Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP has pulled in a class action heavyweight with experience in securities fraud, antitrust and consumer cases to head up the firm’s new San Francisco office. Reed R. Kathrein has joined Hagens from Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP. Among the crown achievements of his career thus far, Kathrein negotiated a lucrative settlement with Tenet Healthcare and recovered millions of dollars for shareholders in a settlement for 3Com Corp.
Kathrein said he plans to expand class actions at Hagens and introduce the Seattlebased firm to more institutional investors, while overseeing the firm’s San Francisco and Los Angeles offices. “I want to develop my own securities practice and work with my own clients. And that was no longer possible at Lerach,” Kathrein said.
He has dedicated himself to protecting the rights of individuals and institutions through consumer and antitrust class actions. Kathrein has served as the lead or co-counsel on a number of high-stakes rulings, including a recent win involving a $1 billion settlement with Tenet for uninsured patients, a case he shared with Hagens.
Kathrein was also instrumental in securing a $259 million settlement for shareholders against computer networking company 3Com, which is the nation’s second-biggest settlement in a securities litigation case. In the case, shareholders accused the company of defrauding them by concealing losses worth $160 million.
In 2003, he worked out a settlement in the biggest investment manager fraud case in the U.S. against Capital Consultants, in which labor pension funds received a total of $300 million. He also continues to work on cases involving software company ATI Technologies Inc.
"We are doing more and more work representing consumers and others in California, and it made sense to strengthen our presence there. Reed's familiarity with the courts in California makes him even more of a potent ally for the firm, and for our clients," said
managing partner Steve W. Berman.
Kathrein has acted as co-chair of the Securities Working Group in California to help supervise the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California’s local securities fraud class action rules.
He has also served on the executive committee of the National Association of Securities and Consumer Law Attorneys, the private international law committee of the American Bar Association and acted as an advisor to the U.S. State Department’s advisory committee on private international law.
Hagens is known for negotiating a pending $300 million settlement as lead counsel in the DRAM memory antitrust litigation and a $340 million recovery on behalf of Enron employees who are awaiting distribution. The firm also served as co-counsel on Visa and MasterCard litigation that led to a $3 billion settlement, the biggest antitrust settlement.
Founded in 1993, Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro has offices in Seattle, Chicago, Cambridge, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco.
