to view the Lawdragon's - Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP

Lawdragon Q & A with:steve bermanHagens Berman co-founder SteveBerman often refers to his work as a plaintiffs’ lawyeras playing David against the Goliaths of corporateAmerica. The work, he says, is not for the faint hearted.And he’s not kidding. Since opening his firm inSeattle in 1993, he has gone to battle in court andwon record-breaking settlements against Wall Street,Big Oil, Big Pharma and Big Tobacco.These days, the veteran trial lawyer has expandedhis practice beyond class action to intellectual propertylitigation, filing cases against tech giants such asApple, Nintendo and Samsung. He also is co-lead plaintiffs’counsel in class action claims against Toyotaover sudden-acceleration problems.LAWDRAGon: You have a pretty diverse practice for aplaintiffs’ attorney. How hard is it to shift practiceareas or do you consider all cases the same?STEve BERMAn: There is a common DNA that connectsall of our work. First, we look for plaintiff work thatrewards our ability to bring thoughtful, innovative legalapproaches to cases coupled with an aggressive, smartapproach to litigation. Second, as an organization, wealways look for cases that benefit the public good in ameaningful and measurable way, including cases thatrepresent consumers, retirees, investors, inventors,workers and others who ordinarily would not have theresources to challenge large, well-financed entities.LD: Knowing how to vet cases is critical to the successof all plaintiffs’ firms and so far you’ve had a prettygood run in picking really big cases. Is there a formulato that?SB: To be successful, you must be willing to invest –invest in recruiting and hiring the sharpest and mostintellectually nimble minds in the legal community.Second you need to be willing to invest the time andresources it takes to properly vet and assess very complexcases and legal issues. That includes putting ateam of attorneys, researchers and experts on anissue, sometimes for months, before we make a determinationthat a plaintiff’s case is something we couldtake on. We also have a deep bench of incredibly talentedattorneys that routinely develop innovative legaltheories and who are not afraid to apply the law inways that have not yet been tested in court.Finally, we have a very flat organizational structure– when we’ve decided a plaintiff’s case has merit, wecan say yes fast – we don’t wallow in endless committee-meetingapproval processes. We’ve been success-bY Xenia Kobylarzful in identifying the right cases through a combinationof all of these assets.LD: How did the Apple e-book antitrust case develop?SB: I am an avid reader and I noticed my eBooks werecosting me more. We then did some research andfound Steve Jobs’ assertion in an interview that priceswould be the same across various platforms, includingKindle and iPad. Then, when we saw that several publisherschanged their business model at the sametime, that raised our eyebrows.We continued to investigate the issue to determinewhether there was collusion between Apple and thepublishers. We spent a lot of time and resources onthis investigation because unlike the Department ofJustice we do not have subpoena power. We ultimatelyconcluded that Apple and the publishers were in violationof the antitrust laws and filed a class-action lawsuiton behalf of consumers.LD: What’s your most memorable case and why?SB: First was the landmark tobacco case we broughton behalf of the Attorneys General of thirteen states,which ultimately led to the largest civil settlement ofall time. But everyone knows that, so the case I turn toinvolves the residents of the island of Bougainville inPapua New Guinea who claim that mining company RioTinto dumped billions of tons of toxic waste on theisland. This dispossessed the residents of the island oftheir land and destroyed their culture, so they foughtback, forcing Rio to close its mining operations. Weallege that Rio and the Papua New Guinea governmentthen brought in troops to reopen the mine. When thatfailed, they instituted a military blockade that lastedten years and we believe caused the deaths of at least10,000 people because Rio blocked medicine and foodaid. As one manager at Rio put it, they were “starvingthe bastards out.” We sued Rio and the legal battlehas lasted nearly 12 years and has gone back andforth to the U.S. Supreme Court. Some articles say themovie Avatar was based on this story.LD: The competition for lead plaintiffs’ counsel hasbecome really heated in recent years and you’ve wonseveral lead roles in some major cases. How do youprepare for that phase of litigation?SB: I try to ask myself, what would a judge want in alawyer for a class? A proven track record, tenacious,not afraid to try cases, delivers real results, is notgreedy and is always honest with the Court. These aremy themes in lead counsel fights.View all Q&As at www.lawdragon.com/news-features.500Photo by: Kevin CaseyL A W D R A G O N 103 I s s u e 13