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Cy Smith

Partner

Office
Baltimore
Tel.
+1 410.949.1145
Fax.
410.659.0436
Others
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Cy Smith has three decades of trial experience and is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He primarily represents plaintiffs and defendants in large, complex civil litigation in diverse industries such as financial services and healthcare. In 2017, The National Law Journal recognized Cy as a “trailblazer,” and more recently, the Delaware Court of Chancery called his work “an exemplar of exactly how entrepreneurial plaintiffs’ contingent fee litigation ought to work,” adding that his representation should be used to “instruct law students” on how to practice.

In 2020, The New York Times covered Cy’s representation of Black former NFL players who contend that payments under the national class action concussion settlement have been systematically tilted against Black players, using evaluations that discriminate expressly on the basis of race.

Cy’s work for football retirees began in 2005 when he helped the family of the late Pittsburgh Steelers great Mike Webster win a multimillion-dollar judgment in retroactive benefits and other relief from the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Retirement Plan.

The case was the first-ever win against the NFL pension plans, and paved the way for today’s public, litigation, and legislative scrutiny of pro and amateur sports’ concussion crisis. Cy testified before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and has appeared on HBO and ESPN to discuss pro football and concussions.

As examples of Cy’s diverse practice, he currently represents a state university system as a defendant in a decade-long dispute related to the state’s historically black colleges, resulting in a seven-week trial addressing a proposal for a multi-billion-dollar restructuring of that system.

And in the consolidated national class action antitrust proceedings against the Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurers, Cy was selected by the Alabama federal district court to serve on the five-person Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee directing litigation on behalf of health insurance subscribers.  The settlement in that case, preliminarily approved in November 2020, requires the Blues to pay $2.67 billion to insureds and to undertake sweeping changes in the ways the Blues compete in the national health insurance market.

In other high-stakes cases, Cy represented the son of real estate mogul and corporate raider Victor Posner in a multimillion-dollar settlement in one of the largest will contests in U.S. history. More recently, Cy represented an accountant in the Manila office of a global construction firm, who was kidnapped and tortured after the employer refused either to pay his ransom or permit his family to do so.

Outside the office, Cy is active in community affairs.  2019 marked the completion under his leadership of a $13 million capital campaign for Beth Am Synagogue, located in Baltimore’s historic Reservoir Hill neighborhood, where Cy earlier served as President.  That campaign, Beth Am’s first, secured a multi-million-dollar endowment for the congregation and funded a complete renovation of the synagogue’s century-old structure.

Education
  • University of Virginia School of Law, J.D., 1986
    • Robert E. Goldstein Award
       
  • Dartmouth College, B.A., 1981
    • Sigurd Larmon Scholar
    • Rufus Choate Scholar
    • Longwood Cup
    • Brooks Cup
    • Chase Peace Prize
    • Ranked first nationally for intercollegiate debate, 1980-1981
Languages
  • French
Bar admissions
  • Maryland
  • District of Columbia
Court admissions
  • U.S. Supreme Court
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
  • U.S. District Court, District of Maryland
  • U.S. District Court, District of Columbia
  • U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia
  • U.S. District Court, Western District of Virginia
Professional leadership
  • Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers, 2017-present
  • Member and President (2006-2007), Board of Governors, Federal Bar Association, Maryland Chapter
  • Member, Criminal Justice Act Panel, U.S. District Court, District of Maryland, 1991-2008
Community involvement
  • President (2011-2013) and Member (2005-2020), Board of Trustees, Beth Am Synagogue; Co-Chair, Capital Campaign, 2013-present
  • Member and Vice Chair, Board of Directors, Baltimore Urban Debate League, 2004-2011
  • Member and Chairman (2003-2004), Lawyers’ Campaign for the College Bound Foundation
  • President, Gil Sandler Fund, Inc.,  2008-present
Representative matters
  • Represented a class of investors suing their Delaware LLC’s managers for breach of fiduciary duty after the managers sold the LLC’s assets (consisting of “viaticated” life insurance policies) to themselves for a fraction of their value.  The Delaware Chancery Court called the multi-million-dollar settlement “an exemplar” of effective litigation for Cy’s clients.
  • Represented shareholders suing derivatively on behalf of Sinclair Broadcasting Group, who allege that the controlling shareholders in this public company engaged in sweetheart deals which doomed Sinclair’s proposed merger with Tribune Broadcasting.  The court-approved settlement captured nearly $25 million for Sinclair and its shareholders – almost $5 million from a Sinclair insider – and enacted far-reaching changes in the company’s corporate governance.
  • Represented a class of nursing home residents challenging Maryland’s refusal to provide deductions for Medicaid recipients’ pre-eligibility medical expenses for long-term care. The settlement—one of the two largest settlements or judgments ever against the state of Maryland—will pay up to $16 million for the benefit of the class and bring the state into compliance with federal law.
  • Represented a class of consumer borrowers alleging that their title insurance transactions were steered by kickbacks paid by a national title insurer in violation of the federal RESPA statute. After ten years of litigation – including three denials of class cert., two trips to the Ninth Circuit, and one near-death experience in the Supreme Court – Cy forged a settlement in which the title insurer consented to an injunction forbidding the payment of the challenged kickbacks, and gave certified class members twice what they had paid the defendant for title insurance.
  • Represented the estate of ex-Pittsburgh Steelers great Mike Webster in the first-ever win against the National Football League’s (NFL’s) pension plan, proving that Mike had been crippled by multiple concussions from his NFL career. His win led to testimony before Congress and paved the way for today’s media, public, legislative and litigation scrutiny of pro football’s concussion crisis.
  • Represented an accountant who was kidnapped, tortured, and held for ransom in the Philippines; his employer had refused both to pay the ransom demanded and to tell his family so that they could secure his release. The case settled on confidential terms after we won back-to-back victories in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit—and unearthed a video of our client’s imprisonment and torture.
  • Served as counsel for the shareholder plaintiff in a case against the directors, senior officers, and accountants of a bank, resulting in a $10 million-plus settlement because of the bank's enormous losses from unsecured loans to an unscrupulous mobile-home retailer.
  • Represented plaintiffs who won enforcement of a highly favorable pension plan amendment, defeating claims that it was the product of a federal labor racketeering conspiracy and resulting in one of the largest ERISA judgments ever in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
News
Recognitions
Cy Smith_bio

Cy Smith

Partner

Office
Baltimore
Tel.
+1 410.949.1145
Fax.
410.659.0436
Others
Send an Email
vCard
LinkedIn