Steven M. Berezney

Steve Berezney is a partner at Korein Tillery’s St. Louis office. Steve received his J.D. from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Law in 2003, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review. In 2000, Steve received his B.A. in Political Science with Honors from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He is licensed to practice law in Missouri, Illinois, New York, California, and the District of Columbia as well as the Supreme Court of the United States, seven federal appellate courts, and many federal district courts.

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After law school, Steve served as a judicial law clerk for Judge Laura Denvir Stith of the Supreme Court of Missouri from 2003-2004. After completing his clerkship, Steve went on to have an active trial practice that took him to state and federal courts across the United States. He represented clients in the agriculture, retail, tax, financial, and consumer goods industries, including Fortune 500 companies, in complex litigation involving contract disputes and business torts. He also handled various appellate 

matters, including successfully briefing and arguing cases in the Missouri Court of Appeals. Steve joined Korein Tillery in September 2012. 

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Immediately upon joining Korein Tillery, Steve managed and litigated all aspects of multi-billion dollar cases in federal trial and appellate courts against Wall Street investment banks on behalf of National Credit Union Administration Board (“NCUA”) and a private insurance company arising from misrepresentations made about residential mortgage-backed securities in violation of the federal 1933 Securities Act and state law.  Steve was actively involved in case strategy, discovery, taking and defending fact depositions, experts, briefing, and trial preparation.  Steve played a significant role in the following recoveries:

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NCUA v. RBS Securities, Inc. et al., No. 11-cv-2340 (JWL-JPO) (D. Kan.) & No. 11 civ 5887 GW (JEMx) (C.D. Cal.):  co-ran both cases; settled with RBS for $1.1 billion in September 2016.

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NCUA v. RBS Securities, Inc., 1:13-cv-06726-DLC (S.D.N.Y.): accepted offer of judgment for $129.6 million plus fees in September 2015.

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NCUA v. Barclays Capital, Inc., 1:13-cv-06727-DLC (S.D.N.Y.) & 2:12-cv-02631-JWL (D. Kan.): primarily responsible for both cases; settled in October 2015 for $325 million combined.

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NCUA v. Wachovia Capital Markets LLC, 1:13-cv-06719-DLC (S.D.N.Y.) & 2:11-cv-02649-JWL (D. Kan.): supervised both cases; settled in October 2015 for $53 million combined.

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NCUA v. Morgan Stanley & Co., Inc., 1:13-cv-06705-DLC (S.D.N.Y.) & 2:13-cv-02418-JWL (D. Kan.): prepared and defended witnesses for depositions; settled in December 2015 for $225 million combined.

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From 2013 to 2022, Steve also played an active and continuing role in developing and litigating a Sherman Act price-fixing class action conspiracy case against 16 national and international financial institutions resulting in $2.3 billion in court-approved settlements. In re Foreign Exchange Benchmark Rates Antitrust Litigation, No. 1:13-cv-07789-LGS (S.D.N.Y.).

Steve is currently co-leading three class action cases filed on behalf of municipalities and counties in Missouri and Indiana seeking unpaid franchise fees from video streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, DIRECTV, DISH Network, and Disney. See, e.g., City of Creve Coeur v. Netflix, Inc. & Hulu, LLC, No. 18SL-CC02819 (St. Louis County Mo.); City of Creve Coeur v. DIRECTV LLC, DISH Network Corp., and DISH Network LLC, No. 18SL-CC02821 (St. Louis County Mo.); City of Fishers et al. v. Netflix, Inc. et al., 49D01-2008-PL-026436 (Marion County Ind.). The City of Creve Coeur cases, where classes have been certified, were the first of their kind in the nation and the first to obtain a substantive ruling recognizing the viability of the claims.

 

Steve also currently represents a putative class of college coaches in an antitrust case and putative classes of college athletes in other antitrust cases.

Additionally, Steve was part of the trial team that won a $1 billion judgment that, at the time, was the fourth largest patent infringement jury verdict in U.S. history, according to Bloomberg. Monsanto Co. v. E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., Case No. 4:09-cv-00686-ERW (E.D. Mo. Aug. 1, 2012) (finding defendants willfully infringed Monsanto’s ‘247 patent by stacking defendants’ glyphosate-tolerant Optimum® GAT® soybean trait with Monsanto’s glyphosate-tolerant Roundup Ready® soybean trait). Steve also obtained a plaintiff’s verdict in a bench-tried breach of contract case involving undelivered hardware equipment and a terminated software license. TVI, Inc. v. InfoSoft Technologies, Inc., No. 4:06-cv-697-JCH, 2008 WL 239784 (E.D. Mo. 2008).

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Steve also has significant appellate experience, briefing and orally arguing several cases. He persuaded the Missouri Court of Appeals to affirm class certification in City of Creve Coeur v. Netflix, Inc., 670 S.W.3d 66 (Mo. Ct. App. 2023), trans. denied (Mo. 2023). He also successfully argued that a plaintiff home builder’s negligent procurement of insurance jury award should be affirmed. Wildhorse Summit Dev. Corp. v. Assurance Co. of America, 261 S.W.3d 649 (Mo. Ct. App. 2008).

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In addition to his success serving as plaintiffs’ counsel, Steve has also successfully defended numerous clients. In 2008, Steve obtained a favorable defense jury verdict on behalf of a claims management company in which plaintiff sought more than $50 million in damages based on an alleged failure under a contract to refer claims for investigation. Intertel, Inc. v. Sedgwick Claims Management Services, Inc., 02CC-000772 (Mo. Cir. Ct. St. Louis County, Apr. 29, 2008). Steve also obtained partial summary judgment and then settlement for a private label food broker alleged to have tortiously interfered with a competitor’s contracts and business expectancies and to have violated the federal Robinson-Patman Act. Sales Resource, Inc. v. Alliance Foods, Inc., Nos. 4:08-cv-0732-TCM & 4:09-cv-0666-TCM, 2010 WL 5184943 (E.D. Mo. Dec. 15, 2010).

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In 2007, Steve was named one of the “30 under 30” professionals by the St. Louis Business Journal.