Andrew S. Friedman
Public Citizen Inc.
Andrew S. Friedman is an attorney at Bonnett, Fairbourn, Friedman & Balint, P.C. in Phoenix, Ariz. His practice is devoted primarily to litigation of major class action cases in federal and state courts throughout the United States.
Mr. Friedman received his Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Rochester in 1975 and his Law Degree from Duke University School of Law in 1978. He is a member of the trial sections of the American Bar Association and the Arizona State Bar Association. He also is a Board Member of Public Justice.
Over the course of his career, Mr. Friedman has represented plaintiff classes in major consumer, securities fraud, anti-trust, civil rights and insurance sales practices cases. Mr. Friedman has played a lead role in many landmark cases, including:
· Class actions against major life insurance companies challenging the deceptive manner in which life insurance products were marketed to consumers during the 1980s. These cases returned hundreds of millions of dollars to policy owners and resulted in regulatory reforms of the life insurance industry.
· Class actions on behalf of African-American policy holders against life insurance companies seeking relief under the Federal Civil Rights Act for racial discrimination in the sale and administration of life insurance policies.
· Class proceedings on behalf of African-American and Latino borrowers asserting claims against mortgage lenders for racial discrimination in violation of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and the Fair Housing Act.
· Class actions against insurance companies challenging the sale of deferred annuities to senior citizens. These cases allege RICO claims and other theories to obtain redress for allegedly false and misleading representations inducing elderly purchasers to invest their life savings in illiquid and poorly performing annuity products.
· Class action proceedings on behalf of health-care providers and medical associations against major managed care companies seeking recovery for allegedly improper claims payment practices and use of the Ingenix database to improperly reduce payments to patients, physicians and other providers.
· Class actions on behalf of investors, including elderly investors who purchased debentures and/or stock in American Continental Corp., the parent company of the now-infamous Lincoln Savings & Loan. The suit charged Charles Keating, Jr., other corporate insiders, three major accounting firms, law firms and others with racketeering and violations of the securities laws.
Mr. Friedman has lectured at numerous continuing legal education programs and has testified before the U.S. Congress in connection with proposed legislation to limit the rights of consumers in class action cases. He also has testified before the Arizona Legislature in connection with legislation on the Arizona Anti-Racketeering Act and the Arizona Securities Fraud Act.