PENNSYLVANIA RECORD

A veteran Philadelphia plaintiffs’ attorney recently joined the advisory board of the

American Antitrust Institute, an independent, Washington-based non-profit education, research and advocacy organization whose aim it says is to increase the role of competition in the American and world economies.

The organization announced that Eugene Spector, founding partner of Spector Roseman Kodroff & Willis, which has offices in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., has joined the AAI’s Advisory Board, which consists of experts in the fields of antitrust law, economics and business, and is tasked with advising the AAI’s Board of Directors.

In addition to aiding the organization’s directors, advisors are tasked with things such as drafting amicus briefs and participating in working groups.

Spector is a well-established lawyer from Philadelphia who is recognized the country over for his work on behalf of class action plaintiffs, according to his biography on the website of Spector Roseman Kodroff & Willis.

Spector, who earned his law degree from the Temple University School of Law, was a litigator with Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis before founding Spector Roseman Kodroff & Willis.

He also established and headed the securities litigation section at Philadelphia-based Gross & Sklar, P.C., where he was employed between 1980 and 1986, and served as a law clerk to Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justices Herbert B. Cohen and Alexander F. Barbieri from 1970 to 1971.

According to his biography, Spector was co-lead counsel on the Linerboard Antitrust Multi-District Litigation in Philadelphia that settled for more than $200 million, the largest antitrust case settlement ever in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

U.S. District Judge Jan Dubois, who presided over the litigation, was once quoted as saying the “lawyering in this case at every stage was superb.”

Spector was also co-lead counsel in the Relafen Antitrust Litigation that resulted in a $75 million settlement for the class.

Spector was also involved in the Rosenthal v. Dean Witter class action case out of Colorado that resulted in the landmark decision by that state’s Supreme Court that recognized, for the first time, that securities fraud could be proved without reliance being alleged, the attorney’s biography states.

The precedent-setting case was noteworthy since under securities law the reliance element was often difficult to prove, especially if a case involved a large number of plaintiffs in the class action.

Spector, his bio states, is currently serving as co-lead counsel on the antitrust cases In Re: K-Dur Antitrust Litigation, McDonough v. Babies ‘R Us, et al, and In Re: Mercedes Benz Antitrust Litigation.

Spector is a member of the American, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia bar associations, in addition to the American Bar Association’s Antitrust and Litigation Sections and the Securities Law Sub-Committee of the Litigation Section.

Spector also belongs to the Federal Courts Committee of the Philadelphia Bar Association, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America and the American Judicature Society.