlement in a parallel New York case. She also represents Department Stores National Bank and Macy's in a putative class action involving preemption under the National Bank Act and OCC regulations.