Michael Hausfeld

Mr Hausfeld's career as one of the nation's leading civil litigators has included some of the largest and most successful class actions in the fields of human rights, discrimination and antitrust law. He is or has been co-lead counsel in antitrust cases against manufacturers of genetically engineered foods, bulk vitamin manufacturers, technology companies and industrial cartels.Throughout his career, Hausfeld has been driven by the belief that global wrongs must be accountable to global rights. To execute this vision, Hausfeld in November 2008 launched Hausfeld LLP, a global claimants firm dedicated to handling large and complex litigation matters in order to ensure that global citizens and corporations are afforded the same access to justice available to claimants in the United States.Hausfeld has most recently been recognised as 'a titan of the antitrust bar,' and for his pioneering role in extending the US class action model to Europe. Hausfeld helped to achieve a first-of-its-kind US$200 million transatlantic settlement for victims of price fixing of fuel surcharges imposed by BA and Virgin Atlantic; and was the only private lawyer permitted to attend and represent consumer interests in the 2003 EU Commission closed hearings in the Microsoft case.Hausfeld was among the first lawyers in the US to assert that sexual harassment was a form of discrimination prohibited by Title VII; and represented Native Alaskans impacted by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. In Friedman v Union Bank of Switzerland, Hausfeld represented a class of victims of the Holocaust whose assets were wrongfully retained and laundered by private Swiss banks during and after World War II.