Mr. Cynkar, while at another firm, was part of the team that brought, and prosecuted through the Supreme Court, the landmark United States v. Winstar case. Federal regulators, in an effort to reduce their insurance liabilities for failing savings and loans during that industry's financial crisis, had entered into agreements with the Winstar plaintiffs to [...]
In 2003, CGL represented members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, defending the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (McCain-Feingold bill) in the Supreme Court. In McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, the Court upheld almost all provisions of the McCain-Feingold bill.
We were part of a team representing AmerenUE in In the Matter of Union Electric Co., the largest electric utility in Missouri, in a major rate case. We dealt with a broad range of regulatory and constitutional issues, including the relationship between federal and state regulatory jurisdiction, the protection of contract rights, and the taking [...]
Our firm acted in the role of claimants' representative as part of the massive settlement involving sales practices of life insurance policies sold by Prudential Insurance Company. Under the terms of the over $4 billion settlement, individual policyholders were accorded the right to have an individual determination of their remedies. Our firm and one other [...]
We served as co-lead counsel in the trail-blazing consumer privacy case Dennis v. Metromail Corp. The complaint charged that Metromail contracted to have maximum security Texas prisoners "key" personal information obtained from shopping questionnaires. As a result, the lead plaintiff received an extremely offensive, sexually explicit letter from a convicted sexual offender. The firm's investigation [...]
In Benson v. Kwikset Corp, we led a legal team that won significant injunctive relief for false advertising as “Made in USA” in violation of California “Made in USA” requirements and unfair competition/consumer protection law. Kwikset Corp. moved its manufacturing from Anaheim, California to a facility in Mexico yet continued to market their products as [...]
CGL's Charles LaDuca served as class counsel in the Guidant Heart Defibrillator litigation which settled for over $205 million in 2008. On behalf of a nationwide class of patients implanted with the Guidant Ventak Prizm defibrillator, our suit alleged that Guidant Corporation misrepresented the safety of its defibrillators, which are subject to short circuiting and [...]
Our firm played an important role in the California tobacco cases that ended the "Joe Camel" campaign. The defendant's advertising campaign targeted teens and children. As a key player in the first case challenging the "Joe Camel" campaign as a violation of California's unfair competition/consumer protection law, we helped expose R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company's "youth [...]
For tens of thousands of employees of a retail convenience store chain operating in the mid-western states, we won a significant amount of overtime compensation due them for their "off-the-clock" work. This $13.1 million settlement is one of the largest ever achieved in a case of this kind in the Midwest.
Mr. Cynkar was brought in at the eleventh hour as part of a new legal team to help defend a 600-employee government contractor from accusations that it had defrauded the government in its GSA Schedule Contract. With over $100 million claimed in damages, and the threat of debarment from government contracting if found guilty, this [...]