Arun Subramanian
Partner, Pro Bono Chair
New York Office Phone: (212) 471-8346 Email Download vCard Print Bio to PDF
Education
  • Columbia Law School, J.D., 2004; Executive Articles Editor, Columbia Law Review; James Kent & Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar
  • Case Western Reserve University, B.A., Computer Science & English, 2001: summa cum laude
Judicial Clerkship
  • Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court of the United States
  • Honorable Gerard Lynch, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
  • Honorable Dennis Jacobs, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Arun Subramanian
Partner, Pro Bono Chair

Arun is a partner at Susman Godfrey; a member of the firm’s Executive Committee; a former law clerk to three Federal judges, including Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg; and has been appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States to serve on the Advisory Committee for the Federal Rules of Evidence.

“His intellectual horsepower is rivaled by few. He can take in information, analyze it very quickly and come up with a solution quicker than anyone.”
As quoted in Chambers USA NY Commercial Litigation, 2022

Arun has tried and arbitrated high-stakes cases on both sides of the “v,” and has successfully recovered over a billion dollars for public and private entities who were the victims of fraud and other illegal conduct.  Arun’s expertise isn’t limited to any practice area. He has taken up the cause of public entities and whistleblowers in False Claims Act cases, victims of trafficking in child pornography, consumers and individuals injured by unfair and illegal practices, and has for over a decade focused on complex commercial litigation, including antitrust, patent infringement, and breach of contract cases.

“[Arun is] an ‘agile thinker’ with the ability to ‘master complex problems and distill them to their essence in writing and presentation to the court’”
Assured Guaranty General Counsel and Managing Director, Ed Newman

Arun has been actively involved in a variety of landmark matters for Susman Godfrey. No matter the arena, Arun has a proven track record of success. This includes:

  • Securing over $400 million for state and federal governmental entities in United States ex rel. Kester v. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. Working collaboratively with state and federal enforcement agencies, Arun and his team at SG have recovered over $600 million for the public fisc in the False Claims Act arena.
  • Recovering $590 million in settlements in the ongoing LIBOR price-fixing class action. Susman Godfrey, as co-lead counsel to the OTC plaintiffs, won class certification on behalf of the class and continues to pursue relief against the global banks alleged to have conspired to fix the “LIBOR” financial benchmark.
  • Achieving a complete jury victory in Tyler, Texas as co-lead counsel on behalf of defendant Globus Medical in a spinal insert patent infringement suit brought by Flexuspine, a local Tyler company.
  • Securing a trailblazing judgment victory of over $100 million for client Assured Guaranty against Flagstar Bank in one of the first trials concerning repurchases of faulty RMBS—a significant milestone in forcing banks to honor contractual commitments made which they sought to avoid after the financial crisis.

“He’s able to get right to the heart of the matter quickly. He is super thoughtful and articulate, has an amazing skill set, and is very tough when he has to be”
Client quote in Chambers USA NY Commercial Litigation, 2021

Arun also focuses on briefing and arguing appeals in both state and federal court, including securing important rulings on emotional distress claims under New York law, the validity of inventors’ patents under Section 101 of Patent Act, prisoners’ rights under the Fourth and Eighth Amendments, and unjust enrichment claims arising under New York law.  Most recently, Arun was counsel of record for the respondents before the Supreme Court in Ninth Inning v. NFL, where the Court rejected the NFL and DirecTV’s bid for certiorari, leaving in place the Ninth Circuit’s decision upholding antitrust claims asserted by a nationwide class of “Sunday Ticket” consumers.  You can read Arun’s brief in opposition to the petition for certiorari here.

