Eric T. Chaffin

Eric T. Chaffin is a former federal prosecutor in the Business and Securities Fraud Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, New York, where he tried multiple cases and argued various appeals before the Second Circuit. Some of Mr. Chaffin’s more notable white collar cases included the highly publicized Computer Associates International and Symbol Technologies accounting and securities fraud prosecutions (over $1.2 billion and $200 million respectively). Mr. Chaffin was also lead trial counsel in numerous criminal trials, including a successful securities fraud manipulation trial involving over $20 million in investor losses.

Before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Mr. Chaffin was a litigator with Reed Smith LLP, where he represented Fortune 500 companies in a variety of individual and class actions. There, he also tried various arbitrations and administrative hearings and second chaired the successful defense of an age discrimination case to verdict. Mr. Chaffin was also a lead attorney on a habeas corpus petition that resulted in the reversal of a death sentence for a Pennsylvania death row inmate.  In 1997, Mr. Chaffin took leave from Reed Smith to clerk for the Honorable D. Brooks Smith of the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, who was since appointed to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

After leaving the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2003, Mr. Chaffin joined Seeger Weiss LLP, where as a Partner his practice focused on individual and class securities fraud actions, consumer protection litigation and mass torts. Mr. Chaffin joined Bernstein Liebhard LLP as a Partner in 2008, where he specializes in securities litigation and heads up the firm's pharmaceutical and health care-related litigation on behalf of the firm’s individual and health and welfare fund clients.

Mr. Chaffin is currently working on In re IPO Securities Litigation. He also represents various third-party payor self-insured funds, including the NYPD Detecetive Endowment Assocation, Inc. health and welfare funds, in the Vioxx litigation.  He also represents a public health advocate, physicians and third-party payors as amici before the U.S. Supreme Court in Wyeth v. Levine, which is a key pharmaceutical mass tort Supreme Court case regarding FDA preemption that will be argued in November 2008.  Mr. Chaffin also represents various of the firm's clients in mass tort cases, incluing among others, the pharmaecutical drugs Levaquin and Gadolinium MRI contrast dye, as well as defective shoulder pain pumps.

Mr. Chaffin’s past plaintiff representations in the areas of securities, mass tort and consumer protection litigation include, among other matters, the following: 

• Co-lead counsel in a $17.5 million settlement with Dell and Dell Financial Services on behalf of defrauded consumers who were victimized by a “bait and switch” financing scheme.

• Served on the plaintiffs’ counsel committees in the multidistrict litigation pertaining to defective Medtronic and Guidant heart devices in the District of Minnesota, which settled for over $100 million and $240 million respectively.

• Lead counsel for a Para-Olympic skier in an NASD arbitration against her former broker for unsuitable investments. The case was particularly significant because the financial losses were in a trust that was comprised of proceeds from a personal injury lawsuit that were meant to support the client after she lost her legs in an auto accident at a young age. The case settled for a significant confidential amount.

• Lead trial counsel for a California corporation in the Electronic Article Surveillance market in a David-and-Goliath type action for anti-competitive advertisements in violation of the Lanham Act in California federal court, which settled for a confidential amount on the eve of trial.

Mr. Chaffin received his B.A. from West Virginia University, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and was both an Arts & Sciences Scholar and a University Honors Scholar. He received his J.D. from Washington & Lee University School of Law, graduating cum laude. At Washington & Lee, Mr. Chaffin was a Staff Writer for the W&L Environmental Law Digest, was Chairman of the Davis Moot Court Board and tried three significant federal criminal cases to verdict with the Western District of Virginia U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Mr. Chaffin served as an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School in 2002, where he taught in the areas of federal prosecutions and trial advocacy. He has also authored various articles, including: “De-Escalate the Expert Discovery Wars,” AAJ Trial Magazine (June 2008); “Higher Education Law: The Relationship with the Faculty,” The Law of Higher Education, Pa. Bar. Inst. (1997); “Review of Third Circuit Antitrust Cases (May 1993-May 1995),” 1001 Antitrust Challenges in the 90’s: Enforcement Reaches New Heights, Pa. Bar. Inst. (1995).

Mr. Chaffin is admitted to the Bars of the States of New York and West Virginia, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the Western District of Pennsylvania, and the Southern District of West Virginia. He is also admitted to practice before the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second and Third Circuits.

Mr. Chaffin currently serves on the Board of Directors of The Alexander and Buono Competitions, which are voice and piano competitions designed to help launch the careers of students completing musical studies, as well as emerging artists.  Mr Chaffin further organizes the Edison T. Chaffin, Jr. Memorial Scholarship, which is a scholarship created in the name of his late father that is given annually to a graduating senior from Oak Glen High School in West Virginia.  Mr. Chaffin, his wife Katherine, son Evin and daughter Mira reside in Rye, New York.