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Profile Title: Partner Location: New York Telephone: 212.946.9326 Fax: 212.273.4396 Admitted: New York, 1960 Education: B.B.A., Baruch College of the City College of New York, 1957 J.D., New York University, 1959 Practice Areas Securities Litigation Human Rights Litigation Accountants' Liability Litigation Insurance Litigation Mass Tort / Environmental Litigation Antitrust LitigationMELVYN I. WEISS, Senior and Founding Partner of Milberg Weiss & Bershad LLP, is a leading practitioner in the fields of securities, insurance, environmental, antitrust, and consumer litigation. The firm’s practice focuses on prosecuting class, derivative, and mass actions, and substantial private claims.Mr. Weiss's expertise has been recognized on numerous occasions by courts appointing him to leadership positions in prosecuting complex litigations. Among the more prominent of the outstanding recoveries in cases where he has represented defrauded investors or consumers are the Drexel/Milken litigations (recoveries of over $1 billion for investors in, among others, Columbia Savings & Loan and Executive Life Insurance Company of America); In re Washington Public Power Supply System Securities Litigation ($775 million recovered after the country's largest municipal bond default); Butcher Bank Litigation (leading to $400 million recovery on behalf of the FDIC against Ernst & Young); Oxford Healthcare Securities Litigation ($300 million); Prudential Limited Partnership Litigation ($200 million); Mercedes Brake Defect Litigation ($100 million in settlement benefits); life insurance policy holder cases against Prudential Life Insurance ($4 billion), John Hancock ($400 million), New York Life ($300 million), ManuLife ($500 million) and Metropolitan Life ($1.7 billion). He was a pro bono lead counsel in the Swiss Bank Litigation involving Holocaust confiscations, which settled for $1.25 billion, and was a lead counsel in recovering $5 billion for Holocaust victims from German banks and companies.Mr. Weiss received a B.B.A. in accounting from Baruch College of the City College of New York in 1957, and a J.D. Degree from New York University School of Law in 1959. He was admitted to the Bar of the State of New York in 1960 and is presently a member of the Bar of the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth circuits, and the United States Supreme Court.Mr. Weiss has lectured extensively to lawyers, law students, and other professionals throughout the country and abroad. He has been a guest lecturer at the New York University School of Law, Stanford University Law School, Harvard Law School, Duke Law School, University of Buenos Aires (where he is an honorary professor), and at the Salzburg Seminar Foundation in Austria. He has addressed the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, National Association of Accountants, National Association of Internal Auditors, and in 1993 delivered the Abraham Briloff Distinguished Lecture at the State University of New York at Binghamton on the role of the auditor in our society. He has been frequently quoted as a leading authority on shareholder and consumer rights in the national media and he has testified before congressional committees on securities litigation and accountants’ liability. Mr. Weiss is a Fellow of The American College of Trial Lawyers. He received the 1993 Arthur T. Vanderbilt Medal from New York University Law School, the highest award given annually to an outstanding alumnus, and is a member of the law school's Board of Trustees and a recipient of the Alumni Achievement Award. In 2005, Accounting Today named Mr. Weiss as one of its Top 100 Most Influential People.Mr. Weiss is a member of the American Bar Association (from 1986-1988, he served as a Co-Chair of the Class and Derivative Committee of the Litigation Section; from 1983-1986, he served as a member of the FRCP Rule 23 Class Action Improvement Committee; and from 1976-1982, he served as a member of the Corporate Law Committee of the Banking and Business Law Section), the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and the New York Inns of Court. In 2000, Mr. Weiss was selected by Chief Judge Edward R. Becker of the Third Circuit to serve as a member of the Third Circuit Task Force on Selection of Class Counsel. In 2005, Mr. Weiss was elected as a Fellow of The New York Bar Foundation.Mr. Weiss was a Commissioner of the Nassau County Charter Revision Commission, which proposed the new legislative form of government for the county's 1.3 million residents. He has testified before the U.S. Senate on tort "reform" proposals. