Category: Events - Page 9 - Cohen Milstein

Zachary Krowitz, an associate in our Antitrust practice, has been invited to speak at the American Antitrust Institute’s (AAI) Young Lawyers Breakfast at the 17th AAI Annual Private Antitrust Enforcement Conference on Thursday, November 2, 2023 at 8:15 a.m.

Zac’s Young Lawyers Breakfast panel will address questions junior lawyers have about the practice of antitrust law and pursuing public interest law through the lens of antitrust litigation.

For more information and registration, visit AAI.

Carol V. Gilden, a partner in our Securities Litigation & Investor Protection practice and a vice president of Institute for Law and Economic Policy (ILEP), has been invited to moderate a panel at the ILEP-Penn Carey Law Journal of Business Law Symposium on November 9 – 10, 2023 at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.

Ms. Gilden will be moderating the panel ESG in the Private Sphere on Thursday, November 10 at 9:30 – 11:00 a.m. The panel includes presentations by law professors and commentary from other academics and the Defense Bar.

The focus of this year’s symposium is the future of environmental, social, and governance (ESG). Notably, the entire symposium features all women speakers. Furthermore, the symposium honors the trailblazing work of Jill E. Fisch, the Saul A. Fox Distinguished Professor of Business Law at Penn Carey Law, and Co-Director of the Institute for Law & Economics in the Department of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Learn more about the November 2023 Symposium by visiting ILEP.

Laura H. Posner, a partner in our Securities Litigation & Investor Protection practice, is the incoming president of the Institute for Law and Economic Policy (ILEP), a public policy research and educational foundation whose mission is to preserve, study, and enhance investor and consumer access to the civil justice system.

In this role, she will open and close the annual ILEP-Penn Carey Law Journal of Business Law Symposium on the Future of ESG on November 9 – 10, 2023 at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.

This year’s panel programs include:

ESG in the Private Sphere
SEC ESG Enforcement and Litigation
ESG and Gatekeeprs
ESG & Disclosure Practices
Discussion between SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce and Professor Jill E. Fisch

Furthermore, there will be presentations by up-and-coming scholars, as well as a roundtable on Delaware Business Law.

Learn more about the November 2023 Symposium by visiting ILEP.

Zachary Glubiak, an associate in our Antitrust practice, will speak to the ABA Civil Practice & Procedure Committee about the standard of review in labor market antitrust cases.

The thirty-minute Zoom program will offer the perspective of lawyers with experience on both the plaintiffs’ and defendants’ sides of recent no poach and wage fixing cases.

Karina Puttieva, an associate in our Consumer Protection practice, has been invited to speak at the National Consumer Law Center’s Consumer Class Action Symposium at the Hyatt Regency Chicago on October 26-29, 2023.

Ms. Puttieva’s panel, Proving Damages in Price Premium Cases: Models, Experts and the Amendments to FRE Rule 702, is scheduled for 8:45 a.m. on October 29.

Laura H. Posner, a partner in our Securities Litigation & Investor Protection practice is invited to speak at National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS) 2023 Fall Conference on October 22 – 25 at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel, Las Vegas, NV.

Ms. Posner’s program, Securing Our Markets: The Essential Role of Public Funds, is scheduled for Monday, October 23 at 9:45 am – 10:30 am.

She will join a distinguished panel of lawyers and senior executives from the Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund, the Fire & Police Pension Association of Colorado, and the Plaintiffs Bar on how public pension funds, through litigation, can help hold publicly held enterprises accountable to their shareholders for engaging in mistatements and fraudulent business practices.

More information about the and the annual Fall Conference can be found on NCPERS website.

Join American Constitution Society (ACS) and Plaintiffs’ Law Association at the University of Virginia (PLAVA) for a special conversation w/ Doug Bunch, partner at Cohen Milstein and former US public delegate to the United Nations. Mr. Bunch’s practice focuses on securities litigation and investor protection, including a recent $1 billion settlement with Wells Fargo for misleading investors. As public delegate to the United Nations, Mr. Bunch worked as a member of the U.S. mission representing the country’s interests at the United Nations.

For more information and registration, see ACS.

Karina Puttieva, an associate in Cohen Milstein’s Consumer Protection practice, has been invited by the People’s Parity Project to speak on a career panel at the 2023 Convening on July 8, 2023 at 10:45 a.m. at the Eaton Hotel in Washington D.C.

Karina’s panel will focus on pursuing a litigation career at a plaintiffs’ law firm.

The People’s Parity Project is a movement of attorneys and law students organizing for a democratized legal system which values people over profits, builds the power of working people, and opposes subordination in any form.

Learn more about the People’s Parity Project.

