Clients & Cases

HSG represents Visa in multi-district class action antitrust litigation filed on behalf of all U.S. merchants, as well as in opt-out cases brought by the world’s largest retailers—including Target, Macy’s, and 7-Eleven—relating to network rules at the heart of the Visa system. In September 2018, HSG helped Visa reach a historic $6.26 billion settlement with one of the putative classes of merchants—the largest known settlement of a private antitrust case in the 120-year history of the Sherman Act. On March 21, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit of New York upheld the class-action settlement with more than 12 million retailers.

HSG won a $101 million jury verdict against Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, in a lawsuit alleging that Walmart wrongfully cancelled its contract to purchase more than $500 million in personal protective equipment, or “PPE.” Representing London Luxury, the case was tried over 10 days in Walmart’s hometown in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas.

HSG won a significant jury verdict against Boeing, one of the world’s largest aerospace companies, in a lawsuit alleging the company stole substantial trade secrets from start-up Zunum Aero Inc. related to the development of electric and hybrid-electric aircrafts. The nine-member jury found Boeing liable for $81.3 million for trade secret misappropriation.

HSG represents Chubb as nationwide lead trial and appellate counsel in Chubb’s docket of opioid coverage cases, involving some of the largest players in the industry, including Albertsons, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, CVS, Kroger, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, McKesson, Rite Aid, Walgreens, and Walmart. With cases at various stages of litigation, HSG has commenced and defended actions for declaratory judgment and is engaged in discovery and motions practice across the country, already securing multiple favorable jurisdictional, summary judgment, forum, and discovery rulings along the way.

HSG secured a $70 million win on behalf of investment fund client Melody Business Finance involving loans defaulted on by former hedge fund billionaire Philip Falcone and several entities owned or controlled by him. On March 24, 2023, Justice Melissa Crane of the New York Supreme Court, Commercial Division, entered a decision awarding Melody a judgment of $69.8 million, approximately 99% of the maximum amount Melody sought in its complaint. 

On behalf of former Governor Andrew Cuomo, HSG successfully argued at both the New York Supreme Court and the Appellate Division, Third Department a separation-of-powers challenge to the Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government, which had charged the former Governor with state ethics violations related to the proceeds of a book deal. Both courts declared the Commission unconstitutional.

HSG served as U.S. Supreme Court counsel to former Russian lawmaker Ashot Yegiazaryan in a cross-border dispute regarding a fraud charge concerning the extraterritorial scope of civil RICO. The case was argued in April 2023.

HSG represented Valassis, a MacAndrews & Forbes company, as plaintiff in litigation against News Corp. and its subsidiaries alleging federal and state antitrust violations, unfair competition, and tortious interference seeking more than $600 million in damages. Valassis defeated summary judgment and then reached a confidential settlement during jury deliberations following a nearly three-week jury trial in the Southern District of New York in July 2021.

HSG secured dismissal at the trial and appellate levels of all claims against the National Basketball Association in an antitrust suit brought by a person denied the opportunity to qualify as a player agent.

HSG represents AIMCo, an investment fund owned by a foreign sovereign, and Wells Fargo, as a securities intermediary, in innovative, high nine-figure multi-district litigation against insurance carriers alleged to have improperly increased insureds’ premiums on “universal life” insurance policies. HSG has secured several important early wins in these high-profile cases, ensuring that the defendants’ alleged abuses will be adjudicated on the merits. Most recently, in litigation against AXA, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied the defendant’s summary judgment and Daubert motions, allowing AIMCo’s claims for breach of contract, statutory fraud, and common law fraud to proceed.

HSG represented a primary insurance carrier and an excess carrier in a successful $286 million appeal in New York’s First Department in an insurance coverage dispute arising out of the SEC’s late-trading and market-timing investigation of Bear Stearns in the mid-2000s. HSG obtained a reversal of the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to the successors of Bear Sterns, convincing the court to hold that, as a matter of law, $140 million in SEC disgorgement imposed on Bear Stearns was an uninsured penalty.

A pioneer in the area, HSG has acted as coordinating counsel to a government-sponsored entity on a portfolio of $1.5 billion in putback claims and secured hundreds of millions of dollars for trustees in putback litigations. HSG was appointed plaintiffs’ liaison counsel for dozens of coordinated putback cases pending in New York state court, and currently serves as the trustee’s litigation counsel in several of them. In the first of the coordinated cases to reach the summary judgment stage, HSG attorneys successfully opposed the defendant’s motion to limit the scope of its liability and damages, enabling the case to proceed to trial on all allegedly breaching loans.

HSG, along with the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Colorado, and Towards Justice, represent several female pilots and previously represented flight attendants in cutting-edge workplace discrimination actions against Frontier Airlines that establish important precedent on how employers must treat expecting and new mothers. The lawsuits were the first of their kind to be filed against the airline industry. Following a settlement in one case, Frontier Airlines agreed to keep in place recent changes to its policies, including that flight attendants are now permitted to safely pump during flight with the use of wearable breast pumps. 

HSG partner Daniel Sullivan was appointed by Judge Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York to serve as plaintiffs’ liaison counsel in a high-profile multi-district litigation alleging that pregnant women’s prenatal use of acetaminophen, such as Tylenol, causes autism and ADHD in children. As liaison counsel, he is a member of the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee and chairs the Administrative Functions & Common Benefit Reporting Subcommittee.

HSG represented Montreux Partners, L.P. in complex litigation over Argentina’s default on $90 billion in bond payments. Montreux, which purchased discounted bonds following the country’s default, received a favorable ruling from the Second Circuit that lifted an injunction and allowed Argentina to pay out on profitable settlements with Montreux.

HSG represented PetSmart in a dispute with lenders concerning more than $8 billion in debt obligations—litigation at the cutting-edge of a broader industry-wide fight regarding corporate debtors’ rights.