Susman Godfrey LLP

“Trials are all-consuming — and so is parenting two kids under five.” Zach Savage talks to Law360 about how he balances the demands of being a busy litigator and a father to two young children. Zach discusses how practices such as guarding the hours of 6-8pm for dinner and bedtime and taking advantage of any unexpected down time are critical to striking a balance between being successful at his day job while also being there for his family. And he leaves us with the important advice: “What I avoid doing, if at all possible, is working and parenting at the same time. When I try to do that, I find that I don't do either one particularly well.” 

“It doesn’t get better for litigators than Susman Godfrey.”  Vault has named Susman Godfrey the #1 Litigation Boutique in the nation for the 14th consecutive year. The firm, which Vault calls a “litigation powerhouse,” has earned this honor every year since the survey’s inception. Susman Godfrey scored top recognitions in key areas: - #1 US LITIGATION BOUTIQUE. The firm has been ranked #1 every year since the inception of the rankings. - REGIONAL LEADERS. Both the firm’s Houston and New York offices are ranked among the Best Regional Mid-Size Law Firms. This is Houston’s fifth year in a row with the recognition and New York’s third year in a row. - NATIONAL LEADERS. The firm is ranked #28 in Vault’s Law 100 – a list of the top 100 firms in the country – up from #40 in 2024. - TRANSPARENCY. For 2025, the firm is ranked as the Best Midsize Law Firm for Career Outlook, Selectivity, and Transparency. This is the third year in a row the firm has been named #1 in Transparency. Says one Associate, “The firm has unprecedented transparency. Associates vote on all hires and new matters. Associates also receive detailed reports regarding the firm’s finances on a regular basis.” And another “The transparency is second to none. Associates are involved in most of the important decision making.” - TOP FIVE. In addition, SG ranks in the top 5 nationally for Compensation, Quality of Work Satisfaction, and Overall Ranking. To read Vault’s full review of our firm, plus Q&A firm several SG partners click here: https://lnkd.in/eR9GxqJq

After many years, we are pleased with yesterday’s result on behalf of the classes we represent.   Susman Godfrey was selected by the Court nine years ago to serve as co-lead class counsel and served as trial counsel to the class during the three-week trial.

It’s a great day for consumers everywhere,” Bill Carmody is quoted in The New York Times about the nearly $5 billion verdict handed to the NFL yesterday in California Federal Court. Susman Godfrey was selected by the Court to serve as co-lead class counsel and served as trial counsel to the class during the three-week trial. Joining Carmody on the trial team were Marc Seltzer, Amanda Bonn, Kalpana Srinivasan, Seth Ard, Ian Gore, Eliza Finley, and Tyler Finn.

Eleven partners hailing from all four of Susman Godfrey offices have been recognized in the 2024 IAM Patent 1000, which is regarded as “the definitive ‘go-to’ resource for those seeking to identify world-class, private practice patent expertise.” From Texas: Joseph Grinstein, Justin Nelson, Max Tribble, Lexie White, and Meng Xi. From California: Kalpana Srinivasan. From New York: Bill Carmody. From Washington: Matthew Berry, Parker Folse, Andres Healy, and Genevieve Vose Wallace. In addition to this individual recognition, IAM recognizes the firm’s Texas, California, and Washington offices for their winning work in patent litigation saying, “the team at Susman Godfrey continually impress” and describes the firm as having, “a strong national reputation for excellence, and a team of tech-savvy practitioners adept at simplifying nuanced matters for trial, the firm leads the charge in the nation’s most cutting-edge IP cases.” IAM also praises the firm’s “deep bench of legal talent.”

”They are always the best lawyers in the courtroom. The lawyers are able to distill very complicated topics in a way the jury will find informative, entertaining and persuasive. It’s one of my go-to firms.” Client Quote from 2024 Chambers USA Rankings Susman Godfrey has once again earned top marks in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers Guide for 2024. This year, the respected legal directory highlighted 21 Susman Godfrey trial lawyers – up 3 from last year – among the nation’s top litigators and all four of the firm’s offices as leading locations. The full list of Susman Godfrey lawyers recognized by Chambers include Barry Barnett, Amanda Bonn, Jacob Buchdahl, Bill Carmody, Ryan Caughey, Parker Folse, Erica Harris, Geoffrey Harrison, Alex Kaplan, Neal Manne, Steve Morrissey, Mark Musico, Shawn Rabin, Shawn Raymond, Marc Seltzer, Stephen Shackelford, Kalpana Srinivasan, Harry Susman, Max Tribble, Mark Wawro, and Lexie White.

