Hagens Berman Named National Law Journal’s 2025 Elite Trial Lawyer Firm in Class Actions

SEATTLE – The National Law Journal and ALM named Hagens Berman 2025’s winner in the category of class action in its prestigious Elite Trial Lawyer award series, commending the firm’s recent outstanding victories and achievements in this area of law.

The annual award series celebrates the exceptional accomplishments of U.S.-based law firms that demonstrate unparalleled dedication and innovation in advocating for plaintiffs. This prestigious recognition honors firms and attorneys who have delivered groundbreaking legal strategies, achieved significant results and showcased an unwavering commitment to advancing justice for their clients. Criteria included case complexity, duration, impact, verdict as well as overall case volume, firm size and willingness to take on large cases, among other aspects.

Hagens Berman’s class-action legal team was the selected winner among a winnowed list of six finalists and was also named one of five finalists in the category of antitrust law. Winners were announced in New York City on July 10, 2025.

“Our firm remains committed to upholding the collective rights of consumers, employees and others through class-action law — a strong and increasingly important tool for every American,” said Steve Berman, managing partner and co-founder of Hagens Berman. “New forms of abusive behavior, such as algorithmic price-fixing among competitors and the policies of the Trump administration have only made us more determined to use the power of class actions to fight wrongdoing.”

The firm’s recent successes include blockbuster settlements that have brought monumental shifts to major industries across the nation:

• A Missouri judge granted final approval to a $418 million settlement with the National Association of Realtors. Settlements with all defendants to date total over $1 billion in this antitrust class action against NAR and the Big Four residential brokerages. The settlement also abolishes all rules allowing sellers’ agents to set compensation for buyers’ agent, and prohibits broker compensation appearing in the MLS fields, among other changes.
  National media including the New York Times, the Washington Post and CNN said of the “Bombshell” lawsuit and settlements: “Massive Compensation,” “This Class Action Lawsuit Could Change Everything,” “the most far-reaching antitrust lawsuit for the real estate market in decades,” “Changing How We Buy and Sell Homes,” “upending how deals get done and putting downward pressure on costs,” “landmark settlement ushered in the biggest changes in a generation to the way real-estate agents get paid,” “threatens to strike a blow to an established standard.”
• A federal judge approved a historic $2.78 billion settlement with the NCAA in back damages and over $20 billion in future payments, making it the largest antitrust settlement in history. The antitrust class-action lawsuit on behalf of hundreds of thousands of current and former college athletes at Division I schools will bring historic changes to college sports and will allow college athletes to be fairly compensated for the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL) in what has become a multibillion-dollar industry. The case was preliminarily approved at time of award submission and has since been granted final approval.
• Among the firm’s other major recent successes, is $200 million in settlements on behalf of workers in red meat processing industry impacted by wage-fixing, a hugely significant lawsuit against the College Board and 40 of the nation’s top private universities alleging price-fixing, a big win in a price-fixing case against Amazon in which a Washington State Supreme Court judge upheld plaintiffs’ claims and the filing of a major environmental class action in 2024 on behalf of residents of Oregon’s Lower Umatilla River Basin region alleging nuisance and other claims regarding nitrate pollution in local groundwater.

Read more about the firm’s success in class-action law.

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About Hagens Berman
Hagens Berman is a global plaintiffs’ rights complex litigation law firm with a tenacious drive for achieving real results for those harmed by corporate negligence and fraud. Since its founding in 1993, the firm’s determination has earned it numerous national accolades, awards and titles of “Most Feared Plaintiff’s Firm,” MVPs and Trailblazers of class-action law. More about the law firm and its successes can be found at hbsslaw.com. Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw.

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