Theodore M. Grossman (Ted)
Partner
Cleveland
Tel: 1.216.586.7268
Fax: 1.216.579.0212
Email:
tgrossman@jonesday.com
Profile
|
Experience
|
Publications
|
Speaking Engagements
Related Services
Called one of "the nation's top litigators" by The National Law Journal, Ted has tried cases and argued appeals in celebrated matters throughout the country, with unbroken victories spanning many years. He has litigated a broad range of issues and regularly advises boards, officers, and general counsel of leading corporate clients.
Ted has served as chief counsel in lawsuits for consumer products companies, pharmaceutical companies, financial service companies, trade associations, corporate CEOs, and others. Among many other things, he has been active in class actions and other aggregated litigation throughout his career. In April 2008, he won a landmark victory from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in the largest class action in U.S. history, McLaughlin v. American Tobacco Co., which he argued as lead for all defendants. McLaughlin decertified a class of more than 50 million consumers claiming more than $800 billion in trebled economic damages under RICO for alleged fraudulent mislabeling of "lights" cigarettes. The Second Circuit's decision clarified requirements for fraud actions under RICO, strengthened the predominance requirement of Rule 23, and reinforced the due process rights of all corporate defendants in mass litigation. In 2005, also arguing as lead for all defendants, he won another landmark victory from the Second Circuit in In re Simon II, another multimillion member, multibillion dollar class. It resolved that in mass torts (and other litigation), punitive damage claims cannot serve as an independent basis for class certification.
Among Ted's most closely followed trials have been cases for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, for whom he has long served as a national coordinating counsel and lead trial counsel. Taking these cases to trial in jurisdictions where other counsel had suffered strings of losses, Ted has led teams winning each trial without exception and has obtained the dismissal of dozens of cases without trial. In 1998, The National Law Journal cited Ted's victory in Karbiwnyk v. R.J. Reynolds, where Ted reversed plaintiffs' momentum in the Deep South, as one of the three most significant defense verdicts of the year. In 2003, the Journal wrote a profile of Ted's victories in its annual "Winning" section, calling Ted the tobacco industry's "stopper," and lauding his recent victory after a four-month trial in California state court in Lucier v. Philip Morris. As the article noted, tobacco defendants had lost six successive West Coast trials, with verdicts up to $28 billion, before Ted put an end to plaintiffs' string and created a model for defendants' future success.
Ted also has been lead counsel in class actions with claims ranging from traditional product liability theories to employment discrimination. He has led the defense of novel cases where state attorneys general, federal agencies, or plaintiffs' counsel have attempted new and additional mechanisms for the aggregation of liability.
In regulatory and constitutional litigation, Ted has served as lead counsel in cases brought by or against virtually every federal department and a variety of federal independent agencies. He has had principal responsibility for such matters as challenges to the president's power to embargo the sale of American technology, various national security litigation, and a highly publicized suit by Texas to require an embargo of all California commerce due to medfly infestation.
Ted is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is a member of The American Law Institute and various other professional organizations. He has been selected for inclusion in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers (2008) (both for commercial litigation and product liability), The Best Lawyers in America (2008), Lawdragon's lists of the "500 Leading Litigators in America" and the "500 Leading Lawyers in America," and in various similar lists, such as state "Super Lawyers" lists. He has been profiled in newspapers and magazines throughout the country and abroad. The Japanese newspaper Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun calls him "the top product liability attorney in the U.S."
Ted has appeared on ABC's "World News" and the CBS "Evening News," as well as in interviews and debates on CNBC's "Market Watch" and on other network programs. He has lectured on trial practice, mass torts, and related matters at the law centers at Case Western Reserve University and Georgetown University, at the American Bar Association, and in programs sponsored by The National Law Journal and others. He is coauthor (along with Roger Fine, former general counsel of Johnson & Johnson) of "Mass Torts" in Successful Partnering Between Inside and Outside Counsel (West 2000 and annual supplements).
Admitted
New York and Ohio
Education
Cornell University (B.A. 1971; Editor, Law Review; J.D. 1974)
Government/Military Service
Trial and Appellate Counsel, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice (1980-1984)