| Biography:
Louis M. Solomon is Co-head of Proskauer Rose LLP’s 's 275-lawyer Global Litigation Department. He has tried over 50 complex commercial cases before courts, juries, and regulatory and arbitral tribunals in federal and state courts nationwide, in federal and state regulatory tribunals, and in national and international arbitrations and litigations. He has led cases including private, class action, and government-led litigations or arbitrations in a broad range of subject matters including: antitrust, corporate and commercial finance; employment; patent; copyright/content protection/digital technology, and other intellectual property; insurance and reinsurance; international bankruptcy and restructurings; pharmaceutical regulation; securities; and telecommunications.
Mr. Solomon is ranked as a leading trial lawyer in Chambers 2007, where he is described as “specializ[ing] in pulling clients out of the fire”, and whose clients "ascribe this life-saving ability to his exceptional judgment when advising on risky business or regulatory situations", and "just as good at crafting watertight settlements. No detail or potential future risk escapes him.” He is recognized as one of the Best Lawyers in America 2008, highlighted by LawDragon 2007 as one of the “500 Leading Lawyers in America” and a leader in its "New Stars, New Worlds" rankings as well as Leading Lawyers in America guide. Mr. Solomon was recently named a New York Super Lawyer and was voted "Best of Class" in the area of Commercial Litigation by the Best of The U.S. Legal Directory. In addition, Mr. Solomon is the recipient of the 2006 Burton Award for Excellence in Legal Writing, conferred in association with the Library of Congress.
Mr. Solomon also serves as Litigation Head of the Firm’s International Practice Group (IPG). His international litigations for U.S. and foreign clients have included matters involving numerous EU countries, Latin America (Argentina, Peru), the Far East (Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines), and Russia. He is also Editor-in-Chief of and a principal contributor to Proskauer on International Litigation and Arbitration, an e-Guide authored and presented by the Proskauer Litigation Department and the IPG.
As lead counsel, Mr. Solomon has represented pharmaceutical manufacturers in patent and antitrust individual and class action litigation and in regulatory proceedings concerning a variety of blockbuster prescription drug products such as Erbitux®, Cardizem CD®, Tiazac®, Claritin®, and Prilosec®. He is also lead counsel in multidistrict nationwide class actions relating to various other products and issues. Securities litigation and claims have included an extensive number and scope of SEC/NASD proceedings (e.g., insider trading in areas most recently such as PIPEs and finite reinsurance), tender offers, books and records, and FCPA claims. Mr. Solomon has been privileged to represent clients such as Andrx, Bouygues Telecom, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Conmed, Hertz, International Financial Group, KFC, the New York Blood Center, the New York Jets, PepsiCo, PrimeTime 24, U.K.’s Premier Football League, Wickes, and W.R. Huff Companies, among others.
Recent trials or public arbitrations have included:
• Before Hon. George C Pratt, we successfully represented ImClone against Merck KGaA to retain all of ImClone’s rights to what is claimed to be one of the most effective and valuable cancer products in history, the fully human anticlonal antibody 11F-8. Litigation and arbitration proceedings in S.D.N.Y.
• Trial under §§ 303 and 304 of the Bankruptcy Code raising issues of first impression. We represented the holder of $150+ million of unsecured debt seeking to establish its federal rights to protections from an international restructuring proceeding. Related proceedings in Argentina. Trust Indenture Act litigation. We proved that the proposed restructuring discriminated against U.S. retail investors and employed improper intimidation tactics. We then succeeded in proving the absence of any cognizable exemption from the U.S. securities laws for the debtor’s proposed foreign restructuring.
• A six-month, four-phase trial of claims of patent infringement, invalidity, unenforceability, and fraud followed by newspapers here and in Europe, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Recently affirmed by the Federal Circuit.
• Four successive jury and judge trials of medical, insurance, damages, and, post-trial and post-appeal, jurisdictional issues against six insurance carriers, having successfully made interlocking settlements with fifteen others before trial. The judgment was affirmed by the Second Circuit, in a decision dealing with issues of first impression with respect to the allocation of damages between settling and non-settling insurers. Total recoveries for the client exceed $200 million.
• Successful 28-day trial involving claims for fraud, indemnification, and damages arising out of the sale of 15 aircraft manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and Europe. Alleged indemnity by our client exceeded $100 million. Despite substantially earlier litigation against our client already pending in multiple courts in multiple states, we won the race to trial.
Recent appeals have included arguments in the Second, Fourth, Sixth, Eleventh, and Federal Circuits. Recent arbitrations have included multi-week hearings in the areas of insurance, reinsurance, fraud and breach of contract, and purchase price adjustment accounting disputes arising from the sale of businesses.
Other noteworthy cases and accomplishments:
• We are lead counsel in the various nation-wide class actions filed against PepsiCo relating to the labeling and marketing of the Nation’s leading bottled water.
