Biography

Steven A. Goldfarb, co-chair of Hahn Loeser's Litigation Area and a member of the firm's board of directors, maintains a national commercial litigation practice which in recent years has focused on the representation of major public companies in high-stakes controversies brought across the country, with emphasis in the title insurance, financial services, and hospitality/real estate franchising industries. Steve has been the lead trial lawyer in numerous jury and bench trials and has successfully arbitrated and/or mediated major settlements including a significant insurance coverage case recently mediated by Kenneth L. Feinberg.

Major representative clients in the title insurance industry include Fidelity National Financial, Inc. - the largest title insurance company in the U.S. - and its family of companies (e.g., Chicago Title, Fidelity National Title, and Ticor Title). Steve has overseen Hahn Loeser's service as lead counsel for Fidelity and its subsidiaries in a wide range of consumer class actions, non-compete/employment cases, major escrow and title claims, insurance coverage litigation, and general commercial litigation.

The class action cases for Fidelity have been located across the country, including courts located in: Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Texas and Washington. Representative class action successes include important victories on dispositive motions and in denying class certification. See e.g., Bushbeck v. Chicago Title Ins. Co., No. 08-755, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 53794 (W.D. Wash. June 1, 2010); In re Title Ins. Antitrust Cases, No. 08-677, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 30913 (N.D. Ohio Mar. 31, 2010); Hancock v. Chicago Title Ins. Co., 263 F.R.D. 383 (N.D. Tex. 2009).

Steve's work on non-competition cases for Fidelity includes two major jury trial victories against its biggest competitor in corporate raiding cases, both of which were named Top 100 Verdicts by The National Law Journal in 2005 & 2006, respectively. See Chicago Title Insurance Corp. v. James A. Magnuson [and First American Title Ins. Co.], 487 F.3d 985 (6th Cir. 2007); Security Title Agency, Inc. v. Linda Lorene Pope [and First American Title Ins. Co.], 2008 Ariz. App. LEXIS 118 (Court of Appeals, Div. One July 29, 2008).

Within the financial services industry, Steve has successfully defended a major national bank in significant securities fraud and lender liability actions in Delaware and Ohio. For one particular matter, Steve helped negotiate and then participated in an unusual and creative "night baseball" arbitration as an alternative to a lengthy and risky jury trial. That arbitration resulted in a final and non-appealable defense award, with no recovery by the plaintiffs.

In the franchising industry, Steve leads Hahn Loeser's franchise litigation practice that has, for nearly 15 years, included the multi-state regional representation of Cendant Corp. and its various hospitality, real estate, car rental and travel subsidiaries, and which continues with the representation of companies resulting from Cendant's spin-offs: Wyndham Worldwide (e.g., Ramada, Howard Johnson, Days Inns, and Travelodge), Realogy (e.g., Century 21, Coldwell Banker and ERA), and Avis Budget Group.

Steve has been recognized for his professional accomplishments by several national and international legal publications. He is listed in the 2008, 2009 & 2010 editions of Chambers USA: Leading Lawyers for Business in the category of Commercial Litigation, the 2007-11 editions of The Best Lawyers in America in the category of Commercial Litigation, and the 2004-10 editions of Ohio Super Lawyers. He is also AV Rated by Martindale-Hubbell, its highest available rating for legal ability and professional ethics.

Steve is a contributing author of the American Bar Association's Franchise Litigation Deskbook: Selected State Laws, Commentary and Annotations (third edition, 2010), a two-volume reference of franchise registration, disclosure and relationship statutes and accompanying regulations along with "expert commentary from prominent franchise lawyers."

With a long history of supporting pro bono and volunteer activities, Steve is committed to his community. In 2010, Steve was elected as a trustee of the Shaker Schools Foundation.

Steve is admitted to practice law in Ohio, in the Northern and Southern Districts of Ohio, in the Eastern and Western Districts of Michigan and in the Sixth and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals. He has also been granted pro hac vice status to practice law in numerous other states.

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