Shawn Rabin

Practice Areas

Bet-the-company Litigation, Antitrust, Securities & Shareholder Disputes, IP, Class Action, Breach of Contract and other Fraud, Employment & Executive Compensation

Career

Shawn Rabin, a Susman Godfrey Partner and member of the firm’s Executive Committee, is a go-to trial lawyer for high-stakes litigation. Described by one client as “highly strategic and always looking out for his clients’ best interests,” (Chambers USA 2022), Rabin personally handles all aspects of his cases, from evaluating claims before a complaint is filed to selecting juries and seeing cases through to verdict. Having tried cases all across America—from San Francisco to San Juan—Rabin’s creativity and strategic thinking give his clients the extra margin necessary for victory.

“Shawn Rabin is ‘among the very best litigators I work with …. He’s extremely hard-working, very responsive and a very reliable partner.” - As quoted in Chambers USA 2020 rankings

Rabin is continually recognized by the legal community for his litigation savvy. One of the most unique of his honors, after winning a major trial victory in the state of Kentucky, the Governor of Kentucky appointed Rabin to the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels and bestowed upon him the title of “Colonel Shawn Rabin.”

Rabin is frequently sought out by leading publications to opine on and write about today’s hottest legal topics. Most recently, he penned an article for Bloomberg News called, Litigation Funding Success Breeds New Set of Ethical Issues, where he discussed the rising popularity of litigation funding and offered a proposed solution to some of its pitfalls.

Rabin has a proven track record of success. This includes:

– Representing WeWork founder Adam Neumann against SoftBank after SoftBank withdrew its offer to buy up to $3 billion in WeWork stock from Mr. Neumann and other shareholders. This lawsuit represents one of the largest individual claims to be litigated this century. The litigation was placed on an expedited schedule in the Delaware Chancery Court. A week before trial, the case settled as reported by media outlets throughout the world.

– Representing Uber in the nationally covered trial that pitted Google’s Waymo against Uber. Just a few months before trial, Rabin and his partner Bill Carmody were hired to represent Uber in a theft of trade secret case that the media called the “Tech Trial of the Century.” Although Waymo sought damages of almost $2 billion, Rabin and his team got all of Waymo’s experts’ damages opinions struck. The case settled two trial days before Rabin’s cross-examination of the star witness Anthony Levandowski.

– Winning a federal jury trial in the Southern District of New York for client General Electric in a breach of contract dispute with the Nebraska Investment Finance Authority over how many years an investment contract required GE to pay interest. After deliberating for two hours, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Rabin’s client valued at over $160 million.

– Winning a federal bench trial in the District of Puerto Rico while representing the world’s largest retailer, who was challenging a local tax as violating the Dormant Commerce Clause and the Equal Protection Clause. The federal district judge agreed with Rabin, striking down the statute in a decision that was front-page news across the country. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit—where Rabin coincidentally served as a law clerk over a decade earlier–unanimously affirmed.

– Strategically defeating several class actions on a motion to dismiss — Rabin was lead trial counsel for Trover Solutions in several class actions filed across the country relating to insurance subrogation. Rabin developed an approach to get the cases dismissed by knocking out the named plaintiff’s claims before class certification. Several of the cases were then appealed and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit where they were unanimously affirmed.

– Arguing an appeal to an en banc panel of the Delaware Supreme Court — Rabin was hired to argue and draft the appellate brief on behalf of the former stockholders of Harmonix Music Systems against Viacom in an appeal involving Viacom’s acquisition of Harmonix and the Guitar Hero and Rock Band video games. The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the lower-court judgment.

– Representing Jerry Moyes against the National Hockey League in his legal battle involving the Phoenix Coyotes — Rabin secured a ruling significantly reducing the $140,000,000 in potential damages sought by the National Hockey League against Jerry Moyes and his family stemming from their ownership of the Phoenix Coyotes hockey team.

– Representing The Rawlings Company in a high stakes jury trial where, after presenting three-weeks of evidence to a jury in Oldham County, Kentucky, Rabin helped secure a complete defense victory in what was one of the first wage-and-hour class actions to go to trial in Kentucky.

Professional Memberships

State courts of New York and Texas

U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st, 5th and 10th Circuits

S.D. Tex.; W.D. Tex.; E.D. Tex.; N.D. Tex..

Rabin assists Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) by training volunteers on civil litigation.

Member, Litigation Committee of the NYC Bar

Barrister, N.Y. American Inn of Court

Publications

Key Counsel Agreements for Remote Depositions; Bloomberg News, October 2020

Litigation Funding Success Breeds New Set of Ethical Issues; Bloomberg News, January 2020

Experience

After law school, Shawn Rabin clerked for the Honorable Juan R. Torruella of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

Education

Awards