CHICAGO & CLEVELAND--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A group of nationally renowned plaintiffs’ attorneys has teamed up to create a new breed of plaintiffs’ law firm, representing victims of injustice ranging from those who have suffered catastrophic personal injuries, to small businesses, to institutional investors. DiCello Levitt & Casey’s founding partners have served in leadership roles in some of the largest class action and mass tort cases in U.S. history, including litigation arising from the Volkswagen emissions scandal, which recently resulted in a $16 billion civil settlement.
Led by Mark DiCello, Adam Levitt, and James Casey, the new firm is unique among plaintiffs’ firms in offering deep experience across a wide spectrum of matters, including class action, mass tort, catastrophic injury, civil rights, and commercial litigation. Representing individuals; corporate clients, including private equity firms and hedge funds; institutional investors; whistleblowers; and states and municipalities, the firm’s litigators are esteemed for their rigorous focus grouping, jury analysis, and cognitive neuroscience prowess. With additional capabilities in antitrust, securities, and intellectual property law, DiCello Levitt & Casey launches with 11 attorneys—including partners John Tangren, Robert DiCello, and Amy Keller—and a full support staff, with offices in Chicago and Cleveland.
“Mark and Jim are exceptional advocates who I like, respect, and have successfully collaborated with for many years,” Levitt said. “We share a vision for a sophisticated plaintiffs’ firm with the ability to not only participate in the nation’s most significant litigation, but to be in at the ground floor, shaping strategies that ensure our clients achieve the justice they deserve.”
Prior to forming the new firm, Levitt was a director at Grant & Eisenhofer P.A., where he led the firm’s Consumer Protection and Products Liability Litigation group. In addition to his work on the Volkswagen emissions case and other major automotive and financial services litigation, Levitt served as co-lead counsel in several of the largest biotechnology class actions in recent years, achieving recoveries exceeding $1.7 billion in lawsuits involving genetically modified crops and a turf-damaging herbicide (In re Genetically Modified Rice Litigation, In re StarLink Corn Products Liability Litigation, and In re Imprelis Herbicide Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation). He also maintains a robust public-client practice, counseling local and state governments, including state attorneys general.
“We are proud to create an elite plaintiffs’ firm capable of handling the nation’s most consequential matters, regardless of size, industry, or geography,” DiCello said.
One of the nation’s leading plaintiffs’ attorneys, DiCello previously headed the Cleveland-based DiCello Law Firm. He regularly spearheads major personal injury and mass tort actions. He served as co-lead counsel in In re Mentor Corp. ObTape Transobturator Sling Products Liability Litigation, overseeing litigation on behalf of women around the country injured by transvaginal mesh products. Additionally, DiCello serves as head of the Plaintiffs’ Science Committee in the New Jersey based metal-on-metal hip litigation In re: Stryker Rejuvenate and ABG II Modular Hip Implant Litigation, in which settlements have exceeded $1.5 billion and continue to grow. He also serves in leadership in other ongoing complex litigation while he continues to represent clients who have suffered catastrophic and life-changing injury.
Firm co-founder James Casey launched his career by earning a million-dollar medical malpractice verdict with a performance so striking the defense subsequently hired him to represent physicians and hospitals against malpractice claims. Casey later returned to the plaintiffs’ side, where he has participated in 25 verdicts in excess of $1 million and 4 in excess of $10 million. Mr. Casey has helped recover more than $500 million on behalf of catastrophically injured clients and their families.
“We can try any matter. With collective experience covering medical, pharmaceutical, automotive, biotech, financial services, and securities-related matters, we have created something new at DiCello Levitt & Casey,” Casey said. “The market is ready for a plaintiffs’ firm with our range, and we are excited to represent clients of all types that deserve vindication through aggressive, attentive, and creative legal action.”
Notable matters handled by DiCello Levitt & Casey lawyers:
- In re Volkswagen “Clean Diesel” Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee member in this MDL litigation, obtaining over $16 billion in aggregate settlements in three related cases arising out of defendants’ installation of computer software in almost 500,000 US-sold and leased VW, Audi, and Porsche vehicles that intentionally changed the vehicles’ emissions production during official testing, thereby enabling those companies to evade U.S. emissions standards in violation of environmental and deceptive trade practice laws.
- State of New Mexico ex rel. Hector H. Balderas v. Volkswagen Group of America, Inc., et al. – Representing the State of New Mexico in litigation against Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche, asserting claims for violations of the New Mexico Air Quality Control Act , the New Mexico Unfair Practices Act, and common law nuisance arising out of defendants’ installation of computer software in almost 500,000 US-sold and leased VW, Audi, and Porsche vehicles that intentionally changed the vehicles’ emissions production during official testing, thereby enabling those companies to evade U.S. emissions standards in violation of environmental and deceptive trade practice laws.
