The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization.
Fredric Gerson Levin was an American plaintiffs' lawyer who served as chairman of Levin, Papantonio, Rafferty, Proctor, Buchanan, O'Brien, Barr, Mougey, P.A., a law firm in Northwest Florida. The Fredric G. Levin College of Law at the University of Florida is named for him because of a monetary donation he made to the school in 1999.
Hill & Barlow was a law firm in Boston, Massachusetts that was dissolved on December 7, 2002 after 106 years of business. Founded in 1899, the firm had been one of the city's oldest and most elite firms, and was also the 12th largest in Boston at the time of its dissolution, employing 138 lawyers. The firm was founded by Arthur D. Hill, known for defending the anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti. Hill began his practice in 1895 and joined forces in 1899 with Robert Homans and Robert Barlow to form Hill & Barlow. Nevertheless, the firm celebrated its 100 year anniversary in 1895.
The State Bar of California is an administrative division of the Supreme Court of California which licenses attorneys and regulates the practice of law in California. It is responsible for managing the admission of lawyers to the practice of law, investigating complaints of professional misconduct, prescribing appropriate discipline, accepting attorney-member fees, and financially distributing sums paid through attorney trust accounts to fund nonprofit legal entities. It is directly responsible to the Supreme Court of California. Its trustees are appointed by the Supreme Court, the California Legislature, and Governor of California. All attorney admissions are issued as recommendations of the State Bar, which are then routinely ratified by the Supreme Court. Attorney discipline is handled by the State Bar Office of Chief Trial Counsel, which acts as prosecutor before the State Bar Court of California. The State Bar has been cited for its corrupt practices during the 21st century, and is subject to reforms issued by its governing body, the California Supreme Court.
A personal injury lawyer is a lawyer who provides legal services to those who claim to have been injured, physically or psychologically, as a result of the negligence of another person, company, government agency or any entity. Personal injury lawyers primarily practice in the area of law known as tort law. Examples of common personal injury claims include injuries from slip and fall accidents, traffic collisions, defective products, workplace injuries and professional malpractice.
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP is an American international law firm with approximately 2,200 legal professionals in 31 offices across North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Mergers with other law firms stimulated global growth and led to a ranking of eighth on The American Lawyer's 2018 top 100 firms by gross revenue list. It is also the largest law firm chaired by a woman and represents "three-quarters of the Fortune 100 companies."
Overlawyered was a law blog on the subject of tort reform run by author Walter Olson. Founded in 1999, it is "widely considered to be the oldest legal blog and is also one of the most popular", according to Law.com.
Tort reform consists of changes in the civil justice system in common law countries that aim to reduce the ability of plaintiffs to bring tort litigation or to reduce damages they can receive. Such changes are generally justified under the grounds that litigation is an inefficient means to compensate plaintiffs; that tort law permits frivolous or otherwise undesirable litigation to crowd the court system; or that the fear of litigation can serve to curtail innovation, raise the cost of consumer goods or insurance premiums for suppliers of services, and increase legal costs for businesses. Tort reform has primarily been prominent in common law jurisdictions, where criticism of judge-made rules regarding tort actions manifests in calls for statutory reform by the legislature.
Stanley M. Chesley is a disbarred former Ohio trial lawyer. He is the husband of federal judge Susan J. Dlott.
Thomas Vincent Girardi is a former attorney and co-founder of the now-defunct Girardi & Keese, a downtown Los Angeles law firm. He was disbarred in 2022 after accusations of defrauding clients. He is separated from his third wife, the performer Erika Jayne, with whom he occasionally appeared on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills in their Pasadena mansion. In August 2024 he was found guilty of stealing tens of millions of dollars from his clients, and will be sentenced in December 2024. He faces another trial in 2025 in Chicago on similar charges of fraud.
Theodore Harold 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.
Boies Schiller Flexner LLP is an American law firm based in New York City. The firm was founded by David Boies and Jonathan D. Schiller, in 1997, who, in 1999, were joined by Donald L. Flexner, former partner with Crowell & Moring, then forming Boies, Schiller & Flexner.
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP is an American multinational law firm headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1890, the firm has more than 1,900 attorneys and 1,000 staff in 21 offices across the world, including North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. It is one of the largest and most profitable law firms in the world. The firm is known for its litigation practice, and in particular its strength in appellate law.
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.)
Kasowitz, Benson & Torres is a New York law firm founded in 1993. It employs 350 lawyers and maintains offices in several states. The firm focuses on product liability litigation, corporate, family and employment law, as well as intellectual property, bankruptcy and creditors' rights. The firm's notable clients have included Donald Trump, Robert De Niro, Celanese, ArvinMeritor, Liggett Group, Enron, WorldCom and Mia Farrow.
The Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles (CAALA), previously the Los Angeles Trial Lawyers Association (LATLA), is one of the largest associations of plaintiffs lawyers in the United States. Although CAALA refers to itself as a local association, it has almost 3,000 members and is larger than all but six state trial-bar associations. CAALA's annual Las Vegas convention is the largest gathering of plaintiffs lawyers in the United States and its magazine, The Advocate, is the most widely circulated trial-bar publication in the country.
Prenda Law, also known as Steele | Hansmeier PLLP and Anti-Piracy Law Group, was a Chicago-based law firm that ostensibly operated by undertaking litigation against copyright infringement. However, it was later characterized by the United States District Court for Central California in a May 2013 ruling as a "porno-trolling collective" whose business model "relie[d] on deception", and which resembled most closely a conspiracy and racketeering enterprise, referring in the judgment to RICO, the U.S. Federal anti-racketeering law. The firm ostensibly dissolved itself in July 2013 shortly after the adverse ruling although onlookers described Alpha Law Firm LLC as its apparent replacement. In 2014, the ABA Journal described the "Prenda Law saga" as having entered "legal folklore".
Raymond Paul Boucher is an American trial attorney. Throughout his career, Boucher has represented clients in a wide range of matters including consumer litigation, construction defect litigation, product liability, toxic tort litigation and employment discrimination. He served as lead attorney in the landmark $660-million sexual-abuse settlement with the Catholic archdiocese where he represented over 250 abuse victims in the July 2007 settlement. He was able to help secure over one billion dollars in recovery for victims of abuse by Catholic Priests in Southern California.
Levin, Papantonio, Proctor, Buchanan, O'Brien, Barr, & Mougey, P.A. is an American law firm based in Pensacola, Florida, founded in 1955 by David Levin, Reubin Askew]], originally under the name Levin & Askew. It is best known for its prominent role in the field of mass tort litigation, where it started and continues to host the biannual conference called Mass Torts Made Perfect. In 2016, the National Law Journal recognized Levin Papantonio as one of America's Elite Trial Law Firms.
Michael John Avenatti is an American former attorney currently incarcerated in federal prison for felony fraud and extortion. He is best known for his legal representation of adult film actress Stormy Daniels in lawsuits against then U.S. President Donald Trump, and his multiple convictions for attempting to extort sports apparel company Nike and defrauding and embezzling settlement money from a series of other clients. In the late 2010s, Avenatti appeared extensively on television and in print as a legal and political commentator, and as a representative for prominent clients.
