Biography
Elizabeth Cabraser is a founding partner of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, a plaintiffs' litigation firm with offices in San Francisco, New York, Nashville, and Seattle. Since 1978, she has served as court-appointed lead and class counsel in scores of federal class actions, multi-district and state coordinated proceedings. These cases have included multi-state tobacco, the Exxon Valdez disaster, Breast Implants, Fen-Phen (Diet Drugs), Vioxx, Toyota sudden acceleration, numerous securities/investment fraud and antitrust cases, and the historic Holocaust human rights litigation. Today, Elizabeth serves in court-appointed leadership positions in several of the nation's highest profile civil cases, including the BP Gulf Oil Spill, GM ignition switch defect, Generic Drugs pricing and Domestic Airline Travel antitrust cases, and the Takata defective airbag litigation, as well as serving as Lead Counsel in the Volkswagen "Clean Diesel" Emissions litigation and the recently-filed Fiat Chrysler Ecodiesel Emissions fraud litigation.
Elizabeth has been repeatedly recognized as one of the foremost litigators in the U.S., and was selected an unprecedented four times as one of the 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America by the National Law Journal, which has called her "a pillar of the plaintiffs' bar." In November 2017, she received the National Law Journal's "Lifetime Achievement" award, which honors an attorney's career-long accomplishments and their impact on the national legal community. Also in 2017, she was was named "Plaintiff Attorney of the Year" by Benchmark Litigation, which noted that she "is known nationwide for having handled some of the largest class actions in US history, as well as being one the firm's — and the country's — foremost trial lawyers." The publication also named her to its lists for "Top 10 Women in Litigation," "Top 250 Women in Litigation," and "Top 100 Trial Lawyers in America." The National Law Journal selected Elizabeth as a 2017 "Energy and Environmental Law Trailblazer," and Chambers USA named her a "Leader in the Field" for General Litigation (California) and Product Liability (Nationwide). The Consumer Attorneys of California selected Elizabeth as a "Consumer Attorney of the Year Finalist," and the California Daily Journal included her among its "Top Plaintiff Lawyers in California" and "Top California Women Lawyers."
She was selected by Law360 as a 2016 MVP for Class Action Law. Also in 2016, Benchmark Litigation recognized Elizabeth as a "Top 10 Female Litigator," and in 2015, the National Law Journal named her as one of the 75 outstanding women lawyers in America. She has been named annually to the Lawdragon 500, The Top 100 California Lawyers, and as a Super Lawyer in multiple fields.
Elizabeth serves on the Council of the American Law Institute (ALI) and is an advisor to several ALI projects, including Aggregate Litigation, the Restatement Third, Torts: Liability for Economic Harm, Consumer Contracts, and Conflict of Laws. Since 2011, she has served on the Federal Civil Rules Advisory Committee. She lectures on class action and complex litigation at Berkeley and Columbia Law Schools, has written extensively on these issues, and has also lectured and conducted seminars for the Federal Judicial Center, ALI-ABA, the National Center for State Courts, Vanderbilt University Law School, and the Practicing Law Institute. In 2010, the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession honored Elizabeth with its Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award. The award recognizes the accomplishments of women lawyers who have excelled in their field and have paved the way to success for other women lawyers. Elizabeth is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a long-time officer of San Francisco's Legal Aid Society, now known as Legal Aid At Work.
Related Articles:
Elizabeth J. Cabraser, A.B.A.: Previous Margaret Brent Women Law. Achievement Award Recipients, https://perma.cc/U8RT-HHSG. See video of introduction and acceptance speech.