- In re Genetically Modified Rice Litigation – Co-Lead Counsel in MDL litigation resulting in post-trial global settlement exceeding $1.1 billion on behalf of long-grain rice producers and others who suffered losses resulting from contamination of the U.S. rice supply with unapproved, genetically modified seeds.
- In re Imprelis Herbicide, Sales Practice and Products Liability Litigation – Co-Lead Counsel in MDL litigation resulting in a $550 million settlement on behalf of landowners and landscapers in a class action against DuPont, seeking to recover damages for tree and other foliage death and other harm caused by DuPont’s Imprelis herbicide.
- In re StarLink Corn Products Liability Litigation – Co-Lead Counsel in MDL litigation resulting in a $110 million recovery for farmers who sustained market losses on their corn crops arising from contamination of the U.S. corn supply with genetically-modified StarLink corn. Instrumental in developing a class-wide damages model using grain elevator prices, corn futures pricing, and the efficient market hypothesis which led to a uniform damages approach that has served as the basis for the damages models used in every crop contamination case since that time.
- Johnson, et al. v. Ford Motor Co. – Co-Lead Counsel in multistate litigation against Ford arising out of the propensity of certain Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln vehicles to sustain unintended acceleration events and the lack of a failsafe system that would allow the driver to mitigate these events.
- In re Navistar MaxxForce Engines, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation – Co-Lead Counsel in MDL litigation against Navistar International Corporation and Navistar, Inc. arising out of their sales and leases of model year 2010-2013 trucks equipped with Navistar’s MaxxForce 11, 13, and 15 Advanced EGR diesel engines that Navistar knew were defectively designed and would prematurely fail, causing damage to the Trucks and economic harm to the owners and lessees thereof.
- In re General Motors LLC Ignition Switch Litigation – Executive Committee member in this MDL litigation representing proposed nationwide classes of GM vehicle owners and lessees whose cars include defective ignition switches in litigation focusing on economic loss claims and alleging that the ignition switches in these vehicles share a common, uniform, and defective design.
- In re Wells Fargo ERISA 401(k) Litigation – Lead Counsel in action on behalf of participants in the Wells Fargo 401(k) Plan, alleging breaches of fiduciary duty under the ERISA laws as result of the Plan fiduciaries’ failure to protect those Plan participants who invested in Wells Fargo stock from the effects of the fraudulent account scandal that was publicly disclosed in September 2016.
- Mentor Corp. ObTape Transobturator Sling Products Liability Litigation – Co-Lead Counsel in this MDL litigation on behalf of hundreds of women who asserted claims that they were injured by Mentor Corp’s transvaginal mesh product. The women maintain that they suffered ongoing pain, infection and disfigurement as a result of being implanted with this product.
- In re Propecia (Finestride) Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee member in this ongoing MDL litigation on behalf of men who claim to have suffered permanent sexual dysfunction and depression resulting from use of this pharmaceutical product that was marketed and sold as a solution for hair loss.
- In re Stryker Rejuvenate and ABG II Hip Implant Litigation – Head of Plaintiffs’ Science Committee in this MCL Litigation based in New Jersey claiming that thousands of Stryker’s recalled hip implants suffered fretting and galvanic corrosion that led to complications including metal debris in the bloodstream and tissues around the implant site resulting in necrosis, infection and revision surgery. Settlements have exceeded $1.5 billion as new claims continue to be filed.
- State of New Mexico ex rel. Hector H. Balderas v. Takata Corporation, et al. – Representing the State of New Mexico in litigation involving Takata and several vehicle manufacturers, asserting claims for violations of the New Mexico Unfair Practices Act arising out of defendants’ development, integration, marketing, and/or sale of Takata’s dangerously defective airbags in hundreds of thousands of vehicles sold or leased in the State of New Mexico. The State alleges that Takata and each of the manufacturers that sold vehicles equipped with dangerously defective airbags in New Mexico have violated the UPA, which prohibits selling or offering for sale any product by the use of any false or deceptive statements.
- Black v. Hicks, et al. – Secured $22 million verdict against three police officers and the City of East Cleveland on behalf of an Ohio man who was locked in a storage closet by a police detective, with no toilet for four days, and given nothing to eat or drink except for a carton of milk. (largest police misconduct verdict in Ohio history).