Mayor Brandon Scott and the City of Baltimore have reached a historic $45 million settlement with Allergan Finance, LLC to resolve the City’s claims against Allergan in ongoing litigation against the opioid distributors and manufacturers that fueled the worst opioid epidemic in the nation. Allergan will pay the entire $45 million settlement amount within 30 days. The City’s deal with Allergan is an unprecedented recovery in the nationwide opioid litigation. “We are proud to partner with Mayor Scott and the City of Baltimore to fight this deadly epidemic and bring justice to everyone affected by it,” said Susman Godfrey Partner Bill Carmody, who is leading the outside legal team on this matter. He is joined by Partners Seth Ard, Sy Polky, Adam Carlis, Cory Buland, David Peterson, Edgar Sargent, Geng Chen, Rocco Magni, Michael Kelso, and Krisina Zuñiga, Associates Max Straus, Betsy Aronson, Alicia Lai, and Of Counsel Thomas Boardman.  Sara Gross and Thomas Webb of the Baltimore City Department of Law also represent the City in this case.

Partners Davida Brook and Stephen Shackelford have been named among Law360’s Titans of the Plaintiffs Bar in the publications annual listing of the top plaintiffs lawyers in the nation. In 2023 Brook and Shackelford, working with co-counsel, achieved a $787.5 million settlement to resolve a massive defamation suit against Fox News Network on behalf of Dominion Voting Systems. Also in 2023 Brook and Shackelford were involved in securing a $203 million win for NY hedge funder Louis Bacon in his high-profile defamation lawsuit against Peter Nygård — likely the largest defamation judgment in New York history.

For the sixth year in a row Susman Godfrey has more lawyers on Lawdragon’s Top 500 Plaintiff Financial Lawyers  list than any other litigation firm in America. In 2024 over half of our partners appear on Lawdragon’s annual list of leading lawyers who, “represent plaintiffs in securities and other business litigation, antitrust, whistleblower claims and increasingly complex financial litigation and data privacy invasions.” Our honorees include: FROM HOUSTON Barry Barnett, Matt Behnke, Vineet Bhatia, Shawn Blackburn, Ophelia Camina, Johnny Carter, Ryan Caughey, Joe Grinstein, Erica Harris, Geoffrey Harrison, Rick Hess, Alex Kaplan, Chanler Langham, Neal Manne*, Eric Mayer, Ashley McMillian, Brian Melton, Justin Nelson, Trey Peacock, Shawn Raymond, Robert Rivera, Jr., Katie Sammons, Harry Susman, Max Tribble, Laranda Walker, Mark Wawro*, Lexie White and Meng Xi. FROM LOS ANGELES Amanda Bonn, Davida Brook, Oleg Elkhunovich, Michael Gervais, Kathy Hoek, Krysta Pachman, Marc Seltzer*, Steven Sklaver and Kalpana Srinivasan. FROM NEW YORK Seth Ard, Elisha Barron, Jacob Buchdahl, Cory Buland, Bill Carmody*, Beatrice Franklin, Mark Hatch-Miller, Ryan Kirkpatrick, Shawn Rabin, Stephen Shackelford and Steven Shepard. FROM SEATTLE Matt Berry, Rachel Black, Parker Folse*, Lindsey Godfrey Eccles, Ian Gore, Drew Hansen, Steve Morrissey and Genevieve Wallace.

“If they can do this to Ms. Johansson, imagine what they’ll do to the 23-year-old screenwriter who’s just getting started.” Partner Justin Nelson talks to The Hollywood Reporter about copyright infringement litigation voice actors are filing against AI companies for misappropriating members' likenesses. Nelson is currently serving as co-lead counsel representing numerous non-fiction authors in a class action suit against OpenAI and Microsoft. Learn more about his work here: https://lnkd.in/eAVW7WgB