Best Class Action Lawyers in the United States: Top Firms and Fees

The best class action lawyers in the United States are concentrated in a small group of plaintiffs’ firms that appear repeatedly across the major rankings: Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd, Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann, Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, Motley Rice, and Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll. Each has recovered billions for classes, held court-appointed lead counsel roles in the largest cases in its practice area, and been recognized by ISS Securities Class Action Services, The Legal 500, Law360, Chambers USA, Benchmark Litigation, or the National Law Journal. Which of them is best for you depends on the kind of case you have.

How the Rankings Work

No single list is authoritative, so the firms that surface across several methodologies are the most reliable signal.

ISS Securities Class Action Services ranks firms by the total dollar value of final securities class action settlements where the firm served as lead or co-lead counsel. It is the most objective measure for securities work because it relies on hard settlement data.
The Legal 500 evaluates firms on lawyer and team quality, billing efficiency, sector knowledge, and client satisfaction measured through Net Promoter Score.
Law360 Practice Groups of the Year recognizes firms based on the size, complexity, and significance of the year’s litigation.
The National Law Journal Elite Trial Lawyers honors plaintiffs’ firms in specific practice-area categories, drawing winners from finalist shortlists.
Chambers USA and Benchmark Litigation rank firms and individual attorneys using peer review, client feedback, and case analysis.

Robbins Geller Rudman and Dowd

Robbins Geller is one of the largest plaintiffs’ firms in the world, with roughly 200 lawyers across ten offices, and its dominance in securities fraud class actions is measurable. ISS SCAS has ranked it number one for securing the most monetary relief for investors in six of the last ten years. From 2022 through 2026, the firm recovered $6.6 billion for investors in securities cases, more than $2.2 billion ahead of the next closest firm.¹

Its landmark result is the $7.2 billion Enron settlement, the largest securities class action recovery in history.² Other major results include $1.575 billion in Household International (the largest recovery following a securities fraud trial), $1.21 billion in Valeant Pharmaceuticals, and $809.5 million in a Twitter securities case, the largest in the Ninth Circuit in the past decade. The firm was also central to the Volkswagen consumer emissions settlement (more than $17 billion), the Visa/Mastercard antitrust settlement ($5.5 billion), and the national opioid litigation that has produced more than $50 billion in disbursements.³

In 2024 alone the firm recovered over $2.5 billion for investors, more than the next five plaintiffs’ firms combined, with sole-lead settlements of $490 million against Apple, $434 million against Under Armour, and $350 million against Alphabet. The National Law Journal named Robbins Geller the 2025 Elite Trial Lawyer winner in the Securities Litigation/Shareholder Rights category, and partner David Knotts was named a 2026 Titan of the Plaintiffs Bar.⁴

Bernstein Litowitz Berger and Grossmann

Founded in 1983 by Max Berger, BLB&G has recovered over $40 billion for investors and secured seven recoveries of $1 billion or more. It has served as lead or co-lead counsel in 37 of the top 100 U.S. securities fraud recoveries of all time, more than any other firm.⁵⁶

Signature results include over $6.19 billion in WorldCom, over $3.3 billion in Cendant Corporation, $2.425 billion in Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch, more than $2 billion across 20 actions involving Allianz’s Structured Alpha Funds, and separate billion-dollar-plus recoveries in Nortel Networks, Merck, McKesson, and Wells Fargo. A $300 million settlement from Ernst & Young stands as the largest ever paid by an auditing firm in a securities case.⁵⁷ In corporate governance, the firm won the Delaware Court of Chancery ruling that rescinded a $56 billion compensation package for Elon Musk at Tesla.⁶

BLB&G operates with roughly 140 attorneys and 80 professional staff across New York, Delaware, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New Orleans. Law360 named it a Class Action Group of the Year in both 2024 and 2025.⁸

Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro

Hagens Berman, founded in 1993 by Steve Berman, reports over $345 billion in total victories and settlements across an unusually broad practice covering antitrust, consumer protection, environmental, and human rights litigation. That headline figure is driven largely by the firm’s role as co-lead counsel for 13 states in the $260 billion Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.⁹

Other standout results include the $25 billion Visa Check/MasterMoney antitrust settlement, the $22.78 billion NCAA name, image, and likeness settlement (combining $2.78 billion in back damages with over $20 billion in projected future payments), $14.7 billion in the Volkswagen emissions case, and $1.6 billion in the Toyota sudden unintended acceleration litigation. Active work includes a $474 million jury trial win in an Amitiza antitrust case in May 2026 and pending class actions against Amazon, Apple, and Starbucks.¹⁰

The National Law Journal named Hagens Berman the 2025 Elite Trial Lawyer winner in the class action category, and Steve Berman was named a 2025 Titan of the Plaintiffs Bar.¹¹ Law360 has recognized the firm as a Class Action Group of the Year in 2022, 2023, and 2025.⁸

Lieff Cabraser Heimann and Bernstein

Lieff Cabraser, established in 1972, is one of the most diversified plaintiffs’ firms in the country, active in antitrust, consumer protection, securities, employment discrimination, environmental, cybersecurity, and mass tort matters.¹²

