Kaplan Fox

Last updated
Kaplan Fox
Headquarters New York City
No. of offices4
No. of attorneys39
No. of employees45
Major practice areasClass action lawsuits, complex litigation, securities
Date founded1955
Website www.kaplanfox.com

Kaplan Fox, also known as Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer, is an American plaintiffs' law firm. Founded in 1955, the firm employees 39 lawyers in offices in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New Jersey.

In 2014, The New York Times wrote that Kaplan Fox was part of "a flourishing industry that pairs plaintiffs' lawyers with state attorneys general to sue companies, a collaboration that has set off a furious competition between trial lawyers and corporate lobbyists to influence these officials." [1] The firm has been a major donor to state attorneys general associations, candidates, state party committees, and attorneys general running for governor. [2]

In 2020, Kaplan Fox brought class action litigation against financial trading platform Robinhood Markets. Along with another law firm, Kaplan Fox spearheaded coordination among the plaintiffs' firms that filed various class action lawsuits, urging the firms to consolidate in federal court. They asked U.S. District Judge James Donato to appoint them interim counsel and to name an executive committee of nine attorneys from different plaintiffs' law firms. Donato rejected the proposed leadership structure due to its lack of diversity, citing the fact that all of the proposed representatives were men. Donato also said the proposed list included many lawyers and law firms that are frequently involved in class actions and multidistrict litigation (MDL), and "that experience might benefit the prospective class, but highlights the 'repeat player' problem in class counsel appointments that has burdened class action litigation and MDL proceedings." [3] [4]

In July 2021, Kaplan Fox filed a consumer class action lawsuit against Honda, alleging some of their cars have defective batteries. [5]

Kaplan Fox represented a class of litigants who sued Apple Inc. over iPhone battery life, obtaining a $310 million settlement. The class action lawyers in the case received an $81 million fee award. In an amicus brief filed in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, attorneys general for 13 states challenged the lawyers' fees. [6] The attorneys general said that class counsel from Kaplan Fox and Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy deserved no more than their lodestar billing of $36 million. [7] The fee award was also challenged by some members of the class action lawsuit, who argued that the 26% award was excessive. [8] The United States Department of Justice urged "the judge to remember that every dollar awarded to class counsel is a dollar that consumers will not receive." [7] Class members were expected to receive $25 for each iPhone owned. [9]

Related Research Articles

Attorney's fee is a chiefly United States term for compensation for legal services performed by an attorney for a client, in or out of court. It may be an hourly, flat-rate or contingent fee. Recent studies suggest that when lawyers charge a flat-fee rather than billing by the hour, they work less hard on behalf of clients and clients get worse outcomes. Attorney fees are separate from fines, compensatory and punitive damages, and from court costs in a legal case. Under the "American rule", attorney fees are usually not paid by the losing party to the winning party in a case, except pursuant to specific statutory or contractual rights.

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP is a global white shoe law firm headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The firm employs approximately 800 attorneys throughout 23 offices around the world.

Kirkland & Ellis American law firm

Kirkland & Ellis LLP is an American law firm. Founded in 1909 in Chicago, Illinois, Kirkland & Ellis is the largest law firm in the world by revenue, the seventh-largest by number of attorneys, and is the first law firm in the world to reach US$4 billion in revenue. As of 2021, Kirkland & Ellis ranks third on Am Law's list of profits per equity partner. While Kirkland & Ellis was historically considered a firm focused on litigation, during the 2010s, it expanded private equity and restructuring practices which, together with large-scale commercial litigation, comprise the core legal service areas of the firm.

Milberg LLP is a US plaintiffs' law firm, established in 1965 and based in New York City. It has mounted many class action cases on behalf of investors, and has been recognized as among the leading firms in its field by the National Law Journal, RiskMetrics Group, Securities Class Action Services, and Law360. The firm and some of its partners were charged in 2006 with offering improper inducements to plaintiffs. The case against the firm itself was dismissed in 2008, but that same year four partners pleaded guilty to charges, and many others had already left the firm.

Theodore H. "Ted" Frank, is an American lawyer, activist, and legal writer, based in Washington, D.C. He is the counsel of record and petitioner in Frank v. Gaos, the first Supreme Court case to deal with the issue of cy pres in class action settlements; he is one of the few Supreme Court attorneys ever to argue his own case. He wrote the vetting report of vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin for the John McCain campaign in the 2008 presidential election. He founded the Center for Class Action Fairness (CCAF) in 2009; it temporarily merged with the Competitive Enterprise Institute in 2015, but as of 2019 CCAF is now part of the new Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, a free-market nonprofit public-interest law firm founded by Frank and his CCAF colleague Melissa Holyoak. The New York Times calls him the "leading critic of abusive class-action settlements"; the Wall Street Journal has referred to him as "a leading tort-reform advocate" and praised his work exposing dubious practices by plaintiffs' attorneys in class actions.

