Baron & Budd
Firm founded: 1977
Offices: Dallas; Cleveland; New York; Glen Carbon, Illinois; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Monroe, Ohio
Lawyers: 73
Partners: 24
Specialties: Asbestos, pharmaceutical, environmental mass torts
Recent highlights: Settlement worth $121 million in cash and $200 million in remediation for city of Santa Monica in MTBE groundwater contamination case against major oil companies; $400 million settlement with Travelers Insurance Co. for plaintiffs alleging bad faith in settlement of asbestos-related claims; $6.4 million verdict for Cleveland mesothelioma victim in 2003
On the docket: Representing more than 800 former students of Beverly Hills High School exposed to toxic substances during oil drilling on school grounds; representing more than 2,200 residents of Gulfport, Mississippi, who live near a E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company chemical plant; representing more than 1,200 former workers and family members exposed to mercury by a West Virginia light bulb manufacturing plant

Levin, Papantonio, Thomas, Mitchell, Echsner & Proctor
Firm founded: 1955
Office: Pensacola, Florida
Lawyers: 34
Partners: 14
Specialties: Environmental and pharmaceutical mass torts, securities class actions, personal injury, malpractice
Recent highlights: $70 million settlement in groundwater contamination case against ConocoPhillips; $250 million in pharmaceutical case settlements in 2003—04; $7 million verdict against Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. in July 2003 injury case involving negligent issuance of hunting license
On the docket: Over $1 billion in securities class action claims; asbestos cases; Rezulin, Propulsid, fen-phen, and Zyprexa cases

Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein
Firm founded: 1972
Offices: San Francisco; New York; Washington, D.C.; Beverly Hills; Nashville
Lawyers: 58
Partners: 31
Specialties: Product liability, securities class actions, employment class actions, toxic torts
Recent highlights: $64 million settlement in 2004 in antitrust suit against Microsoft Corporation; $36.5 million settlement in 2004 in weight discrimination suit against United Airlines, Inc.; $1.5 billion settlement with El Paso Corporation in 2003 market manipulation class action
On the docket: Race discrimination class action against Abercrombie & Fitch Co.; investor fraud suit against Deutsche Bank AG; antitrust suit against Reliant Energy, Inc

Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach
(Now split into Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman and Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins)
Firm founded: 1965 (split in 2004)
Offices: New York, Wilmington, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boca Raton (Milberg Weiss); San Diego; San Francisco; Los Angeles; Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; Houston; Seattle; Boca Raton (Lerach Coughlin)
Lawyers: 110 (Milberg Weiss); 130 (Lerach Coughlin)
Partners: 38 (Milberg Weiss); 56
(Lerach Coughlin)
Specialties: Securities class action, antitrust
Recent highlights: $800 million
Lucent Technologies, Inc., settlement in December 2003; $410 million Raytheon Company settlement in May 2004 (Milberg Weiss); $122 million Mattel, Inc., class action settlement in 2003 (Lerach Coughlin)
On the docket: Mutual Fund multidistrict litigation, IPO securities class action (Milberg Weiss); Enron Corp. securities class action, HealthSouth Corporation securities class action (Lerach)

Motley Rice
Firm founded: 2003 (successor to Ness Motley Loadholt Richardson & Poole)
Offices: Mount Pleasant, South Carolina; Barnwell, South Carolina; Providence; Hartford; New Orleans
Lawyers: 51
Partners: 10
Specialties: Asbestos, environmental and pharmaceutical mass torts, aviation law, medical and nursing home malpractice
Recent highlights: $15 million verdict in Indiana asbestos case in June 2003; advised on several "prepackaged" Chapter 11 bankruptcies of asbestos defendants; Rhode Island trial court ruling in July 2004 denying summary judgment to landlords seeking to avoid liability in lead paint cases
On the docket: $1 trillion multidistrict litigation against terrorism sponsors on behalf of 6,500 family members of September 11 victims; asbestos suits; product liability class actions in United States and Canada involving Ford 150 truck door latches

Nix, Patterson & Roach
Firm Founded: 1965
Offices: Daingerfield, Texas; Texarkana, Texas; Saltillo, Mexico; Shreveport, Louisiana
Lawyers: 14
Partners: 10
Specialties: Personal injury, product liability, securities and consumer class actions, patent litigation
Recent highlights: $37 million jury verdict in April 2004 on behalf of nine victims of abuse by former Lutheran minister; $34 million settlement in 2004 with two accounting firms regarding overcharging clients for travel expenses
On the docket: Seven pending securities class actions; qui tam litigation; asbestos, nursing home, and pharmaceutical cases

Reaud, Morgan & Quinn
Firm founded: 1981
Office: Beaumont, Texas
Lawyers: 13
Partners: 2
Specialties: Asbestos, product liability, personal injury
Recent highlights: $130 million asbestos verdict in 2003 against Dresser Industries, Inc.; cumulative asbestos settlements of $100 million since 2003
On the docket: Multiple cases against pharmaceutical companies alleging contaminated polio vaccines; class action against Farmers Group, Inc., alleging wrongful termination of mold coverage

Weitz & Luxenberg
Firm founded: 1989
Offices: New York; Aspen, Colorado; Cherry Hill, New Jersey; South Orange, New Jersey; Philadelphia
Lawyers: 60
Partners: 3
Specialties: Asbestos, pharmaceutical and environmental mass torts, personal injury, medical malpractice
Recent highlights: $47 million verdict in March 2003 asbestos case against Consolidated Edison Inc.; thousand-client settlements with Pfizer Inc. involving diabetes drug Rezulin and with Bayer Corporation involving cholesterol drug Baycol; $2.7 billion settlement in Halliburton bankruptcy and $1 billion settlement in connection with W.R. Grace & Co. bankruptcy
On the docket: Co—lead counsel with Baron & Budd in MTBE multidistrict litigation; mass tort litigation involving drugs Accutane and Remicade, dietary supplement ephedra, manganese welding rods, and 15-passenger van rollovers

