Edward Soto concentrates in the trial and supervision of complex commercial civil litigation and is the senior trial partner and head of the Litigation Department in the Miami office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. Mr. Soto has had substantial civil litigation experience in cases involving: antitrust, business torts, class actions, contracts, employment, fraud, insurance coverage, lender liability, products liability, professional liability and securities litigation. He has also handled numerous internal investigations in these areas. Mr. Soto has represented clients in matters before the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Communications Commission. He has also acted as lead counsel in several complex commercial jury trials involving important business practice issues and significant monetary and regulatory exposure for the parties involved. Additionally, Mr. Soto has provided clients with compliance counseling to reduce exposure to potential antitrust and securities liability claims.
Mr. Soto has established a consistent record of successful results in major complex cases in both state and federal courts and before arbitration panels. As the summary of representative cases set forth below indicates, he has achieved successful outcomes for his clients at every phase of the litigation process – through case dispositive motions, trials, and appeals. Obtaining favorable results for his clients is a priority, and Mr. Soto emphasizes the need to consciously uphold the highest professional standards in order to support and enhance the services he delivers. On two separate occasions during his career he has handled the defense of matters subsequently recognized by his peers as the "Top Defense Victory of the Year." During the past three years, he has won major cases on behalf of Fiserv, Inc., Citicorp Services, Inc., UnitedHealth Group, Inc., and American Airlines.
Mr. Soto led a team of trial lawyers to victory in a False Claims Act litigation brought by the Justice Department and tried by the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas, the Department of Justice, and the FDIC against our client, Fiserv/Texas Data Control. Following a 32-day jury trial, Fiserv was found not liable for the government’s $30 million claim, and was awarded a $7 million verdict on their counterclaim for breach of contract against the FDIC. Fiserv’s victory in that matter was selected by the National Law Journal as the “Top Defense Victory of the Year.”
Mr. Soto is currently part of the firm’s trial team for UnitedHealth Group, Inc., in a sequence of ERISA and RICO class actions pending in a number of jurisdictions. In connection with that representation, Mr. Soto worked extensively with the team of Weil Gotshal attorneys responsible for UnitedHealth Group’s victory before the Supreme Court during the 2003 term, which ultimately upheld our clients’ right to arbitrate important RICO and ERISA claims.
During his 32 years of trial practice, Mr. Soto has written and spoken widely on numerous topics, including litigation management, strategy and techniques. In addition, he has been an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Miami School of Law, where he has taught a class on trial advocacy and a clinical on evidentiary issues in commercial litigation. He recently co-authored the Florida ABA Antitrust Law Treatise, 4th Edition, and lectured for the Practicing Law Institute on "Computer Software Litigation." He has also lectured for the Florida Bar and Dade County Bar on various topics including: "Cutting Edge Trial Tactics," "Software Code Protection through Trade Secret and Copyright,” “Florida Trade Secret Act and the Economic Loss Rule,” and “Preparing for Trial – The Last Sixty Days.” He is also the past chairman of the Antitrust and Unfair Trade Practices Committee of the Business Law Section of the Florida Bar.
Mr. Soto is involved in the firm’s nationwide Litigation practice and is currently a member of the firm’s Diversity Committee, Recruiting Committee, National Litigation Steering Committee, National Litigation Staffing Committee, and the Computer Litigation Committee. Throughout his career, he has also served in leadership roles of various public service organizations. Currently he is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Ransom Everglades School, a member of the Board of Directors of Child Hope, Inc., and a member the Board of Directors of the Zoological Society of Florida and a former member of the Florida Bar's Trial Lawyers Section Civil Procedure Committee.
Mr. Soto received a J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1978, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and executive editor of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review. He attended Northwestern University his freshman and sophomore years, and completed his undergraduate education at Florida State University, where he received a B.A., magna cum laude, in 1974.
Mr. Soto is a member of the Florida Bar and is also admitted to practice before the US District Courts for the Southern, Middle and Northern Districts of Florida, the US Courts of Appeals for the Fifth and Eleventh Circuits, and the United States Supreme Court. He is AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell. He is also a member of the American Bar Association, American Trial Lawyers Association, the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers, the Dade County Bar Association and the Dade County Trial Lawyers Association.