Steven A. Goldfarb

Steven A. Goldfarb, a former longtime co-chair of Hahn Loeser’s national Litigation Practice Area, is a skilled and highly acclaimed trial lawyer practicing in California and Ohio with experience representing companies and individuals across the country in diverse business litigation matters. In addition to leading the firm’s well-recognized Class Action and Title Insurance Industry Teams, Steve has significant experience in unfair competition/trade secrets, insurance coverage/bad faith, securities fraud and other contract/tort cases.

Under Steve’s leadership, Hahn Loeser’s Class Action and Title Insurance Industry Team has successfully defeated nearly 100 consumer class actions over the last 10 years not only in California and Ohio, but also in Connecticut, Kentucky, Texas, Illinois, Washington, Missouri and Colorado—mostly via dispositive and certification motion practice—but also by trials.

Steve’s past trial victories include two record jury verdicts (Top 100 Verdicts by The National law Journal), both exceeding $40 million, in 2006 (Maricopa County, AZ) and in 2005 (Southern District of Ohio) on behalf of companies suing their competitors and former employees in wrongful recruiting cases involving tortious interference, non-competition covenants and breaches of fiduciary duty. Steve has successfully tried numerous other cases to verdict or judgment, including jury trials involving business fraud, trade secrets, age discrimination, wrongful death, medical malpractice and other personal injury cases.

Accolades

• Steve and his partner, Erica Calderas, obtained the dismissal in August 2019 of a class action against ServiceLink Field Services in the Eastern District of Washington. Plaintiffs claimed that ServiceLink impermissibly performed home protection services on their properties prior to foreclosure allegedly in violation of Washington law. Plaintiffs’ counsel had succeeded in obtaining a landmark Washington Supreme Court opinion in a different case against Nationstar—that lenders who entered and preserved homes pending foreclosure could be trespassers—and had obtained summary judgment and significant settlements in multiple similar class actions. Steve and Erica overcame the momentum of the prior adverse rulings and settlements by pursuing aggressive class certification depositions and other discovery of the proposed class representatives and plaintiffs’ damages expert. Armed with that testimony, Steve and Erica convinced the Chief Judge to grant ServiceLink’s Daubert motion to exclude plaintiffs’ expert and to deny plaintiffs’ motion for class certification based upon inadequacy of the class representatives and the predominance of individual damage issues. Rather than seek an appeal of these rulings, plaintiffs’ counsel dismissed the class action.
• Steve successfully argued in the California Court of Appeal to affirm a substantial defense arbitration award in favor of multiple subsidiaries of Fidelity National Financial. The arbitration award was entered against two class representatives who were compelled to arbitrate individually their Unfair Competition Law (UCL) claims. The plaintiffs alleged that certain software sublicense fees paid by real estate brokers to the Fidelity subsidiaries were “kickbacks” and “secret profits” and sought restitution of significant real estate commissions. The Court of Appeal affirmed the defense judgment which included an award of attorney fees against the individual plaintiffs that now exceeds $1.6 million. In another appeal of a copycat class action, Steve convinced the Court of Appeal to reverse the trial court such that the plaintiffs’ claims were compelled to arbitration. These victories led to voluntary dismissals in multiple other copycat class actions wherein the same plaintiffs’ counsel sought to recover significant aggregate damages.
• Obtained substantial defense arbitration award against individual class representatives who were compelled to arbitrate Unfair Competition Law (UCL) claims alleging certain settlement service fees were “kickbacks” and seeking restitution of significant real estate commissions the plaintiffs characterized as “secret profits.” The defense judgment included an award of attorney fees of almost $1.2 million against the individual class representatives, and the award was recently confirmed by the Superior Court in San Diego County.
• Successfully reached settlement of non-competition/ trade secret case brought in San Diego County, on behalf of Lawyers Title Company against a competitor and former officer seeking significant compensation for lost profits. As part of settlement, sexual harassment counterclaims against the company and its executives were dismissed.
• Successfully defended a federal non-competition lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Ohio that was designed to prevent our client – a nationally recognized dental/Botox instructor – from competing against the industry leader. Steve defeated the plaintiff’s motion for temporary restraining order and obtained an excellent settlement for our client prior to trial, permitting unrestricted competition.
• Achieved a successful settlement of a fidelity bond (FIB) insurance coverage/bad faith federal lawsuit filed in 2008 in the Southern District of California on behalf of plaintiff Fidelity National Financial against defendant National Union Fire Insurance Company. The case settled just prior to trial following a groundbreaking summary judgment ruling in favor our plaintiff client on the coverage and bad faith claims. The result in this case was similar to the related insurance coverage and bad faith case filed by Chicago Title in 2008 in Los Angeles County on an E&O Policy against ACE/Illinois Union. In 2010, Steve obtained a successful settlement of the E&O litigation after also obtaining a plaintiff’s summary judgment ruling on the coverage and bad faith claims.
• Obtained a successful judgment in class action bench trial in Santa Clara County, CA (appeal pending) involving claims under California’s UCL. Notwithstanding a finding that the client’s conduct technically violated the California insurance rate filing law, Steve successfully argued that plaintiffs had not established any injury or harm necessary to an award of restitution, resulting in no damage award and no attorney fee award to plaintiff’s counsel.
• Successfully defended a class action jury trial to verdict in Jackson County, MO in a case in which the plaintiffs were seeking over $211 million in punitive damages. Steve led our litigation strategy with an aggressive approach – admitting to a limited overcharge liability, but vigorously opposing plaintiffs’ damages analysis and punitive damages request. After making our defendant client’s case during the plaintiffs’ two-week case-in-chief, our client rested and was rewarded with a jury verdict limited to a low compensatory damage number that was always acknowledged as owed by our client, and a defense verdict of zero punitive damages.

