Hart, Barbara J.

Barbara J. Hart represents a broad range of clients in complex class action litigation, with a particular emphasis on securities and antitrust litigation. A member of the Firm's Executive Committee, Ms. Hart is also the founder of Labaton Sucharow's Women's Initiative, which brings professional women together to collectively advance women's influence in business.

Ms. Hart served as counsel to the Office of the Treasurer of the State of Connecticut, representing the Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds in the In re Waste Management Securities Litigation. That litigation, which was settled for $457 million, was the third largest securities class action settlement in history. She also represents the Office of the Treasurer of the State of Connecticut as Lead Plaintiff in the JDS Uniphase Securities Litigation, litigating on behalf of shareholders who lost billions when the value of JDSU shares collapsed. The trial began on October 23, 2007 and is currently underway before the Honorable Claudia Wilken in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Ms. Hart has recently been appointed Co-Lead Counsel in the Eastern District of New York federal court in the In re Air Cargo Shipping Services Antitrust Litigation. The action alleges an international cartel, between many major airlines, that is alleged to have raised prices and surcharges for air shipping services.

In August 2006, Ms. Hart secured a $285 million class action settlement against the El Paso Corporation. The case involved a securities fraud claim stemming from the Company's inflated earnings statements which cost shareholders hundreds of millions of dollars during a four year span.

Ms. Hart has represented the County of Suffolk and Local 237 and other health and welfare funds' interests in the prosecution and settlement of antitrust claims involving the drugs Paxil ($65 million settlement) and Augmentin ($29 million settlement).

She was also one of the principal litigators responsible for a $65 million settlement in the In re Brand Name Drug Litigation challenging two-tiered pricing conduct that caused pharmacy customers to overpay for their prescription drugs. The settlement was lauded by judges across the country for its quality lawyering. Ms. Hart also represented consumers and prescription benefit insurers (both private insurers and union funds) in litigation against DuPont regarding the monopolization and marketing of Coumadin, which was settled for $44.5 million. Currently, Ms. Hart is counsel to numerous health and welfare funds including the United Federation of Teachers and of New York State Teachers in various other cases combating the rising cost of prescription drugs.

She is the co-author of an article entitled Antitrust Protections Expanded in New York, New York Law Journal, June 22, 1999. In addition, Ms. Hart is regularly called upon to lecture on cutting-edge issues in her field and has appeared before the Council of Institutional Investors, The Federalist Society, the New York Bar Association, The Institute for Law and Economic Policy, the Public Funds Forum and the Practicing Law Institute.

Ms. Hart earned a B.A. from Vanderbilt University in 1982 and an M.A. from the University of North Carolina in 1987. She graduated from Fordham University School of Law in 1992 where she was a member of the Law Review and on the Dean's List.

She is admitted to practice in New York and Connecticut as well as the following federal courts: the United States Supreme Court; the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second and Third Circuits; and the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.