“He had a really good handle on reading the judges and he also has a very deep understanding of the law.”
Client quote in Chambers USA NY Commercial Litigation, 2018

Outside of the courtroom, Arun contributes to the legal community by taking on pro bono cases and has for years served on the pro bono panel for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Arun serves as Chairperson of  Susman Godfrey’s 2022 Pro Bono Committee and is also a longtime Director of the Columbia Law Review, one of the Nation’s pre-eminent legal journals.  You can read Arun’s recent piece for the Review, honoring the career and legacy of the late Justice Ginsburg, here: “A Titan Among Us: On Dissents, Waymaking, and Strong Coffee.” Arun was recently named a member of the Development Committee for The Appellate Project, an organization that provides opportunities for minority lawyers and law students in the field of appellate law.

“Arun Subramanian is praised by clients for his ‘strategic thinking, legal expertise and client communications.’ He acts for both plaintiffs and defendants in large-scale disputes, including antitrust, breach of contract and healthcare mandates.”
As quoted in Chambers USA NY Commercial Litigation, 2020

Notable Representations

WHISTLEBLOWER & FALSE CLAIM ACT LITIGATION

  • State of California ex rel. On the Go Wireless v. CELLCO Partnership et al. Served as counsel to a whistleblower and numerous political subdivisions in California—including the University of California system, the California State University System, and the City of Sacramento—in a ground-breaking False Claims Act lawsuit against wireless carriers AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile. The whistleblower alleged that the carriers fraudulently overbilled the government for wireless services by failing to provide contractually required “lowest cost available” service by means of “optimization reports.” We secured record settlements with the four telecommunication giants valued at $174 million for the government plaintiffs in California and Nevada.
  • United States ex rel. Kester v. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. Working collaboratively with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and several state attorneys general, secured over $400 million in settlements for state and federal governmental entities in a case alleging Novartis defrauded the Medicare and Medicaid programs by illegally paying kickbacks to pharmacies so that they would recommend Novartis drugs to doctors and patients. The recovery was the largest of its kind for the type of pharmacy kickback scheme involved in the case.
  • United States of America ex rel. Martinez v. Apria Healthcare Group. Representing three whistleblowers and working with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, secured a $40.5 million settlement in a False Claims Act case from Apria Healthcare Group, Inc. and its affiliate, Apria Healthcare LLC (Apria). Arun and a team from SG represented qui tam whistleblowers who alleged that Apria continually charged federal health programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, for rentals of non-invasive medical ventilators that were not being used by patients, or that were being used in a therapy mode that did not qualify for the billing codes used. After investigating the relators’ allegations, the United States government intervened in the case and filed its own complaint, which closely tracked the allegations first made by the firm’s clients.

REGULATORY AND BANKING

  • In re: Libor-Based Financial Instruments Antitrust Litigation. Representing the City of Baltimore, Yale University, and other public and private entities damaged by the fixing of LIBOR, a global financial benchmark and “the world’s most important number,” Arun and SG have secured $590 million in settlements to date as co-lead counsel for the over-the-counter direct purchaser class, which was the only class certified by the District Court in 2018. The case is proceeding against the non-settling banks in the Southern District of New York.
  • Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp v Flagstar Bank. As counsel to Assured Guaranty, Arun and SG secured a judgment valued at $90 million plus contractual interest and attorneys’ fees and costs in a case involving breach of contract by the originator and sponsor of residential mortgage-backed securities. This amount was substantially all of the damages sought by Assured Guaranty in the first case of its kind to go to trial. The ruling was a significant milestone in forcing the banks to honor the contractual commitments they made and had long sought to avoid after the financial crisis.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

  • Flexuspine Inc. v. Globus Medical Inc. Represented Globus Medical in spinal insert patent infringement litigation brought by Flexuspine, Inc., a local Tyler company. After SG secured the grant of summary judgment on one of Flexuspine’s patents, and after a week-long trial in Tyler, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a take-nothing verdict in Globus Medical’s favor.
  • BASCOM v. AT&T Corp. Served as lead counsel to client Bascom Global Internet Services in a patent infringement case against AT&T. The District Court, following developing Supreme Court and Federal Circuit caselaw under 35 U.S.C. §101 dismissed the case.  Arun argued the appeal of the District Court’s ruling before the Federal Circuit, which overturned the lower court’s decision. This is one of the first cases to uphold a software patent under the Supreme Court’s Alice decision after a string of losses doled out to plaintiffs by the appellate court.

