Vineet Bhatia

Mr. Bhatia has proved repeatedly that he is the lawyer to call when one is looking to secure a significant award from a legal dispute.  A few of his high-stakes plaintiff-side litigation victories include:

• After intervening in the SEC’s action against digital music streaming service, Akazoo, secured $35 million settlement on behalf of a group of PIPE and SPAC investors over allegations that Akazoo defrauded them and lied about business prospects both before and after its 2019 special purpose acquisition company merger. The group represented by Bhatia and Susman Godfrey in the matter was awarded $30.1 million of the settlement ($25.3 million after fees and expenses). Read more.
• Serving as lead counsel to prosecute Peak Web Litigation Trust’s $100+ million claim against Machine Zone for breach of contract, fraud and theft of trade secrets in state court in San Jose, CA. The case was settled in December 2017 shortly before trial for a confidential amount.
• Serving as lead counsel in LyondellBasell’s business interruption insurance claim arising out of Hurricane Ike, a matter that was litigated in a confidential arbitration in London. The case settled one day before the arbitration hearing was scheduled to commence.  Mr. Bhatia led the settlement negotiations with insurers. The settlement amount is confidential, although LyondellBasell disclosed in SEC filings that it received in excess of $100 million from its insurers.
• Serving as co-lead counsel in a $100+ million breach of contract claim brought on behalf of Lyondell-Citgo Refining L.P. against PDVSA, the Venezuela national oil company, for breaching a long-term crude supply contract. The case was filed in the Southern District of New York and arose under New York and Venezuelan law. After defeating PDVSA’s motion to dismiss the case under the “act of state” doctrine and completing extensive discovery in the United States and Venezuela, Mr. Bhatia obtained an adverse inference against PDVSA for refusing to produce documents, and, following that discovery sanction, filed a plaintiff-side motion for summary judgment. The case settled on confidential terms while that summary judgment motion was pending.
• Representing the world’s largest retailer, Walmart, in its claims against tuna manufacturers for price-fixing in federal court in San Diego. Bhatia was responsible for the day-to-day handling of the case and led the settlement discussions with defendants.  Walmart has now resolved all of its claims against the tuna manufacturers for confidential amounts, although one defendant did publicly disclose that it paid $20.5 million to settle its role in the case. Read more on this case here.
• Serving as lead counsel to two Kansas utilities involved in disputes over wind energy projects. In one case, he represented KCP&L in an arbitration involving the purchase of wind energy.  KCP&L prevailed on all claims in the arbitration.  In a second case, he represented a Westar Energy subsidiary, in which his client prevailed on all claims and required the other side to pay attorney fees and costs.
• Being selected by a class of shareholders to serve as lead trial counsel in a securities action against Genzyme Corporation. On the eve of trial, Genzyme agreed to pay $64 million to the class.
• Making a major contribution to one of 2005’s Top Ten Verdicts in the United States, when he and firm founder, Steve Susman, obtained a $140 million jury verdict (automatically trebled to $420 million) in an antitrust case against Tyco Healthcare Group. The claims had been brought under the federal antitrust laws based on Tyco’s anticompetitive practices that prevented Masimo from selling its competing pulse oximetry products to hospitals located in the United States. In 2006, the Court upheld the jury’s findings of antitrust liability but ordered a new trial on damages. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the liability verdict and the new damage award. Bhatia selected the jury and presented and cross-examined most of the witnesses at trial.
• Serving as co-lead counsel with the head of the firm’s Los Angeles office, Marc Seltzer, representing a class of injured people whose reserves for future medical care and living expenses had been looted from trust funds. The suit was filed after the trustee stopped paying disbursements of settlement proceeds to over 250 seriously injured people and wrongful death claimants. In large part due to Mr. Bhatia’s efforts, several large financial institutions paid more than $100 million to settle consolidated class actions enabling plaintiffs to recover 100% of their losses.
• Winning an arbitration on behalf of Lyondell Chemical Company against Atlantic Richfield Company. The arbitration involved the breach of a long-term agreement to supply MTBE. After the arbitration decision, the parties agreed that ARCO should pay Lyondell $21.5 million. Mr. Bhatia served as lead counsel in this case, and the result was featured in an article in the National Law Journal on the top plaintiff firms in the United States.
• Serving as lead counsel for Western Resources in a purchase price adjustment arbitration and related litigation against Westinghouse Electric Corporation. The arbitration and related case involved Western Resources’s purchase of Westinghouse’s home-monitored security business in December 1996. The terms of the settlement were confidential, although Western Resources disclosed, as required by the SEC, that it received $37.5 million to resolve all the claims.