John H. Beisner

John H. Beisner is a partner with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in Washington, D.C., and leads its Mass Torts, Insurance and Consumer Litigation Group. He focuses on the de- fense of purported class actions, mass tort matters and other complex civil litigation in both federal and state courts. He also regularly handles appellate litigations and has appeared in matters before the U.S. Supreme Court. Over the past 35 years, Mr. Beisner has defended major U.S. and inter- national corporations in more than 600 purported class actions filed in federal courts and in 40 state courts at both the trial and appellate levels. Those class actions have involved a wide variety of subjects, including antitrust/unfair competition, consumer fraud, RICO, ERISA, employment discrimination, environmental issues, product-related matters and securities. He also has handled numerous matters before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, as well as proceedings be- fore various federal and state administrative agencies, particularly the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Mr. Beisner has advised on numerous high-visibility corporate crisis situations, including congressional hearings, federal agency investigations, state attorneys general inquiries and General Accounting Office reviews. He is a frequent writer and lecturer on class action and complex litigation issues, and in 2013, he re- ceived the Burton Award for Legal Achievement, which recognizes excellence in legal scholarship. Mr. Beisner also has been an active participant in litigation reform initiatives before Congress, state legislatures and judicial committees. He has testified numerous times on class action and claims ag- gregation issues before the U.S. Senate and House Judiciary Committees (particularly with respect to the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005) and before state legislative committees. For his integral role in crafting the Class Action Fairness Act, he was recognized with the 2011 Research and Policy Award by The U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform. Mr. Beisner repeatedly has been selected for inclusion, and is in the top tier, in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business in the area of product liability, and he also is listed in The Best Lawyers in America, The Legal 500 U.S., Who's Who Legal and Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America. He received his B.A. from the University of Kansas in 1975 with honors and Phi Beta Kappa, and his J.D. with honors from the University of Michigan in 1978, where he was an administrative editor of The Michigan Law Review.