Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP

Paul J. Geller runs the Florida office of Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP, the world’s largest plaintiffs’ class action firm. The firm also maintains offices in San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., New York and Atlanta.

Besides managing the Florida office and sitting on the firm’s executive committee, the 39-year-old Geller maintains a full caseload and has twice been included in The National Law Journal’s top 40 litigators under the age of 40. Geller represents plaintiffs only, and often battles against the country’s largest corporations. But Geller hasn’t always been on the plaintiffs’ side. He started his career with two defense firms: Miami’s Steel Hector & Davis and New York’s Proskauer Rose. According to Geller, having defended corporations in the very type of class action litigation he now prosecutes is a big advantage to his clients: “I know where the bones are buried.”

Geller’s recent victories include participation in a $3 billion recovery on behalf of Tyco shareholders, and a recovery of more than $55 million for investors in floating-rate mutual funds that were improperly valued. Coughlin Stoia was also sole lead counsel in the Enron securities litigation, where the firm recovered more than $7 billion, the largest settlement in the history of class action litigation. In addition to securities cases, Geller also handles large consumer fraud class actions. Recently, he helped negotiate a $50 million settlement for a class of Florida drivers who claimed a bank violated their privacy by purchasing proprietary information from the Department of Motor Vehicles. In December of 2006, the Daily Business Review recognized Geller as one of Florida’s “Most Effective Lawyers.” This honor was bestowed on him after he persuaded an appellate court that emergency room physicians have the right to sue insurance companies under a Florida statute that the defendant HMOs argued precluded a private right of action.

Geller’s Florida partners are Jack Reise, David George, Jonathan Stein, Douglas Wilens and Stuart Davidson. They are supported by what Geller describes as a “fantastic team of staff and top-rate associates,” including Robert Robbins, Marisa DeMato, Stephen Astley, Elizabeth Shonson, Michael Greenwald, James Davidson, Alina Davis and Kathleen Barber.

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