Berger & Montague
Firm founded: 1970
Office: Philadelphia
Lawyers: 55
Partners: 35
Specialties: Securities, antitrust, mass torts, health care/ERISA
Recent highlights: $424 million settlement with manufacturers of high-fructose corn syrup in a 2004 antitrust suit; $139 million securities fraud settlement with Symbol Technologies, Inc., in 2004; and, in 2004, a $45 million settlement with Safety-Kleen Corp. in a suit that alleged accounting irregularities
On the docket: Race discrimination class action against Eastman Kodak Company on behalf of all past, present, and future African-American employees of the company; securities fraud suit against Time Warner Inc.; class action against the Philadelphia Housing Authority challenging its compliance with federal lead-based paint rules

Corboy & Demetrio
Firm founded: 1952
Offices: Chicago; Joliet, Illinois
Lawyers: 21
Partners: 10
Specialties: Personal injury, product liability, medical malpractice
Recent highlights: $16 million jury verdict for brain-injured car accident victim in August 2004; $20 million medical malpractice settlement during 2003 trial for couple whose infant was injured during delivery; more than $25 million in settlements for ten victims of 1995 school bus—train accident in Fox River Grove, Illinois
On the docket: Representing 13 victims of 2003 Chicago porch collapse, three victims of 2003 fire in Cook County Administration Building, and seven victims of John Hancock Center scaffolding collapse

Gary, Williams, Parenti, Finney, Lewis, McManus, Watson & Sperando
Firm founded: 1976
Offices: Fort Pierce, Florida; Stuart, Florida
Lawyers: 31
Partners: 13
Specialties: Personal injury, product
liability, medical malpractice, employment class actions
Recent highlights: $18.3 million verdict in December 2003 defamation case against The Pensacola News Journal; $4 million verdict in Miami medical malpractice case in 2003; settled 12 of 17 race discrimination cases against The Coca-Cola Company for plaintiffs who opted out of class action settlement
On the docket: Personal injury suits, employment class actions

Girardi and Keese
Firm founded: 1965
Offices: Los Angeles; Riverside, California; San Bernardino, California; Santa Ana, California
Lawyers: 30
Partners: 19
Specialties: Environmental and toxic torts, product liability, personal injury, commercial litigation
Recent highlights: $1.7 billion settlement in July 2004 as cocounsel for state of California in suit against El Paso Corp. for overcharges during 2001 power crisis; $22 million settlement in June 2004 for group of investors suing Lloyd’s of London in Los Angeles superior court; $45 million jury verdict in Los Angeles superior court in October 2003 against Ford Motor Company for boy rendered a paraplegic after accident in Windstar minivan
On the docket: Representing California in energy price-gouging case against Sempra Energy, scheduled for trial in September 2004; representing residents of two small California towns suing Pacific Gas and Electric Company for alleged groundwater contamination (PG&E paid $333 million in 1996 to settle similar case brought by firm); representing 300 railroad workers allegedly injured by exposure to creosote in suit against Union Pacific Corporation

Kreindler & Kreindler
Firm founded: 1950
Offices: New York; Los Angeles; Hackensack, New Jersey
Lawyers: 25
Partners: 12
Specialties: Aviation, transportation, maritime, personal injury, medical malpractice
Recent highlights: $24.5 million verdict for pedestrian accident victim in December 2003; settlement of cases involving crashes of American Airlines flight A-300, Swiss International Air Lines flight 111, and TWA flight 800. Represented 450 families of September 11 victims. Represented dozens of families in $2.6 billion settlement with Libyan government in crash of Pan Am flight 103
On the docket: Ninety remaining
September 11 cases; cocounsel with Motley Rice in $1 trillion suit against
Al Qaeda, Iraq, the Sudan, and defendants in Saudi Arabia for sponsoring terrorism

O’Quinn, Laminack & Pirtle
Firm founded: 1981
Offices: Houston; San Marcos, Texas
Lawyers: 29
Partners: 3
Specialties: Personal injury, product liability, malpractice, mass torts
Recent highlights: $1 billion verdict against Wyeth in 2004 fen-phen case; $70.4 million verdict against Halliburton Energy Services Inc. in 2004 breach of contract trial; $8 million in 2003 wrongful death trial against a Mexican restaurant
On the docket: More than a dozen suits against brokerages such as Ameritrade Holding Corporation and E*TRADE Financial Corp., alleging short-selling of clients’ stock; pharmaceutical personal injury cases

Provost & Umphrey Law Firm
Firm founded: 1969
Offices: Beaumont, Texas; Dallas; Friendswood, Texas; Tyler, Texas; Little Rock; Memphis; Nashville; Philadelphia;
Lawyers: 53
Partners: 20
Specialties: Toxic torts, product liability, personal injury, qui tam
Recent highlights: Cocounsel in $9.4 million product liability verdict against Sears, Roebuck and Co.
On the docket: Securities fraud case against Halliburton Company; fen-phen cases

Williams Bailey Law Firm
Firm founded: 1983
Office: Houston
Lawyers: 21
Partners: 4
Specialties: Asbestos, personal injury, product liability
Recent highlight: $9.6 million verdict in May 2003 against The Dow Chemical Company in asbestos premises liability case
On the docket: First manganese welding rod trial in Texas; hundreds of fen-phen opt-out trials in Philadelphia