• Ohio Super Lawyers® 2024 Honors 28 Hahn Loeser Attorneys, including Two on “Top Lists”
  December 29, 2023
• Best Lawyers Recognizes 87 Hahn Loeser Attorneys Across 53 Specialties
  August 17, 2023
• Hahn Loeser & Parks San Diego and Three of its Attorneys Honored in 2023 Release of Chambers USA
  June 04, 2023
• Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP and 14 Attorneys Honored in 2023 Release of Chambers USA for 21st Consecutive Year
  June 01, 2023
• Ohio Super Lawyers® 2023 Recognizes 27 Hahn Loeser Attorneys, Including Two on “Top Lists”
  December 30, 2022
• Best Lawyers Recognizes 75 Hahn Loeser Attorneys Across 45 Specialties
  August 18, 2022
• Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP and 11 Attorneys Honored in 2022 Release of Chambers USA® for 20th Straight Year
  June 01, 2022
• Ohio Super Lawyers® 2022 Recognize 26 Hahn Loeser Attorneys, including Four on “Top Lists”
  December 30, 2021
• Six Hahn Loeser Partners Named Best Lawyers “Lawyer of the Year” for 2022
  August 20, 2021
• Seventy-One Hahn Loeser Attorneys Recognized by Best Lawyers Across Forty-Seven Specialties
  August 19, 2021
• Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP Lauded in 2021 Release of Chambers USA® for 18th Straight Year
  May 24, 2021
• 21 Hahn Loeser Attorneys Recognized by Ohio Super Lawyers® 2021
  December 09, 2020
• Seventy-Four Hahn Loeser Lawyers Recognized by Best Lawyers Across Forty-Six Specialties
  August 20, 2020
• Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP Recognized in the 2020 Edition of Chambers USA® for 17th Consecutive Year
  April 23, 2020
• 26 Hahn Loeser Attorneys Recognized by Ohio Super Lawyers® 2020
  November 27, 2019
• 42 Hahn Loeser Attorneys Named to the 2020 Edition of The Best Lawyers in America®
  August 15, 2019
• Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP Recognized in the 2019 Edition of Chambers USA® for 16th Consecutive Year
  April 26, 2019
• 26 Hahn Loeser Attorneys Recognized by Ohio Super Lawyers® 2019
  December 05, 2018
• 34 Hahn Loeser Attorneys Named to the 2019 Edition of The Best Lawyers in America©: Five Partners Distinguished as “Lawyer of the Year”
  August 15, 2018
• Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP Recognized in the 2018 Edition of Chambers USA®
  May 03, 2018
• 29 Hahn Loeser Attorneys Named to the 2018 Edition of The Best Lawyers in America©: Three Partners Distinguished as “Lawyer of the Year”
  August 16, 2017
• 2 Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP Practice Areas and 7 Attorneys Ranked in 2017 Edition of Chambers USA
  June 07, 2017
• 30 Hahn Loeser Attorneys Selected as Super Lawyers
  December 02, 2016
• 31 Hahn Loeser Attorneys Named to the 2017 Edition of The Best Lawyers in America®
  August 15, 2016
• Fidelity National Financial, Inc.
  October 01, 2015
• Goldfarb, Gorom and Remington Elected to Board of Directors for Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP
  August 25, 2015
• Thirty-Five Hahn Loeser Attorneys Named to 2016 Edition of The Best Lawyers in America®
  August 17, 2015
• Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for 2015
  June 05, 2015
• 30 Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP Attorneys Listed in 2015 Ohio Super Lawyers
  December 08, 2014
• 34 Hahn Loeser Attorneys Named to 2015 Edition of The Best Lawyers in America
  August 18, 2014
• 5 Hahn Loeser Practice Areas and 13 Attorneys Ranked in 2014 Edition of Chambers USA
  May 23, 2014
• 5 Hahn Loeser Practice Areas and 12 Attorneys Ranked in 2013 Edition of Chambers USA
  June 19, 2013
• 4 Hahn Loeser Practice Areas and 10 Attorneys Ranked in 2012 Edition of Chambers USA
  March 07, 2012
• 26 Hahn Loeser Attorneys Listed in 2012 Edition of Ohio Super Lawyers
  January 04, 2012
• Thirty-Six Hahn Loeser Attorneys Named to 2012 Edition of The Best Lawyers in America
  October 14, 2011
• 4 Hahn Loeser Practice Areas and 8 of its Attorneys Ranked in 2011 Edition of Chambers USA
  June 13, 2011
• Twenty-six Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP Attorneys Listed in 2011 Edition of Ohio Super Lawyers
  January 25, 2011
• “The Top 100 Jury Verdicts of 2005”
  February 20, 2006
• Ohio Jury Awards Chicago Title $43 million in Non-Compete Lawsuit
  January 28, 2005