PROTECTING THE RIGHTS OF CONSUMERS, EMPLOYEES, AND THE PUBLIC

  • Jane Doe v. MindGeek USA Incorporated et al. Arun and partners Krysta Kauble Pachman and Davida Brook recently filed and are prosecuting a class action on behalf of victims of trafficking in child pornography against PornHub and its parent company, MindGeek. The case alleges that the defendants violated federal sex trafficking and child pornography laws by knowingly posting, enabling the posting of and profiting from thousands of pornographic videos featuring persons under the age of 18.
  • Jane Doe v. Reddit, Inc. Currently prosecuting a class action on behalf of victims against Reddit, Inc. for violation of federal sex trafficking laws and California’s child pornography laws. Plaintiffs allege that Reddit facilitates sex trafficking and the distribution of child pornography on its site by targeting individuals who are seeking access to child pornography, failing to appropriately moderate its subreddits, and failing to take action in response to victims who have notified Reddit of the presence of child pornography.
  • Rich v. Fox News. Represented Joel and Mary Rich, the parents of Seth Rich, in a groundbreaking lawsuit against Fox News and its collaborators for intentional infliction of emotional distress and related torts stemming from Fox’s news coverage concerning Seth Rich’s murder.  The case was initially dismissed by the District Court. Arun argued the case before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the court reversed the district court’s dismissal of the Riches’ claims. The case subsequently settled on confidential terms.  You can read the New York Times’ coverage of the case here.
  • FASORP v. New York University and the NYU Law Review. Defending New York University and the NYU Law Review’s efforts to foster diversity in its faculty and on the NYU Law Review against challenges under Title VI and Title IX. Susman Godfrey won a motion to dismiss all of the claims against NYU and the Law Review, and won the case at the Second Circuit on appeal. You can read the District Court’s order here and more about the decision here, here,* and here*. (*subscription required).
  • Avi Dorfman v. Compass Represented Avi Dorfman in a co-founder dispute against real estate brokerage Compass. After Arun argued and beat back Compass’s bid for summary judgment both in the trial court and on appeal, the parties settled on confidential terms, with Compass acknowledging Dorfman’s role as a founding team member.
  • City of Baltimore Opioid Litigation. Representing the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore in fraud and public tort litigation against the manufacturers and distributors of opioids, whose conduct has devastated cities, counties, and states nationwide. Baltimore’s case is currently pending in the Circuit Court of Baltimore City.
  • Mittal v. Investment Technology Group Inc. After a multi-day arbitration, won an award totaling millions of dollars for Hitesh Mittal, the former head of head of liquidity management at Investment Technology Group Inc (ITG), before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Mittal, a former ITG employee, claimed that the brokerage wrongly implicated him in a regulatory probe that he says led to his termination from hedge fund AQR Capital Management. Read more about the win in Bloomberg here.
  • In re: NYC Bus Tour Antitrust Litigation. SG was appointed lead counsel for consumers who had been overcharged for “hop on, hop off” bus rides in New York City for years, based on a horizontal agreement to fix prices between the two largest providers of bus rides in the city, Coach USA and City Sights. These competitors formed a joint venture accounting for 99% of New York City’s hop-on, hop-off sightseeing bus tours. Arun and his team secured millions of dollars in recoveries for the consumer class and worked collaboratively with the New York Attorney General’s office and Department of Justice in pursuing relief against the Defendants.
  • Clark v. AdvanceMe. Inc. Represented merchants, including restaurant owners, in a class action brought in Los Angeles federal court challenging AdvanceMe’s “cash advance” lending program under California’s laws against usury. The case was successfully settled for millions of dollars in cash, forgiven debt and other consideration to members of the class.
  • Ileana D. Platt & Rafael Urquidi v. Barclays Capital Inc. Prevailed on behalf of clients Ileana Platt and Rafael Urquidi against claims by Barclays Capital that the bank was entitled to recover $4 million in bonuses paid to the two former brokers. Hundreds of note collection cases are litigated every year that result in banks being awarded a full recovery, but for the second time in three years, Susman Godfrey successfully defeated the claims before the FINRA panel.
  • Harris v. Fischer. Appointed by the Second Circuit to represent Audra Lynn Harris on her appeal of the dismissal of claims that her Fourth and Eighth Amendment rights were violated during a body cavity search while she was incarcerated. Arun successfully briefed and argued the case before the Second Circuit, securing a vacatur of the District Court’s dismissal and remand for further proceedings. Arun continued his representation of Ms. Harris on remand and after depositions of the corrections officers involved in the search, the case was settled on confidential terms.
  • Plavin v. GHI. Leading a putative class action brought by a retired NYPD officer on behalf of hundreds of thousands of New York City police officers, front-line workers, and other employees and retirees against Group Health Incorporated (GHI), challenging GHI’s improper out-of-network benefits policies and misleading disclosures concerning the scope of coverage under GHI’s health plans. The New York Court of Appeals affirmed the “consumer oriented” nature of the misleading statements alleged in the complaint and the Third Circuit subsequently confirmed the sufficiency of the Plaintiffs’ complaint. The case is proceeding in District Court.

