Merrill G. Davidoff
Merrill G. Davidoff is Chairman Emeritus and a Managing Shareholder, in addition to his continuing work as Co-Chairman of the Antitrust Department with Mr. Montague and Chairman of the Environmental Group. Mr. Davidoff has litigated and tried a wide range of antitrust, commodities, securities and environmental class actions.
In In re Currency Conversion Fee Antitrust Litigation, MDL No. 1409, Mr. Davidoff was co-lead counsel in class actions that resulted in settlements of $386 million.
In a long-running environmental class action on behalf of property owners whose land was contaminated by plutonium from a neighboring nuclear weapons facility (Rocky Flats near Denver, Colorado), Mr. Davidoff served as lead counsel and lead trial counsel in a 2005-2006 trial that resulted in a $554 million jury verdict, third largest of 2006. In 2009 the Rocky Flats trial team, led by Mr. Davidoff, received the prestigious Public Justice Award for “Trial Lawyer of the Year.” A 2010 decision by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the judgment that had been won in the district court, but Berger Montague persevered and sought entry of judgment under alternative state law grounds. After losing this battle in the district court, plaintiffs appealed to the 10th Circuit again, and, after an appeal argued by Mr. Davidoff, the Court of Appeals (by then-judge, now Justice, Neil Gorsuch) reversed and held that plaintiffs could proceed on state law nuisance grounds. Just before competing petitions for certiorari were to be decided by the Supreme Court, a settlement of $375 million was announced in May 2016. The settlement received final approval on April 28, 2017.
Mr. Davidoff also concentrates his practice in representation for commodities futures and options traders as well as derivatives matters. He was co-lead counsel for the customer class in In re MF Global Holdings Limited Investment Litigation, which settled for well over a billion dollars and resulted in the recovery and return of 100% of lost customer funds after MF Global’s October 31, 2011 collapse.
Mr. Davidoff has represented diverse clients, including many companies, sports organizations, trading firms and governmental entities. In the Qwest securities litigation, Mr. Davidoff represented New Jersey, securing a $45 million “opt-out” settlement, and also represented New Jersey in “opt-out” litigation against the former public accounting firm for Lehman Brothers Inc.
Mr. Davidoff served as co-lead and trial counsel for a plaintiff class in the first mass tort class action trial in a federal court which resulted in a precedent-setting settlement for class members, In re Louisville Explosions Litigation. In the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (“CRTC”) Decisions (Challenge Communications, Ltd. v. Bell Canada), Mr. Davidoff was lead counsel for Applicant (plaintiff) in three evidentiary hearings before the CRTC. The hearings resulted in the first precedent-breaking Bell Canada’s monopoly over the telecommunications equipment which was connected to its telephone network. He was lead counsel in the Revco Securities Litigation, an innovative “junk bond” class action, which settled for $36 million. Mr. Davidoff was lead plaintiffs’ counsel and lead trial counsel in In re Melridge Securities Litigation tried to jury verdicts for $88 million (securities fraud) and $240 million (RICO). He was co-lead counsel for the class in In re Graphite Electrodes Antitrust Litigation, an international price-fixing case which yielded settlements ranging from 18% to 32% of the plaintiffs’ and class’ purchases from the defendants (aggregate settlements totaled $134 million). He was one of co-lead counsel in the Ikon Securities Litigation, in which a settlement of $111 million was obtained. He was co-lead counsel and designated lead trial counsel in the In Re Sunbeam Securities Litigation, where settlements of $142 million were reached. One of his areas of concentration is representation in commodities futures and options matters, and expertise in derivatives. He has represented market-makers on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, where he owned a member firm in the 1990s, as well as broker-dealers and market-makers on other exchanges.
- Super Lawyers: 2004 – 2018
- Recognized as a 2017 Distinguished Leader by The Legal Intelligencer
- The Legal 500’s 2015 editorial guide for Antitrust – Civil litigation/class actions in the United States
- “Litigator of the Week” (June 26, 2015) by the AmLaw Litigation Daily for his role in Merilyn Cook et al. v. Rockwell International Corporation et al
- Public Justice Trial Lawyer of the Year, 2009
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103