Suffness, Michael B

John E. Keefe Jr., is a co-managing member of Keefe Bartels, L.L.C. with offices throughout New Jersey including Red Bank, Newark, and New Brunswick which are all exclusively dedicated to representing seriously injured plaintiffs and victims of fraud. He has devoted his time to civil trial practice in Monmouth, Middlesex, Essex, and Ocean counties while specializing in personal injury litigation, complex mass tort, and class actions.

John had tried numerous matters on behalf of victims of catastrophic injuries throughout the state of New Jersey and served as co-counsel or liaison counsel in several recent and notable consumer fraud, environmental and securities fraud class actions.

John graduated from Gettysburg College and from Seton Hall University School of Law. While in law school, he interned with Honorable Harold A. Ackerman, United States District Judge. Following law school, he served as a law clerk to Honorable Kenneth MacKenzie, presiding Judge of the Chancery Division, General Equity Part in Morris and Sussex counties.

Following his clerkship, he became an associate attorney at Wilentz, Goldman, and Spitzer law firm in Woodbridge, New Jersey. In 1995, John became a partner in the law firm, Lynch Martin, and is the founding member and co-managing member of Keefe Bartels Attorneys at Law in Shrewsbury, New Jersey.

John was appointed by the Superior Court as plaintiffs' liaison counsel in a historic consumer fraud national class action, Talalai v. Cooper Tire & Rubber Co ., and played the key role in the large settlement of which is valued between $1 billion and $3 billion to consumers. Further, he has been appointed liaison counsel and is currently lead counsel on behalf of plaintiffs in one of the largest pollution cases in New Jersey, Janes v. Ciba Geigy Corporation. The case is currently a certified class action on behalf of property owners who have seen their property values greatly affected by living in the shadows of one of the country's worst pollution sites.

John served as liaison counsel in Royal Dutch/Shell Transport Securities Litigation and Hormone Replacement Therapy Litigation . He has also served as Co-Counsel in a national consumer fraud class settlement in Chicago, Illinois on behalf of thousands of consumers nationwide and in the Vioxx - Third Party Payor Consumer Fraud Litigation. He is currently lead counsel with Grant & Eisenhofer in the MDL Litigation involving the off-label marketing of Schering Plough Intron A, Temador, and other oncology drugs. In short, John filed the first New Jersey complaint seeking reimbursement under the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act and the New Jersey Civil RICO Laws for the alleged wrongful conduct of Schering Plough to market these drugs for non-FDA approved use. Schering Plough pled guilty to False Claims against the FDA and paid over 400 Million in fines. This case seeks to reimburse Victims of this illegal and unconscionable conduct.

Among other notable jury verdicts and settlements of John include $1.2 million settlement for a man severely injured in a motor vehicle accident; $1 million dollar settlement for a wrongful death electrocution case; $825,000 settlement for a construction related accident; $625,000 settlement for union laborer who sustained a fractured ankle as a result of a fall from scaffolding; and a construction site accident settlement for $350,000.

John is admitted to practice in the State and Federal Courts of New Jersey, the District of Columbia, and Northern District of Florida. He is also a Certified Civil Trial Attorney, which is a designation granted by the New Jersey Supreme Court. Less than 2% of the attorneys in New Jersey hold this designation. John is a past president of the Trial Attorneys of New Jersey. Additionally, he was named to the New Jersey Law Journal's top 40 Under 40 Lawyers and has been designated a New Jersey Super Lawyer for the last four consecutive years.

John is a member of the American Bar Association, an Executive Member of the Trial Section of the New Jersey State Bar Association, the Middlesex County and Monmouth County Bar Associations, the Trial Attorneys of New Jersey, the American Association for Justice, a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, and a member of the Lawdragon 3000 Leading Plaintiffs' Lawyers in America, 2006.