Michael D. Hausfeld
Michael Hausfeld, one of the country's top civil litigators, joined the Firm in 1971. He is the head of the Antitrust and International practice groups.
Mr. Hausfeld’s career has included some of the largest and most successful class actions in the fields of human rights, discrimination and antitrust law. He long has had an abiding interest in social reform cases, and was among the first lawyers in the U.S. to assert that sexual harassment was a form of discrimination prohibited by Title VII; he successfully tried the first case establishing that principle. He represented Native Alaskans whose lives were affected by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill; later, he negotiated a then-historic $176 million settlement from Texaco, Inc. in a racial-bias discrimination case.
In Friedman v. Union Bank of Switzerland, Mr. Hausfeld represented a class of victims of the Holocaust whose assets were wrongfully retained by private Swiss banks during and after World War II. The case raised novel issues of international banking law and international human rights law. He successfully represented the Republic of Poland, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Ukraine and the Russian Federation on issues of slave and forced labor for both Jewish and non-Jewish victims of Nazi persecution during World War II. He currently represents Jubilee 2000, Khulumani, and other NGOs in litigation involving abuses under apartheid law in South Africa, and is pursuing a RICO litigation against the tobacco industry with regard to the sale of and representations on “light” cigarettes.
Mr. Hausfeld has a long record of successful litigation in the antitrust field, on behalf of both individuals and classes, in cases involving monopolization, tie-ins, exclusive dealings and price fixing. He is or has been co-lead counsel in antitrust cases against manufacturers of genetically engineered foods, managed healthcare companies, bulk vitamin manufacturers, technology companies and international industrial cartels. He is actively involved in ongoing investigations into antitrust cases abroad, and was the only private lawyer permitted to attend and represent the interests of consumers worldwide in the 2003 closed hearings by the EU Commission in the Microsoft case.
Chief Judge Edward Korman (E.D.N.Y.), has noted that Mr. Hausfeld is one of the two "leading class action lawyers in the United States." He has been profiled in, and recognized by, many articles and surveys. Most recently, a Forbes magazine article reported on Mr. Hausfeld’s work to establish an international alliance for the protection of consumers and investors worldwide. He was named one of thirty master negotiators in Done Deal: Insights from Interviews with the World’s Best Negotiatiors, by Michael Benoliel, Ed.D. The Wall Street Journal profiled him and his practice, and he has been recognized by The National Law Journal as one of the "Top 100 Influential Lawyers in America." He has been described by one of the country's leading civil rights columnists as an "extremely penetrating lawyer", and by a colleague (in a Washington Post article) as a lawyer who "has a very inventive mind when it comes to litigation. He thinks of things most lawyers don't because they have originality pounded out of them in law school." The New York Times referred to Mr. Hausfeld as one of the nation's "most prominent antitrust lawyers,” and Washingtonian Magazine has listed Mr. Hausfeld in several surveys as one of Washington's 75 best lawyers, saying he "consistently brings in the biggest judgments in the history of law" and that he is "a Washington lawyer determined to change the world -- and succeeding." Most recently, he was named by Lawdragon magazine as one of the 500 leading trial lawyers in the United States.
His most recent awards include the 2002 B'Nai Brith Humanitarian of the Year award; the Simon Wiesenthal Center Award for Distinguished Service; and the U.S. Department of Energy's Human Spirit Award, presented "in tribute to a person who understands the obligation to seek truth and act on it is not the burden of some, but of all; it is universal."
He is a frequent speaker on antitrust, human rights and international law, most recently participating in a panel discussion at the Spring Meeting of the ABA Section of Antitrust Law entitled “International Antitrust: Developments After Empagran and Intel” and at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) Annual Meeting in London entitled “Human Rights in An Integrated World: The Apartheid Reparations Litigation in the USA.” He taught Masters Degree courses at Georgetown University Law Center from 1980 to 1987, and was an Adjunct Professor at the George Washington University Law School from 1996 to 1998 and now sits on its Board of Directors.
Mr. Hausfeld is a graduate of Brooklyn College, receiving a B.A. in Political Science with a minor in Russian History (cum laude, 1966) and the National Law Center, George Washington University (J.D., with honors, 1969). He was a member of the Order of the Coif and the Board of Editors for the George Washington Law Review (1968-69).
Mr. Hausfeld is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.
Contact: lawinfo@cmht.com
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