Environmental work includes the $11.2 billion BP Gulf Oil Spill settlement and the $1.5 billion Exxon Valdez recovery. Antitrust results include $1.25 billion in natural gas litigation and over $1 billion in wholesale electricity cases. The firm also secured $600 million for the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment caused by Norfolk Southern, $450 million against Progressive Corporation, $235 million from Altria and JUUL over youth e-cigarette marketing, $215 million in Goldman Sachs gender discrimination, and $118 million in a similar case against Google.¹² It helped secure a $300 million settlement for third-party payors in the opioid litigation.¹³

Partner Elizabeth Cabraser has served as court-appointed lead or co-lead counsel in the Volkswagen emissions litigation, the General Motors ignition switch case, the Takata airbag litigation, the Fiat Chrysler diesel case, and the national prescription opiates MDL. Law360 has named her a Titan of the Plaintiffs Bar twice, most recently in 2026, when only ten attorneys nationwide received the honor.¹⁴

Motley Rice

Motley Rice has been at the center of the largest public-health and mass-tort class actions in American history. Co-founder Joe Rice was one of the lead negotiators of the $246 billion Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, the largest civil settlement in U.S. history, and served as co-lead negotiator of the BP Deepwater Horizon settlement and lead negotiator of the Volkswagen consumer emissions settlement.¹⁵

In the national opioid litigation, Rice serves as co-lead counsel for over 2,700 communities in the MDL in the Northern District of Ohio, and the firm secured a nearly $4.25 billion settlement with Teva Pharmaceutical alone. It represents more than 40 state and local governments in that litigation.¹⁶ Current work includes co-lead counsel roles in the adolescent social media addiction MDL, with 1,246 plaintiffs, and the national GLP-1 diabetes drug MDL, with 1,443 claims.¹⁵

Cohen Milstein Sellers and Toll

Cohen Milstein has nearly 50 years of experience and over 100 attorneys across eight offices. The Legal 500 ranks it Tier 1 in plaintiff class actions, and its practice spans antitrust, securities, civil rights and employment, consumer protection, ERISA, human rights, and whistleblower cases.¹⁷

Notable results include a $1 billion Wells Fargo securities settlement (the 17th largest securities class action settlement of all time), a $398 million recovery in poultry-industry antitrust litigation against Perdue Farms, described as the largest antitrust labor class action for lower-wage workers, and a $375 million settlement in mixed martial arts antitrust litigation challenging wage suppression. The Legal 500 recognized the firm as “Top Ranked Securities Litigation – 2026.”¹⁸

Other Leading Firms

Berger Montague

Founded in 1970 in Philadelphia, Berger Montague has recovered over $60 billion. A December 2024 report by the Center for Litigation and Courts at UC Law San Francisco ranked it first among U.S. firms in antitrust class action recoveries as lead counsel, with over $9 billion in antitrust settlements between 2009 and 2023.¹⁹ Landmark cases include the $6.2 billion aggregate Payment Card Interchange Fee settlement, $2 billion in the Drexel Burnham Lambert/Michael Milken litigation, the $5 billion jury verdict in the Exxon Valdez oil spill (later set at $507.5 million by the Supreme Court), and a $1.25 billion Holocaust Victim Assets settlement with Swiss banks.²⁰

Kessler Topaz Meltzer and Check

Kessler Topaz, based near Philadelphia, reports over $20 billion in client recoveries across more than 500 successful cases over its 30-year history and represents over 400 institutional investors globally with assets exceeding $8 trillion. ISS SCAS has ranked it among the top five plaintiffs’ firms by both dollar recovery and number of settlements. Benchmark Litigation named it a “Top 12 Plaintiff Firm” nationally in 2026, and the Legal Intelligencer has named it “Class Action Litigation Firm of the Year” six times since 2012.²¹

Hausfeld

The Global Competition Review has called Hausfeld “one of — if not the — top Plaintiffs’ antitrust firm in the U.S.” Between 2009 and 2025 the firm secured 138 antitrust settlements totaling over $9.1 billion.²² Landmark matters include co-lead counsel in the Foreign Exchange Benchmark Rates litigation, which secured more than $2 billion from nine major banks,²³ and the RealPage Federal Antitrust Class Action, where courts granted preliminary approval for 26 settlements totaling $141.8 million over the use of AI-driven software to inflate rental prices.²⁴

Labaton Keller Sucharow

Established in 1963, Labaton Keller Sucharow has recent securities results including a $210 million settlement with Fidelity National Information Services and a $200 million Uber shareholder settlement. Its alternative dispute resolution practice, launched in 2020, has reached $400 million in total settlements across over 125 cases representing two million clients. Law360 named the firm Securities Group of the Year for 2025.²⁵

DiCello Levitt

Founded in 2017, DiCello Levitt reports over $25 billion in recoveries and emphasizes a “trial-first” approach supported by a proprietary trial center using focus groups and jury-behavior research.²⁶ Results include over $4.5 billion in residential mortgage-backed securities actions for the National Credit Union Administration and a $504.5 million settlement involving ISDAFIX manipulation. The National Law Journal has named it “Plaintiffs’ Firm of the Year.”²⁷

