Minnesota Lawyer Honors Two Robins Kaplan Attorneys as 2019 Attorneys of the Year

Minneapolis, MN—Robins Kaplan is pleased to announce that Stacey Slaughter and Stephen Safranski have been named 2019 Attorneys of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer. Honorees were selected based on their leadership in the profession, involvement in major cases and newsworthy events, and commitment to public service. Only 29 attorneys were selected throughout the state.

Stacey Slaughter has 20 years of experience handling complex antitrust, consumer, and financial litigation. The cases she has litigated have recovered more than $1 billion for victims of fraud, anticompetitive conduct, and unfair business practices. Over the course of her career, Stacey has litigated several of the largest and most innovative cases affecting financial markets. She has also played a leadership role on a number of high-profile cases, including a multidistrict litigation in federal court in the Northern District of California against Fiat Chrysler over “defeat devices” that masked vehicles’ true emissions levels. For this case, Slaughter served on the nine-member Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee appointed by the Court and oversaw the Robins Kaplan litigation team. Earlier this year, a settlement was approved in the case that will result in up to $307.5 million in compensation for class members, plus extended warranty benefits worth an additional $239.5 million.

Stephen Safranski’s complex commercial litigation and appellate practice focuses on antitrust, unfair competition and trade regulation, and consumer protection matters, including defending high-stakes class actions and handling significant appeals in these areas. Safranski’s innovative litigation strategies have resulted in recent successes in major antitrust multi-district antitrust litigation matters.  Working for more than a decade on a billion-dollar major antitrust class action, In re Wholesale Grocery Products Antitrust Litigation, Safranski served as lead defense counsel for Minnesota-based Supervalu Inc., represented Supervalu in seven different appeals to the Eighth Circuit, and successfully managed a related investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, which was ultimately terminated without action. In 2018, Safranski’s efforts resulted in the denial of class certification, and the grant of summary judgment following the exclusion of the plaintiffs’ expert. Safranski argued the latest appeal in the case on October 15, 2019.

Slaughter and Safranski will be featured in a special Attorneys of the Year edition of Minnesota Lawyer and honored at an awards dinner in February.