Richard Rothman is a senior trial partner in the firm’s Complex Commercial Litigation practice, where he has a 30-year track record of successfully litigating his clients’ most complex disputes through trials and appeals in jurisdictions around the country, overseeing major internal investigations, and coordinating multiple judicial and regulatory proceedings. As a result of his extensive trial and appellate experience, Mr. Rothman has long been recognized as a leading litigator by legal and media publications, including Benchmark Litigation and The Best Lawyers in America.
Mr. Rothman’s recent experience as lead counsel highlights the breadth of his practice, particularly in high-risk situations.
- In 2012, Mr. Rothman served as co-lead trial counsel in two major antitrust litigations brought by client American Airlines in Texas state and federal courts in which American asserted that two Global Distribution Systems, Sabre and Travelport, had conspired to monopolize the market for distribution of airline tickets. The first case, against Sabre, resulted in a successful settlement after nine days of trial to a jury; the second, against Travelport, was also successfully settled during the final stages of discovery.
- Earlier in 2012, Mr. Rothman served as trial counsel for Anadarko Petroleum and Kerr-McGee in a five-month bench trial of a multi-billion dollar fraudulent conveyance action arising from Kerr-McGee’s spin-off of its chemicals business (now known as Tronox).
- In 2011, Mr. Rothman won a complete victory for Sanofi-Aventis as trial counsel in an arbitration involving a multi-hundred million dollar contract dispute with Warner Chilcott over rights to market and sell the billion-dollar osteoporosis medication Actonel.
- In 2010, Mr. Rothman served as lead trial counsel for Lehman Brothers in an action challenging Bank of America’s seizure of $500 million of deposited funds shortly before Lehman’s bankruptcy. The Court ruled in Lehman’s favor and ordered the return of $595 million (including 9% interest) to Lehman, a decision that earned Mr. Rothman recognition as The American Lawyer’s “Litigator of the Week.”
- Since 2008, Mr. Rothman has been representing the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in multiple litigations pending before the Federal Maritime Commission and the District Court of New Jersey involving claims seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, as well as injunctive relief, asserted by Maher Terminals under the Shipping Act and various other statutes.
During the course of these and other high profile representations, Mr. Rothman has developed a remarkable appellate record, and has won each of the appeals he has argued in the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Eighth, Tenth, and D.C. Circuits. Notable among his recent appellate victories is the September 2011 landmark ruling he obtained for the Port Authority when the New York Court of Appeals – after twice hearing oral argument – issued a seminal decision concerning immunity from tort liability that vacated a jury verdict in a trial of numerous consolidated cases that had found the Port Authority liable for failing to prevent the 1993 terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center.
In addition to his representation of clients in judicial proceedings, Mr. Rothman has also overseen and coordinated overlapping regulatory proceedings and major internal investigations. For example, he currently is leading the Weil team representing American in the airline cargo fuel surcharge price fixing investigations pending in jurisdictions around the world, including the European Union proceeding in which American has succeeded in having all charges against it dropped in both the US and the EU. Similarly, he has represented GE not only in litigations, but in internal investigations and related regulatory proceedings.
In addition to his active practice, Mr. Rothman has written and spoken widely on various complex litigation topics, coordination and management of multiple litigation proceedings, discovery, and piercing the corporate veil. Among his notable scholarly engagements, he is the editor and principal author of Litigating Complex Cases: From the Inside Out.
Throughout his career, Mr. Rothman has served in leadership roles of various public service organizations. He has served as President of the Second Circuit’s Federal Bar Foundation; Trustee of the Federal Bar Council and Chairman of the Council’s Second Circuit Courts and Public Service Committees; Counsel to the Board and member of the Executive Committee of the American Red Cross in Greater New York; and Co-Chair of the Products Liability Subcommittee of the ABA Litigation Section’s Committee on Corporate Counsel. He is currently a Director of the Legal Aid Society, a member of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of Graham Windham, the oldest child welfare agency in the U.S., and a member of the Washington University Law School National Council.
Mr. Rothman is admitted to practice in New York and before the United States Supreme Court; United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the Northern District of Illinois; the United States Tax Court; and the United States Courts of Appeals for the First, Second, Third, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Tenth, and D.C. Circuits.
He received his B.A. (magna cum laude) from Tufts University in 1974 and his J.D. from Washington University School of Law in 1977, where he served as Managing Editor of the law review.