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Benedict Morelli had a vision to represent victims of injury and discrimination—and hard work helped him realize it. He joined his first firm as a file clerk and eventually worked his way up the ranks to become senior partner. “I knew it was the right profession for me,” Morelli says. “I was always fighting for people who couldn’t fight for themselves.” As a lawyer, he could give “a very loud and clear voice” to clients hurt when corporate America put profits before safety.
In 2005, Morelli formed Morelli Ratner, which specialized in mass torts in pharmaceutical litigation, commercial litigation, medical malpractice, personal injury, and employment discrimination. In 2012, Morelli Ratner broadened its reach by merging with Jeremy Alters to form Morelli Alters Ratner, a firm that also specializes in class action suits.
“Together our firms have proven much stronger, with greater resources to handle many more complex cases throughout the country,” says Morelli.
Those resources have enabled Morelli Alters Ratner take on the most difficult cases while giving each client the personal and detail-oriented attention they need. “If the client calls the senior partner in a lot of law firms, they can’t get through,” Morelli says. “But I believe a great firm has to be big enough to litigate with anyone and still small enough to give that personal touch.” Morelli has long made himself available to every client. His new partnership, with offices in New York and Miami and another slated to open in Washington, D.C., is in a better position than ever to serve clients nationwide.
In 2005, Morelli Ratner refocused the firm toward mass tort pharmaceutical cases and employment discrimination specializing in sexual harassment. In 2011, Morelli’s team won a $95 million verdict in a sexual harassment lawsuit in federal court in Southern Illinois, then the largest individual sexual harassment victory in U.S. history. Morelli represented a young female sales representative against her former employer, Aaron’s, Inc., a billion-dollar Atlanta-based corporation that is a national leader in the rent-to-own business. During her one-and-a-half years of employment as a sales representative at Aaron’s, the Illinois woman was subjected to verbal and physical sexual harassment by her store’s general manager, culminating in her sexual assault. Aaron’s claimed it could not be held responsible for the store manager’s conduct because the woman failed to complain to upper management (including a regional manager who regularly visited the store) or human resources (via the company’s sexual harassment hotline.) Plaintiff claimed she called the hotline and left a message, but her call was never returned. The store manager denied he ever sexually harassed let alone assaulted his subordinate: he was later acquitted of criminal charges.
Morelli argued that the system was broken, Aaron’s knew or should have known of the general manager’s misconduct, and that his client was telling the truth. The jury agreed, finding Aaron’s liable not only for sexual harassment but also for its negligent supervision of the general manager, and awarding some $80 million in punitive damages in addition to $15 million in compensatory damages.
Partner Jeremy Alters’ firm began a groundbreaking class action suit in 2008 against 41 of America’s largest banks. In 2008, Alters became aware of banks taking advantage of customers by re-sequencing overdraft charges. The banks would allegedly wait days to process charges until a customer’s account was depleted. The banks appeared to also manipulate large purchases so they could process them first, triggering overdraft fees on subsequent smaller purchases.
By April 2010, the work by Alters’ firm helped prompt Congress to outlaw this practice, And by January 2011, the first case was settled with Bank of America for $410 million. “We are proud of the billions of dollars reclaimed for the for consumer, Alters says now. “But even more than that, we’re proud when laws get changed that help level the playing field for everyday people in this country.”
Together, the new team will continue to fight this fight and others using a guiding philosophy they share: The client comes first. “Even if the law is unclear about a certain situation, if we believe the client has a meritorious claim, we’ll make new law if we have to,” says Morelli. “We will fight any adversary no matter how strong, no matter how large, because we are fearless in our pursuit of justice for our clients.”