Nobody can accuse Steve Berman of being a shrinking violet. The managing partner of Seattle plaintiffs’ firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro has played a role in some of the highest-profile class actions of the past 15 years. He made his name during the late 1990s by helping to secure a $206 billion settlement from the tobacco industry on behalf of 46 states — the largest settlement in history. He hasn’t slowed down since. At the moment he is taking on a number of drug companies in massive multidistrict average wholesale price litigation that led to recent wins against AstraZeneca PLC and Johnson & Johnson.
“We’re not the coupon-settlement kind of class action lawyers,” Berman said. “We are one of the few firms that tries a class action every year. I think it’s important that the other side knows we’ll take a case to trial.”