Susman Godfrey and Grant and Eisenhofer

Susman Godfrey, ranked Tier 1 by The Legal 500 and named a Law360 Class Action Group of the Year in consecutive years, is unusual in handling both plaintiff and defense class actions, which gives it a trial-oriented reputation. Recent results include a $1.5 billion settlement with Anthropic in an AI piracy case, a $425 million jury verdict against Google in a privacy case, and over $1.2 billion in automotive parts antitrust settlements.²⁸ Grant & Eisenhofer, also a Legal 500 Tier 1 firm, has collected well over a billion dollars in antitrust settlements, including a $2.67 billion recovery in the Blue Cross Blue Shield case, and serves as co-lead counsel in ongoing Visa/Mastercard interchange fee litigation.²⁹

Matching a Firm to Your Case

The legal requirements for a securities fraud case differ sharply from those in a consumer protection or antitrust case, so experience in the specific type of class action matters more than overall firm size.³⁰ A rough guide based on where each firm has repeatedly held lead counsel positions:

Securities fraud and shareholder rights: Robbins Geller, Bernstein Litowitz, Kessler Topaz, Cohen Milstein, Labaton Keller Sucharow.
Antitrust: Berger Montague, Hausfeld, Hagens Berman, Grant & Eisenhofer, Cohen Milstein.
Consumer protection and defective products: Hagens Berman, Lieff Cabraser, Motley Rice.
Mass torts, opioids, public health: Motley Rice, Lieff Cabraser, Robbins Geller.
Environmental: Lieff Cabraser, Berger Montague, Motley Rice.
Employment discrimination and wage suppression: Lieff Cabraser, Cohen Milstein.
Data privacy and emerging technology: Susman Godfrey, DiCello Levitt, Hausfeld.

Court-appointed leadership roles are the most useful proxy for judicial confidence, since judges select lead counsel after reviewing competing applications. Financial depth also matters. Class actions require years of discovery, expert witnesses, and trial preparation, and only firms that can fund that work see them through.³⁰

What You’ll Pay

Class action plaintiffs’ firms work on contingency. They advance all litigation costs and collect a fee only if the case succeeds, with the fee taken as a percentage of the total recovery and subject to court approval. An empirical study of 689 common-fund class action cases found the mean fee award was 23 to 24 percent of the class recovery, and the percentage declined as the recovery grew. Courts granted the requested fee in over 70 percent of cases; when they cut the fee, the approved amount averaged 68 percent of what was asked. Litigation costs generally came in below three percent of the recovery on both a mean and median basis.³¹

What to Ask Before You Hire

Before signing anything, get clarity on a handful of practical questions. Will the lead attorney personally manage the case, or will it be delegated to associates? What is the specific contingency percentage, and are there any out-of-pocket expenses you could be responsible for? Does the firm have any conflicts of interest that could affect the case? How quickly does the attorney return calls and emails? You should receive a written fee agreement before joining any case.³⁰ If you are already a class member in a certified case, you are represented by the court-appointed lead counsel by default; the questions above matter most when you are choosing counsel to bring a new case or seeking to be named lead plaintiff.

1
Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP. Robbins Geller Leads Record $490 Million Recovery in Securities Fraud Class Action Against Apple
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Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP. Securities Fraud Litigation
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Benchmark Litigation. Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd Firm Profile
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Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP. Robbins Geller Honored at The National Law Journal Elite Trial Lawyers Awards
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Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP. Significant Recoveries
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Benchmark Litigation. Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann Firm Profile
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Lawdragon. How BLB&G Became a Powerhouse in Shareholder Litigation
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Law360. Practice Groups of the Year: Class Action
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Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP. Our Advantage
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Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP. Hagens Berman Home
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Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP. Hagens Berman Named National Law Journal’s 2025 Elite Trial Lawyer Firm in Class Actions
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Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP. Case Center
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Law360. Class Action Group of the Year: Lieff Cabraser
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Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP. Elizabeth Cabraser: Titan of the Plaintiffs Bar
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Motley Rice LLC. About Motley Rice
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Motley Rice LLC. Opioid MDL: Joe Rice Appointed Co-Lead
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Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC. About Us
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Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC. Cohen Milstein Home
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Berger Montague PC. Berger Montague Is the Top Antitrust Law Firm in Class Recovery
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Berger Montague PC. About Berger Montague
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Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP. Awards
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Hausfeld LLP. Antitrust and Competition
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Lawdragon. Hausfeld Announces 9 Settlements Totaling More Than $2 Billion in Foreign Exchange Antitrust Litigation
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Hausfeld LLP. RealPage Federal Antitrust Class Action
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Law360. Securities Group of the Year: Labaton Keller
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Benchmark Litigation. DiCello Levitt Firm Profile
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DiCello Levitt LLC. DiCello Levitt Earns Top Chambers USA 2026 Rankings
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Susman Godfrey LLP. Class Actions
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Grant & Eisenhofer P.A. Antitrust Practice
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LawInfo. The Phases of a Class Action Lawsuit
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United States Courts. Attorneys’ Fees in Class Actions