Cotchett long ago carved out a role as a gadfly, both in the legal world, where his results are unquestionable, and as a political thinker, where he never fails to provoke a response. He relishes that position and shows no signs of relinquishing it anytime soon.
Some people slow down and become comfortable after getting a taste of success. Cotchett does not appear to be one of them.
Whether he is penning a column assailing members of the Republican Party for political maneuvering in getting their favored Supreme Court Justice appointed, or filing novel litigation against major corporations, Cotchett is always spoiling for another fight.
While mathematical maneuvering that brought down the economy in 2008 has largely disappeared from political discourse after the most recent election, Cotchett has not forgotten.
"I've become a thorn in the side of Wall Street banks, specifically Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Citi Corp., among others."
Cotchett filed a derivative class action against Wells Fargo & Co. in September, after reports that the bank created 2 million fraudulent accounts in order to make it look like it was hitting otherwise unreachable sales targets.
The bank's former CEO, John Stumpf, abruptly retired in October as the scandal gained steam. Sarsfield v. Stumpf et al., CAC 16-554444 (S.F. Super. Ct., filed Sept. 22, 2016).
He's also been involved in large scale environmental cases involving drinking water, such as lead pollution litigation.
Cotchett has been focusing his pro bono efforts on immigration cases in recent years.
"I'm representing some undocumented immigrants pro bono trying to keep them out from under the Trump crusade to send these innocent, fabulous people back to Mexico and Central America."
In addition to politically compelling work, Cotchett continues to handle large antitrust cases.
"Anything involving mass torts or mass consumer actions, we're there," he said. "We were just appointed lead counsel in the Qualcomm case, which affects the licensing fees on virtually every handheld smartphone in the world."
Plaintiffs lawyers, Apple Inc. and the Federal Trade Commission have all sued Qualcomm Technologies Inc. over allegations of fixed prices on ubiquitous microchips used in smartphones. The Korea Fair Trade Commission ordered Qualcomm to pay an $854 million fine in December for the same alleged conduct. In Re: Qualcomm Antitrust Litigation, 17-md-02773 (N.D. Cal., filed Jan. 26, 2017).
— Joshua Sebold
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