The Counsel of Institutional Investors (CII) has invited Carol Gilden (Partner, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC) and Professor Joshua Mitts (Columbia Law School) to discuss the Supreme Court’s recent opinion in Slack v. Pirani, holding that plaintiffs asserting claims under Section 11 of the Securities Act of 1933 must trace shares purchased in a direct listing to a registration statement. Ms. Gilden and Professor Mitts will discuss the amicus brief of law and business professors they authored in Slack, arguing that tracing is possible using accounting methods and time-stamped transactional records. They also will examine the Court’s opinion and ultimate decision to remand the case, as well as the impact on current cases and the potential for Securities and Exchange Commission rulemaking. CII General Counsel Jeff Mahoney will moderate.

The CII webinar is on July 20, 2023 and begins at 1:00 p.m. EDT.

For more information or to register, please contact Council of Institutional Investors.

REMARKS AT

NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD CEREMONY

JULY 13, 2023

Thank you so much for this wonderful recognition. It’s a real honor to be among the distinguished company of those honored this evening and in years past.

Like most of us, I’m so preoccupied with upcoming deadlines, that I rarely reflect on how I’ve gotten to where I am today, following the twists and turns of my career and the occasions that have been most meaningful to me. I hope you’ll allow me to share some reflections.

My interest in civil rights was kindled early in life as I watched with terror the televised accounts of the beatings of African Americans peacefully demonstrating in the South in the 1960s. My interest grew to a passion in high school where, as a member of the mile relay track team, I was paired with three other runners, all of whom were African American. Our dependence on each other’s performance brought us together and I began to see the many slights and insults they faced daily that could only be attributed to their race. As this occurred in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I realized that the ugly bigotry I saw in parts of the South was also rampant more subtly in the North.

Early in my career, I joined the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights for Urban Affairs and in 1997 I started a national civil rights practice at what is now Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, where I happily remain a partner today. For the past 41 years, I have been engaged in the practice of civil rights law and the protection of workers and look forward to continuing to do so, as there’s much more important work to be done.

I have represented victims of discrimination on every ground prohibited by federal law and many state laws, some individually and many collectively in class actions. I also assisted in the drafting and enactment of significant civil rights legislation, such as the Americans with Disability Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1991 and the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

Much of the litigation in which I have been engaged has challenged practices at industry leading businesses and governments. Recently, I concluded a class action alleging sex discrimination in pay and promotions on behalf of about 67,000 women at the largest chain of jewelry stores in the country. Unlike most class litigation, this case proceeded in arbitration. There were so many unsettled legal issues that the litigation required 15 years to conclude and eventually led to a payment of $175 Million and significant changes to the company’s pay and promotion practices.

Similarly, I served as lead counsel in representing thousands of chicken processing workers in three separate wage and hour collective actions, resulting in payments of back wages totaling more than $50 Million and changes to the companies’ pay practices.

I even count among my career milestones the Walmart v. Dukes case, in which I delivered the argument for the side that lost when the Supreme Court reversed the certification of a large class of women sales associates who alleged sex discrimination in compensation and promotions at Walmart. I jointly conceived of the theory of the case, which the Court rejected. On remand, I conceived of a way to pursue smaller, regional class cases which, notwithstanding its adoption by the Sixth Circuit, the Supreme Court again rejected, leaving me with the distinction of two losses before the Supreme Court in the same case!

Finally, I want to highlight a civil rights class action brought on behalf of thousands of Native American farmers and ranchers who claimed they were denied equal access to credit by the USDA, the lender of last resort to socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. After more than a decade of litigation, the parties reached a settlement providing for payment of $760 Million in damages, relief from outstanding debts to the USDA, and fundamental changes to the farm loan program. But, even more noteworthy than the terms of settlement was our ability to persuade our clients to set aside their distrust of the United States government, engendered by decades in which the government reneged on treaties and treated these first Americans as combatants, to trust a federal court to fairly adjudicate their claims and deliver a meaningful measure of justice.

Now I’d like to take a moment to look forward.

We face a number of challenges today to the private enforcement of the civil rights laws. One of the major impediments has been the increased use by employers of mandatory, binding arbitration. These agreements require that the claims be litigated in non-public proceedings, bar workers from bringing their claims together and often impose limitations considerably greater than the procedures established by Congress. Over time, these arbitration agreements will profoundly diminish the number of rulings that are public, steadily diminishing the common law that has been the centerpiece of our legal system since its inception.

In conclusion, I would be grossly remiss if I didn’t thank my colleagues at the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and my colleagues at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll. None of us succeed alone. I have thrived because of the steadfast support, brilliant and indefatigable lawyering, good humor and wisdom of my professional colleagues. And, above all else, I have been sustained through this journey by the unqualified love, unflagging support and wisdom of my wife, Laurie Davis.

Thank you.