BREACH OF CONTRACT

  • Saba Capital CEF Opportunities v. Voya Prime Rate Trust. After a hearing in Arizona state court, Arun and a team from SG secured a preliminary injunction for Saba Capital that precluded a closed-end fund, its trustees, and its investment advisor from attempting to entrench themselves by enforcing a anti-voting bylaw that was enacted during a shareholder proxy contest and would prevent a free and fair vote of shareholders in the fund to choose the fund’s managers.
  • Wade Emory Johnson v. Transparent Value, LLC. Achieved a total victory for client Wade Emory Johnson in a “David v. Goliath” breach of contract arbitration against Transparent Value, LLC, a subsidiary of global bank Guggenheim Partners. After a four-day hearing, the AAA arbitration panel awarded Johnson damages and securities worth millions of dollars (net of attorneys’ fees and expenses). The award was subsequently confirmed in full by the New York State Supreme Court.
  • Neumann et al. v. SoftBank. SG represented Adam Neumann—founder of WeWork—in litigation in Delaware Chancery Court concerning SoftBank’s efforts to terminate a $3 Billion tender offer owed to WeWork’s shareholders, including thousands of its employees, under the terms of the governing “Master Transaction Agreement.” The case settled on confidential terms just weeks before trial was set to commence.
  • GenOn Energy, Inc. v. NRG Retail LLC. Successfully represented GenOn Energy, Inc. in a multi-million-dollar breach of contract action against NRG Retail, LLC filed in New York Supreme Court. The case was settled on confidential terms shortly after Arun filed a pre-discovery motion for summary judgment against NRG.
Honors and Distinctions
Articles
Professional Associations and Memberships

COURT ADMISSIONS

  • New York State Bar
  • United States District Court for the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York, the Eastern and Western Districts of Texas, and the Eastern District of Michigan
  • United States Court of Appeals for the Second, Third, Sixth, Ninth and Federal Circuits
  • Supreme Court of the United States

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

  • Member of the Advisory Committee for the Federal Rules of Evidence
  • Board of Directors, The Columbia Law Review Association, Inc.
  • Board of Directors, Fund for Modern Courts
  • Member of the Advisory Council, The Sonia & Celina Sotomayor Judicial Internship Program
  • Member of the Development Committee, The Appellate Project
  • Fellow, American Bar Foundation