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Morris A. Ratner

Of Counsel

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Attorneys

Upholding the Rights of Citizens Worldwide

Of Counsel to the firm, Morris has specialized in complex litigation since 1991 with an emphasis on consumer protection, human rights, and environmental class and other aggregate actions. Morris was one of the court-appointed Settlement Class Counsel in the $1.25 billion settlement with Swiss banks and other Swiss entities in In re Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation, and has also prosecuted Nazi-era litigation against German, Austrian, and French entities which resulted in $6 billion in additional payments to victims of Nazi persecution.

Starting Fall semester, 2012, Morris will serve as a full-time member of the U.C. Hastings College of Law faculty, as a professor, teaching legal profession and civil procedure. Morris was a visiting professor at Harvard Law School during 2010-2011, teaching a variety of courses, including civil procedure, class action law, remedies, and legal profession/ethics. Morris was a visiting lecturer at Harvard Law School in 2009, when he taught a complex litigation course, Holocaust Litigation. From 2003-2008, Morris served as a guest lecturer or panelist for the Stanford University History Department, UC Berkeley School of Law Boalt Hall, Columbia Law School, and New York University School of Law, covering topics that included Holocaust-era litigation, legal ethics, and developments in international law.

Morris has written extensively on human rights litigation, contributing to Holocaust Restitution: Perspectives on the Litigation and its Legacy (edited by Michael Bazyler and Roger P. Alford) and the Berkeley Journal of International Law. He also contributed to California Class Actions Practice and Procedures (Elizabeth J. Cabraser, Editor-in-Chief, 2003).

Morris earned his J.D. at Harvard Law School and is a member of the State Bar of California, the State Bar of New York, and the Bar of the District of Columbia.

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Education

  • Harvard Law School (J.D., cum laude, 1991)
    Phi Beta Kappa

     

    Stanford University (B.A., with distinction, 1988)

Memberships

  • State Bar of California

  • New York State Bar Association

  • Bar Association of the District of Columbia

Admissions

  • California

  • District of Columbia

  • New York

  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

  • U.S. District Court, Central District of California

  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of California

  • U.S. District Court, Southern District of California

  • U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York

  • U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York

Offices