Shawn J. Rabin

Shawn Rabin tries cases for plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal courts across the country. His past experience includes handling antitrust, patent, class action, breach of contract, securities, personal injury, dram shop, fraud, and other complex business disputes. Rabin handles all aspects of a case--from evaluating claims before a complaint is filed to selecting juries, examining witnesses at trial, and seeing cases through verdict.

Rabin is a strong believer in litigating efficiently and cost effectively no matter whether he is working by the hour, on a fixed fee, or contingency fee. Unlike lawyers who follow the same model and structure for pursuing every type of case, Rabin's creativity and strategic thinking provides him with the extra margin needed to succeed. In recognition of that success, Super Lawyers named Rabin a "Rising Star" in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011. Rabin was elected to membership in the Fellows of the Texas Bar Foundation.

As Judge Robert King, Dakota County, Minnesota commented after a more than two-month bench trial:
"It's the finest lawyering I've ever seen[.] I'm sure it's the finest I'll ever see . . ."

In 2011, Rabin won a defense verdict on behalf of The Rawlings Company in a class action challenging the company's classification of its employees as exempt from the overtime laws. During the three-week jury trial in Kentucky state court, Rabin picked the jury, handled the direct examinations of many of the company's witnesses--including the company's top executive--and cross-examined Plaintiffs' witnesses. This complete victory for Rabin's client was achieved in one of the first wage and hour class actions to go to trial in Kentucky.  The verdict was featured in the American Lawyer here and Law360 here.

In 2010, Shawn Rabin was hired by a family to represent them in a shareholder oppression case. Rabin engineered a strategy that placed the family in the best litigation position without harming the company in which they owned substantial shares. Rabin's outside-the-box approach led to an arbitration and then a confidential settlement.

In 2009, Shawn Rabin represented an international company against a subsidiary of a large New York bank in a contract dispute regarding the failed purchase of a company. Rabin briefed the crucial motion to dismiss and handled preparing the case for expedited discovery and trial. Shortly after Rabin filed the response to the Motion to Dismiss, the defendants chose to settle the case--a substantial victory for Rabin's client.

In 2008, Shawn Rabin tried a patent infringement case before the Honorable Judge T. John Ward and a jury in the Eastern District of Texas for their client C2 Communications. The case involved whether the nation's largest telecommunication carriers infringed a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) patent. The case settled after the third day of trial, following the close of C2's case-in-chief and Rabin's direct examination of the patent's owner and C2's damages expert. For more information about this case, please see this article.

In 2008, Bill Carmody and Shawn Rabin settled a lawsuit involving a horrific drunk driving collision. In 2005, a drunk driver struck a hotel van transporting a family to the airport. A young girl was killed and members of the family were severely injured. Rabin performed an extensive investigation before filing suit to determine exactly how and where the drunk driver became intoxicated. This pre-complaint investigation resulted in confidential settlements with some of the wrong-doers. Rabin then filed a complaint against the two bars where the drunk driver had consumed alcohol. All of the defendants chose to settle after Rabin took damaging depositions of the key witnesses. The value of these significant settlements are confidential.

In 2008, Brian Melton and Shawn Rabin represented a defendant against claims that it wrongfully terminated its former CEO. After several rounds of discovery and several victories before the trial court judge, the opposing party agreed to settle the case for a minimal amount.

In 2007, Shawn Rabin spent almost one-quarter of the year in trial defending a large company against a wage and hour class action. Rabin performed the direct and cross examination of more than a dozen fact and expert witnesses. A description of Rabin's cross-examination of the first trial witness was published by news services across the world (the article can be accessed by clicking here).

In 2005 and 2006, Shawn Rabin represented a Fortune 100 company in a highly confidential accounting dispute against a major accounting firm. The allegations in the case included breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, and accounting malpractice. Before filing a lawsuit, both parties agreed to brief the issues before a former Texas Supreme Court Justice. Rabin took the lead for Susman Godfrey's client and, after several months of negotiation, the parties reached a favorable settlement.

In 2004, Shawn Rabin achieved a key victory in a case representing a class of residential and business customers against the major telecommunications companies, including Sprint and AT&T by writing the winning briefs in an appeal before the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. The court's unanimous opinion can be accessed here. The claims against AT&T eventually proceeded to a jury trial in which Susman Godfrey successfully obtained a favorable jury verdict (news article can be accessed here).

Shawn Rabin graduated with Honors from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service with a major in International Politics and Security. At Georgetown, he was awarded the Dean's Citation given to a graduate who displays high academic achievement and service to the community. Rabin obtained his J.D. from the University of Texas, where he received the distinctions of Chancellor and Order of the Coif. Rabin also served as an Associate Editor of the Texas Law Review.

After law school, Shawn Rabin clerked for the Honorable Juan R. Torruella of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

Super Lawyers named Rabin a "Rising Star" in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011. Rabin was also elected to membership in the Fellows of the Texas Bar Foundation.

In 2011, the Governor of Kentucky appointed Shawn Rabin to the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonials and bestowed upon him the title of "Colonial Shawn Rabin."

Shawn Rabin is admitted to the state courts of New York and Texas and the United States Court of Appeals for the 1st, 5th and 10th Circuits and the United States District Courts for the Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western Districts of Texas.

Rabin works with a variety of legal organizations in their efforts to help the public. Most recently, Rabin has been assisting Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) by training volunteers on civil litigation. Rabin was also quoted extensively in the Winter 2009 issue of the MADDvocate, which can be accessed here.

Rabin is also an active member of the Litigation Committee of the New York City Bar and is a Barrister in the New York American Inn of Court.

Johnston et al v. The Rawlings Company, L.L.C — Neal Manne, Shawn Rabin and Kalpana Srinivasan win a full defense verdict after a three-week jury trial on behalf of The Rawlings Company in wage and hour class action.