W. Mark Lanier American lawyer

William Mark Lanier is an American trial lawyer and founder and CEO of the Lanier Law Firm. He has led a number of high profile product litigation suits resulting in billions of dollars in damages, including Johnson & Johnson baby powder and Merck & Co.'s Vioxx drug.

Gibson Dunn is an American multinational law firm headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1890, the firm includes approximately 1,400 attorneys and 1,000 staff located in 20 offices around the world, including North and South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The firm is known for its litigation practice, and in particular its strength in appellate law.

Lewis A. Kaplan is a United States District Judge serving on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He took senior status on February 1, 2011.

Grant & Eisenhofer P.A. is an American plaintiffs' law firm.

Edelson

Edelson PC is an American plaintiffs' law firm that focuses on public client investigations, class actions, mass tort, and consumer protection laws. Edelson’s cases include class action settlements against Facebook for $650 million (2021), social casino apps for nearly $200 million (2021), and a $925 million verdict against ViSalus (2020.)

James Donato American judge

James Donato is a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

Edward (Ted) Millstein is an attorney in Philadelphia. He is best known for representing plaintiffs in lawsuits against large corporations such as Visa, MasterCard, and Volkswagen. Millstein is also well known for his representation of victims of the Holocaust. He was instrumental in obtaining reparations for victims and their families, which resulted in the formation of a foundation with over $5 billion in assets.

Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP is an American law firm headquartered in San Diego, California. It is a plaintiffs law firm specializing in securities litigation and shareholder rights cases.

Eric Gibbs is an American attorney at Gibbs Law Group LLP in the United States. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Consumer Attorneys of California. As a part of the American Association for Justice, he co-chairs the Consumer Privacy and Data Breach Litigation Group and the Lumber Liquidators Litigation Group, and serves as the secretary for the Qui Tam Litigation Group.

Perry Weitz is an American attorney and partner at the Manhattan law firm Weitz & Luxenberg, which he co-founded in 1986. He is also the co-chairman of Counsel Financial, a financing company that gives loans to small law firms that specialize in personal injury.

Christopher A. Seeger New York attorney (born 1960)

Christopher A. Seeger is an American lawyer who specializes in multidistrict mass tort and class action litigation. He received the most multidistrict litigation (MDL) appointments of any lawyer between 2016 and 2019 according to an 2020 ALM study. Seeger is a founding partner of the firm Seeger Weiss LLP.

Baron & Budd, P.C. is an American plaintiffs' law firm headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Opponents of mass tort litigation have criticized the firm for the zealousness with which it represents its clients, and for the political activities of some of its attorneys.

Lieff Cabraser is an American plaintiffs' law firm headquartered in San Francisco. The firm was founded in 1972 by Robert L. Lieff. Elizabeth Cabraser became a partner in 1981.

Cohen Milstein is an American plaintiffs' law firm that engages in large-scale class action litigation. The firm filed a number of lawsuits against Donald Trump during and after his presidency, including a lawsuit which successfully blocked the Trump administration's attempt to roll back the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Cohen Milstein has been hired by various state attorneys general to assist in complex litigation, including by suing ExxonMobil over climate change. Anita Hill is of counsel at the firm.

Labaton Sucharow is a American plaintiffs' law firm. Founded in 1963, the firm employees over 60 lawyers in offices in New York, Delaware, and Washington, D.C.

References

  1. ↑ Lipton, Eric (19 December 2014). "Lawyers Create Big Paydays by Coaxing Attorneys General to Sue". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  2. ↑ "Political Gifts from Plaintiffs' Lawyers". The New York Times. 18 December 2014. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  3. ↑ Frankel, Alison (15 July 2020). "Judge in Robinhood class action balks at all-male class counsel team". Reuters. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  4. ↑ Chapoco, Ralph (July 30, 2020). "Calls for Lawyer Diversity Spread to Complex Class Litigation". news.bloomberglaw.com. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  5. ↑ "Kaplan Fox Jumps Into Litigation Over Allegedly Defective Honda Accord Batteries". The Recorder. Law.com. July 29, 2021. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  6. ↑ Bronstad, Amanda (December 1, 2020). "'Wildly Excessive': A Dozen State AGs Denounce Fee Request in Apple's Throttling Settlement". The Recorder. Law.com. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  7. 1 2 Frankel, Alison (18 March 2021). "Class counsel in Apple 'throttling' case beat multifront attack to land $81 million in fees". Reuters. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  8. ↑ Frankel, Alison (15 October 2021). "State AGs push for lodestar fee in $310 mln Apple class appeal – despite their own contingency deals". Reuters. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  9. ↑ Steinberg, Julie (March 2, 2020). "Apple's $500 Million iPhone Deal Warrants Approval, Plaintiffs Say". news.bloomberglaw.com. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.