National Law Journal Honors Keller Postman Partners Ashley Keller and Warren Postman as 2021 Plaintiffs’ Lawyers Trailblazers

ePartners Ashley Keller and Warren Postman of Keller Postman (formerly Keller Lenkner) have been named to the National Law Journal’s list of 2021 Plaintiffs’ Lawyers Trailblazers. The fifth-annual award program recognizes 52 lawyers from throughout the United States as leaders within the plaintiffs’ bar.

NLJ recognized Keller for his work leading law-and-briefing efforts in consolidated product liability litigation, including his persuasive arguments in trial and appellate courts against federal preemption. NLJ cited Keller’s work in the consolidated California proceeding regarding Essure contraceptive devices, where Keller successfully briefed and argued preemption and helped to ensure that the Court noted the distinction between duties (which are preemption concerns) and causation (which is not). “This difference is crucially important and comes up in virtually every pharmaceutical or medical device mass tort,” Keller said.

Keller also chairs the Law & Briefing Committee for plaintiffs in the Zantac MDL and is counsel on numerous appeals from that MDL to the 11^th Circuit. “In every case, I do everything I can to make sure a judge is well-armed and equipped to make the best possible decision, because we presented the facts and the law,” Keller said.

Before co-founding Keller Postman, Keller co-founded the litigation finance firm Gerchen Keller Capital, which grew to more than $1.3 billion in assets under management and was the world’s largest private investment manager focused on legal and regulatory risk. Keller also is a former partner at Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott LLP.

NLJ recognized Postman for his role as a leader of Keller Postman’s groundbreaking arbitration practice, which has pioneered the strategy of pursuing individual arbitrations for thousands of clients whose claims are subject to arbitration clauses with class-action waivers. Postman’s work in arbitration is one of the most significant recent developments in civil litigation and has won numerous precedent-setting victories requiring defendants to arbitrate. Through arbitration-related matters, Keller Postman has secured more than $375 million in settlements for more than 100,000 individual clients.

Postman has also helped develop the business and technological operations that allow Keller Postman to serve thousands of clients simultaneously. “Our firm is very focused on systems and processes to allow us to pursue smaller claims efficiently,” Postman said. “Absent a class action, it is a challenge to vindicate smaller claims, but there are many more tools through technology and at scale to pursue them.”

Before joining Keller Postman, Postman was Vice President and Chief Counsel for Appellate Litigation at the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center. While there, he managed appellate strategy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a pro-defendant organization that participates in more than 150 cases each year to shape the law on issues affecting businesses. Postman also was previously an attorney in the Issues & Appeals practice at Jones Day.

– – –

*As of April 2022, the firm has changed its name from Keller Lenkner to Keller Postman.