H. Laddie Montague Jr. Named 2019 “Best of the Bar” by Philadelphia Business Journal

Berger Montague is proud to announce that Chair Emeritus & Of Counsel H. Laddie Montague Jr. has been named to the Philadelphia Business Journal’s 2019 “Best of the Bar: Philadelphia’s Top Lawyers.” Mr. Montague is recognized in the Business Litigation category.

Only 41 attorneys from the Philadelphia region were named “Best of the Bar.” The nominations were evaluated by the Philadelphia Business Journal’s editorial board and three independent judges. The nominations were judged based on significant and recent achievements, including the legal significance, the size of the results, and the business impact of the work.

Currently, Mr. Montague serves as co-lead counsel for a national class including millions of merchants in the Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation against Visa, MasterCard, and several of the largest banks in the U.S. (e.g., Chase, Bank of America, and Citi). The lawsuit alleges that merchants paid excessive fees to accept Visa and MasterCard cards because the payment cards, individually and together with their respective member banks, violated the antitrust laws. The lawsuit further alleges that defendants maintained their conspiracy even after both Visa and MasterCard changed their corporate forms from joint ventures owned by member banks to publicly-owned corporations following commencement of this litigation. On September 18, 2018, after 13 years of litigation, Visa and MasterCard agreed to pay between $5.56 billion and $6.26 billion to settle the case. This result is the largest-ever class action settlement of an antitrust case. The settlement received preliminary approval on January 24, 2019.

In 2018, Mr. Montague settled In re Domestic Drywall Antitrust Litigation for $190.7 million after several years of hard-fought litigation. The Firm served as co-lead counsel on behalf of a class of direct purchasers of drywall who alleged that the dominant drywall manufacturers engaged in a conspiracy to fix drywall prices in the United States and abolish the industry’s longstanding practice of limiting price increases for the duration of a construction project through “job quotes.”

In addition to his success in the previous cases throughout 2018-2019, Mr. Montague has been named a 2019 “Titan of the Plaintiffs Bar” by Law360, a 2019 “Influencer of Law” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, a “Leading Lawyer” in the Civil Litigation/Class Actions: Plaintiff category of The Legal 500 United States 2019, and a 2019 Lawdragon 500 “Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyer.”

Meet The Team

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H. Laddie Montague

Of Counsel

• [email protected]
• 215-875-3010