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Israel Policy Forum, an organization devoted to encouraging peace in the Middle East. Until recently, Mr. Weiss served on the Board of Directors of the Salzburg Seminar Foundation and he is presently on the Boards of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the World Council of the American Jewish Congress and the American Constitution Society. Mr. Weiss and his wife established the Melvyn and Barbara Weiss Public Interest Foundation at New York University School of Law to assist graduating public-interest lawyers in retiring their student loans. He has received the Anti-Defamation League’s Gotham Award and Humanitarian Award; the United Jewish Appeal’s Proskauer Award, given annually to an exemplary Jewish lawyer and humanitarian; the B'nai B'rith of Argentina Dignity & Justice Award for humanitarian activities; and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor from the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations Foundation, Inc. Mr. Weiss is the International Chair of the Hatikva Project, which built a memorial on the site of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, which was destroyed by terrorists.Memberships & Affiliations American Bar Association (Litigation Section, Co-Chair) Class and Derivative Action Committee 1986-1988, FRCP Rule 23 1986-1988, Class Action Improvements Committee 1983-1986, Banking and Business Law Section 1983-1986, Committee on Corporate Laws 1976-1982, New York State Bar Association 1976-1982, New York University School of Law Trustees Foundation The Association of the Bar of the City of New York Member of the Executive Committee of the Israel Policy Forum International Chairman for the Hatikvah Project Co-Founder, The Melvyn and Barbara Weiss Public Interest Foundation at NYU Board Member of Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Board Member of American Jewish Congress Board Member: NYU School of Law Board Member: Israel Policy Forum Board Member: ActiVote Board Member: Salzburg Seminar Honorary professor at The University of Argentine in Buenos Aires Elected Fellow: New York Bar Foundation Fellow: American College of Trial Lawyers Recipient of United Jewish Appeal’s Proskauer Award, 1997 Recipient of 1 Arthur T. Vanderbilt Medal from New York University Law School, 1993 Recipient of Baruch College Outstanding Alumni Association Achievement Award, 1982 Recipient of Anti Defamation League’s Gotham Award and Humanitarian Award, 1976 Named: Most Influential Leaders in Business , Crain’s New York, NY June 2002 (Referred to him as the Dean of the Plaintiff’s Bar)Named: Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting, Accounting Today in 2001,2002,2003,2004Named: 1 Of 13 Attorneys In America Who Stand Out From The Crowd In This Country’s Most Powerful Lawyers with Enduring Influence, National Law Journal’s Profiles in Power section, October 20, 2003Interviews and Commentary Videos 10/19/05 Center for Corporate Intergrity - Corporate Misconduct: Who Should Pay?09/30/04 Bloomberg Securities Law Panel 09/30/04 Bloomberg - Merck Pulls Vioxx 06/21/04 United Nations - Confronting anti-Semitism: Education for Tolerance and Understanding {Part 1 - requires RealPlayer}06/21/04 United Nations - Confronting anti-Semitism: Education for Tolerance and Understanding {Part 2 - requires RealPlayer}03/09/04 Lawline - Martha Stewart Trial 01/29/04 Fox Five - Martha Stewart Trial 07/01/03 Power Lunch - IPO Lawsuit 06/27/03 Fox Five - IPO Lawsuit 06/01/03 Nightly Business Report - IPO Lawsuit $1 Billion Settlement 11/13/02 60 Minutes II - IPO Lawsuit Audio10/16/05 Bruce Whitman Show - Is Tort Reform a Threat to Our Freedom? 05/27/05 Conscious Talk Radio - Does Tort Reform Threaten Our Rights? 05/18/05 Lou Epson Show - Does Tort Reform Threaten Our Rights? 04/08/05 Bloomberg TV Interview 03/20/05 Ring of Fire 03/10/05 Melvyn I. Weiss on Tort Reform 02/24/05 Tort Reform 12/29/04 Talk of the Nation 01/13/04 American Airlines Sky Radio Network Interview: Melvyn I. Weiss and Corporate America 01/07/04 On the Money Articles & Publications 08/01/05 Tort Reform's Reverse Consequences: More Regulation and More Litigation 01/01/04 Harvard Journal on Legislation 01/01/04 Auditors: Be Watchdogs, Not Just Bean Counters 01/24/94 CPA, Wage Scorched- Earth Legal Tactics- In Search of Accountability 01/24/94 Auditors, public both need tough liability rules 12/13/93 CPAs Sought Role Of Assuring Financial Integrity |
