Berger Montague Names Superstar Litigator E. Michelle Drake Newest Member of Firm’s Executive Committee

MINNEAPOLIS, Jan. 5, 2021 – Berger Montague is proud to announce that the Firm has elected E. Michelle Drake to its Executive Committee. Ms. Drake was promoted on January 1, 2021, five years to the day after she joined the Firm.

Ms. Drake joined Berger Montague in 2016, opening the Firm’s first full-fledged office outside of Philadelphia in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Ms. Drake founded and chairs the Firm’s Credit Reporting and Background Checks Department and serves as the Co-Chair of its Consumer Protection Department. During her time at Berger Montague, Ms. Drake has achieved some of the largest Fair Credit Reporting Act class action settlements in history, including a series of settlements with Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion involving classes of millions of consumers who received substantial cash compensation as well as injunctive relief valued in the billions of dollars. Ms. Drake is currently lead counsel in the first ever multidistrict litigation proceeding under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, serves as a member of the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee in the JUUL mass tort litigation, and is lead class counsel in dozens of other consumer protection and privacy class actions.

In addition to litigation, Ms. Drake is also an advocate for the appropriate use of technology in the legal profession. As Berger Montague’s IT Liaison, Ms. Drake oversaw the rollout and implementation of a new document management system as well as new technology to enable the Firm’s legal professionals to seamlessly and securely work remotely outside the office—which has become especially important in the age of COVID-19. Ms. Drake also played an integral role in negotiating an industry-disrupting, best-in-class pricing and services agreement with Ricoh eDiscovery, the largest electronic discovery services provider in the world. The pricing and service structure Ms. Drake helped negotiate is highly beneficial to the Firm’s clients and co-counsel.

“Michelle is a leader,” said Berger Montague Chairman Eric L. Cramer. “In the five years she has been with us, she has successfully run multiple massive class actions, presided over our Minneapolis Office, managed two of our departments, and helped oversee the transformation of our Firm’s use of information technology. It’s dizzying. She is at the top of her profession in every respect, and we are fortunate to have Michelle helping to lead our Firm into its next fifty years of growth and development.”

Ms. Drake began her career as a public defender in Georgia, where she tried numerous felony cases, including a capital case. Ms. Drake has never lost her commitment to public service and human rights. She serves on the Boards of Directors of the Southern Center for Human Rights, Public Justice, and the National Association of Consumer Advocates. Ms. Drake was named a 2020 Elite Woman of the Plaintiffs’ Bar by the National Law Journal and has been repeatedly named a Minnesota Super Lawyer. She has been quoted in the New York Times and the National Law Journal, and her cases were named “Lawsuits of the Year” by Minnesota Law & Politics in both 2008 and 2009.

Berger Montague is a national plaintiffs’ class action and complex litigation law firm headquartered in Philadelphia with offices in Minneapolis, San Diego, and Washington, D.C. Berger Montague litigates complex civil cases and class actions in federal and state courts throughout the United States. Since 1970, the Firm has pioneered the use of class actions in America and recovered well over $36 billion for its clients and the class members it has represented.

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E. Michelle Drake

Executive Shareholder

• emdrake@bm.net
• 612-594-5933