• In litigation being followed nationally and internationally against Google and YouTube seeking an industry-transforming injunction and damages, we are co-lead counsel representing a proposed class of copyright holders.
• We were litigation counsel for the New York Jets in the welter of cases filed to stop the building of the New York Sports & Convention Center on Manhattan’s West Side. We prevailed in every litigation, including achieving a unanimous affirmance on appeal of our trial court victory.
• Defense of a pharmaceutical company in connection with a series of related federal and state antitrust proceedings alleging that a private agreement had the effect of deferring launch of a generic drug until patent infringement litigation was resolved. With trial imminent after full-blown discovery in a proceeding before the FTC, an unprecedented settlement was reached pursuant to which our client obtained a determination from the FTC, in a public filing, that the agreement did not harm consumers, and no fines were imposed. Private cases were consolidated pursuant to the MDL rules for discovery and other pre-trial purposes. A coalition of attorneys general from first a majority of, and then all 50, states ultimately joined the action. Favorable settlements for our client were reached, including with all classes and all state attorneys general.
• Co-counsel on behalf of the City and State of New York, as well as multiple other states and political subdivisions, in the seminal trials and appeals against the Bureau of the Census for failing accurately to report census population data as part of the decennial census process. On a pro bono basis, we tried three cases and prosecuted multiple appeals, ultimately to the United States Supreme Court, establishing the law on the legitimacy of statistical adjustment of census data to account for the systemic undercounting of racial and ethnic minorities.
Mr. Solomon also has acted as counsel to special litigation or independent board committees and as a party-appointed arbitrator or umpire in numerous arbitrations. He also acts as a mediator in connection with a wide array of business disputes.
Mr. Solomon is editor of and contributes to the “Law, Ethics, and Gender” column of the Gender Medicine: The Official Journal of the Partnership for Gender-Specific Medicine at Columbia University (Marianne J. Legato, MD, FACP, editor-in-chief).
Selected Articles, Book Chapters, Monographs:
“Google – Newspeak on copyright holders’ rights,” San Francisco Chronicle (June 25, 2007) (co-author); “Quantitative Techniques for Case Evaluation and Their Limitations,” The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel (October 2006); “Achieving Optimal Evaluation of Business and Commercial Cases,” The Corporate Counselor (July 2006); “Under Comity’s Banner,” The National Law Journal (December 5, 2005); “Business and Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts – Chapter 5: Case Evaluations,” American Bar Association's "Section of Litigation" (November 2005) (with Bruce Fader); “Use and Misuse of U.S. Bankruptcy Courts in Foreign Restructurings,” Norton Bankruptcy Law Advisor (Apr. 2005) (with Jeffrey Levitan); “International Comity at the Crossroads: Practical Implications and Public Policy Challenges,” 1 NYU J. of Law & Bus. 269 (2004); “The ‘Sham’ Principle in Antitrust and Patent Law: Towards a Unified Theory,” ABA Section of Antitrust Law Program Materials (2004); “Breaking Symmetry: Do Recent Circuit Decisions Threaten the Core Balance Struck by Congress in Enacting the Hatch-Waxman Act?” – Pharm. L. and Industry Rep. (2002); “Exclusive Distribution and Antitrust,” 53 Fordham Law Review 491
(1984) (co-author); “Proposed Revisions of the Justice Department’s Merger Guidelines,” 82 Columbia Law Review 1543 (nine contributors) (1982); “Leasing Public Land: A City's Investment in the Future,” Monograph, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy (1978).
Televised/Published Debates and Interviews
"Rampant Internet Posting of Unauthorized Video,” Interview with Bloomberg Law (May 2007); “Lawyer for Jets Speaks Out on the Status of a West Side Stadium” (New York Sun 6/13/05); Televised Debate on Jets’ Litigation Victory Over Madison Square Garden (NY1 6/2/05); “Early and Efficient Dispute Resolution,” Interview with Metropolitan Corporate Counsel Magazine (2003).
Selected Lectures and Speeches
“The Eleventh Circuit’s Decision in Schering: Patent Rights, Antitrust Enforcement, Specialized Agencies, and Guidance to the Industry,” Teleseminar jointly sponsored by ABA, FTC and Health Care Committees (Apr. 2005); “Unresolved Questions at the Heart of the Noerr-Pennington Doctrine,” ABA Antitrust Section Annual Spring Meeting (2004); “Antitrust in the Health Care Field: The Special Case of Generic Litigation,” New York County Lawyers Association (2002); “The Intersection between Antitrust and Intellectual Property: Lessons from the Pharmaceutical Industry,” ABA Antitrust Section Annual Spring Meeting (2001); “Insurance Claim Handling,” American Corporate Counsel (ACCA) Program (1992); “Science in the Judicial Process,” Address before the Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society, PPD (Nov. 1991); “Directors and Officers Indemnification and Insurance,” American Corporate Counsel (ACCA) Program (1990).
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