John H. Beisner

John H. Beisner, a partner in the Washington office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, is the leader of Skadden’s Mass Torts, Insurance and Consumer Litigation Group. He focuses on the defense of class actions, mass tort matters and other complex civil litigation in both federal and state courts. He also regularly handles appellate litigations assignments, including matters before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mr. Beisner was elected to the ALI in 1994 and has served on ALI's Council since May 2009. He is an Adviser on the Restatement Third, Consumer Contracts project and was previously an Adviser on the Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation project.

Over the past 40 years, he has defended major U.S. and international corporations in more than 600 class actions filed in federal and state courts at both trial and appellate levels. Those class actions have involved a wide variety of subjects, including antitrust/unfair competition, consumer fraud, RICO, ERISA, employment discrimination, environmental issues, product-related matters and securities. He has also served as lead counsel in numerous federal multidistrict litigation proceedings, some involving thousands of lawsuits. He also has handled major matters before various federal and state administrative agencies, particularly the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Mr. Beisner has advised on numerous high-visibility corporate crisis situations, including congressional hearings, federal agency investigations, state attorneys general inquiries and General Accounting Office reviews.

EDUCATION: University of Kansas, B.A.; University of Michigan, J.D.