Benesch Continues to Grow Litigation Practice in Chicago and Cleveland

Benesch continues to bolster its complex business litigation practice, including the defense of class actions, energy related litigation, and litigating  intellectual property disputes, with the additions of David Almeida, Manish Mehta, Mark Eisen, Nick Larry and Mark Norris.  The addition of these five attorneys is another step in the firm’s strategy to focus its litigation practice on sophisticated matters for large institutional clients, and brings Benesch’s total number of new litigators to 38 in the past two years, which nearly doubles the size of its  Litigation Practice Group to  81 attorneys. 

“These are exciting times for our litigation department . These attorneys are immensely talented and experienced,  particularly in handling complex disputes, and will add depth to our dynamic litigation practice in Chicago, Cleveland and beyond,” said Litigation Chair and firm Vice Chair Joe Castrodale. “They each will play a key role in our continued growth and we are delighted to have them join us. We plan to add additional high end laterals going forward.”

David S. Almeida has joined the firm’s Chicago office as a partner, Co-Chair of the Class Actions Practice Group and Chair of the TCPA Practice. He has a national practice with a substantial following of large institutional clients.  His practice focuses on cutting edge class action defense, representing clients in a wide-range of claims, including data breach and privacy violations, state consumer fraud and deceptive business practices, false advertising and false labeling, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), and state and federal gift card acts. His practice spans a number of industries, including healthcare, technology, retail and consumer products, and hospitality. He, along with Messrs. Mehta and Eisen have joined the firm from Sheppard Mullin.

In addition to his litigation practice, he also has a leading privacy and compliance counseling practice. Clients often call on him to design privacy policies, evaluate data privacy practices and provide training on best practices. Further, David provides compliance counseling advice regarding a host of direct marketing, mobile and electronic commerce and loyalty program issues, with a particular emphasis on emerging technologies.

David received his J.D. from Cornell University Law School in 1999 and his B.A. from Salisbury University, cum laude, in 1995.

Manish K. Mehta has joined the firm’s Chicago office as a partner.  His practice focuses on intellectual property litigation, postgrant reviews, patent prosecution and counseling. He has represented clients from a variety of industries, including pharmaceuticals, medical devices, automotive, e-commerce, chemical, and computer software and hardware. He is a skilled litigator, and his litigation experience includes all aspects of the discovery process, defending and taking depositions, preparing witnesses, drafting expert reports, and pretrial preparation.

Manish received his J.D. from the John Marshall Law School, cum laude, in 2006 and his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois in 2003.

Mark S. Eisen has joined the firm’s Chicago office as an associate. Mark focuses his practice on defending companies against class and individual actions brought under various state and federal privacy and consumer protection statutes, including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), as well as other consumer privacy and unfair business practices laws and regulations. Mark also has experience litigating under the Federal Video Privacy Protection Act and Michigan Video Rental Privacy Act, and is well-versed in data breach and data privacy litigation.

Mark received his J.D. from Boston University School of Law, magna cum laude, in 2012 and his B.A. in Political Science and Economics, magna cum laude, in 2008.

Nick Larry has joined the firm’s Chicago office as an associate. He focuses his practice on defending companies against class and individual actions brought under various state and federal privacy and consumer protection statutes, including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), as well as other consumer-privacy and unfair business practices laws and regulations. Nick also has experience litigating under the Federal Video Privacy Protection Act and Michigan Video Rental Privacy Act, and is well-versed in data breach and data privacy litigation.

Nick received his J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law, cum laude, in 2012 and his B.A. in General Business Administration – Prelaw from Michigan State University Honors College in 2008.

Mark K. Norris has joined the firm’s Cleveland office as an associate from BakerHostetler. Mark focuses his practice on representing businesses in complex commercial disputes. His experience includes trademark and copyright litigation, employment disputes, class action defense, and breach of contract actions.

Mark received his J.D. from the Case Western Reserve University School of Law, magna cum laude, in 2014 and his B.S. in Nuclear Engineering Technology  from Thomas Edison State College in 2011.

Since January 2015, Benesch has welcomed over 78 attorneys, 35 staff members and opened a new office in Chicago.  The strategic addition of these attorneys and offices is another step in executing the firm’s aggressive growth plan and goal to continuously enhance the quality of service provided to clients.