Trials

The Firm’s attorneys have significant trial experience, having tried scores of cases, including complex trials nationwide, the following among them:

  • Artie’s Auto Body, Inc. v. Hartford Fire Insurance Co., No. X08-CV-03-0196141S (CLD) (Conn. Super. Ct. 2009) ($14.7 million verdict in a consumer class action following a four week trial.  In 2013 the Court awarded the class $20 million in punitive damages.  This action was commenced in 2003 on behalf of approximately 550 licensed auto body repair shops in the State of Connecticut to recover for the harm caused by The Hartford’s illegal practice of artificially suppressing labor rates for auto body repair work well below market rates, and illegally steering its insureds to a closed network of preferred auto body repair shops whose activities are tightly controlled by The Hartford, in direct violation of Connecticut law.  Regrettably, the verdict and punitive damage awards were reversed on appeal)
  • Westchester Day School v. Village of Mamaroneck, 417 F. Supp. 2d 477 (S.D.N.Y. 2006), aff’d, 504 F.3d 338 (2d Cir. 2007) (in a pro bono case, the Firm represented the Westchester Day School (“WDS”), an Orthodox Jewish day school, in a bitter zoning litigation with the Village of Mamaroneck, New York, the Zoning Board of Appeals of the Village, and members of the Zoning Board in their official capacities.  After a seven-day bench trial at which Senior Partner Stanley D. Bernstein was lead trial counsel, the court delivered a verdict for WDS and a victory for the exercise of religious freedom.  Defendants appealed the result to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which affirmed the Southern District’s opinion in its entirety.  Subsequently, the Village of Mamaroneck settled with WDS by paying $4.75 million (the largest recovery ever under the relevant federal land use law))
  • Shapiro v. Quickturn Design Systems, Inc., No. 16850 NC (Del. Ch. 2002) (the Firm successfully represented public stockholders in a trial in Delaware Chancery Court, which invalidated a modified “deadhand” poison pill anti-takeover provision; following the affirmance of the trial verdict by the Delaware Supreme Court, the Firm secured the implementation of procedures designed to ensure a full and active auction maximizing shareholder value, paving the way for a takeover of Quickturn at a premium of at least $51 million).