Tal J. Lifshitz is a partner in Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton’s complex litigation department. An experienced litigator ranked by Forbes as one of America’s Top 200 Lawyers, he is part of the team at KTT that handles “bet the company” cases, class actions, and multidistrict litigation (MDLs) across the country. Tal, a former federal judicial law clerk with highly valued federal jury trial experience, has represented a wide range of sophisticated corporate, municipal, and individual clients – both as plaintiffs and defendants – in major disputes involving complex fraud, antitrust, and consumer protection matters.

Representative Cases

Some of the cases Tal has worked on include managing the litigation stemming from the tragic Champlain Towers South building collapse in Surfside, Fla., as part of KTT’s court appointment as Co-Chair Lead Counsel in the In re: Champlain Towers South Collapse Litigation.  In less than 15 months, the KTT-led plaintiffs secured over $1.1 billion dollars in relief for the Surfside victims.

Most recently, Tal served as lead defense trial counsel on behalf of a globally respected expert on risk management and restructuring in a film financing dispute over the 2015 Natalie Portman film “Jane Got a Gun,” brought by the Boies Schiller Film Group. After a three-week trial, Tal and his team successfully secured a full defense verdict in their client’s favor.

Tal also represented 70% of victims of the $1.2 billion Scott Rothstein South Florida Ponzi scheme, leading to a nearly 100% recovery of these victims’ hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. And Tal played a leading role in securing a $150 million settlement against Raymond James on behalf of EB-5 immigrant investors in the Jay Peak scheme that misappropriated more than $350 million in investor funds.

Awards, Recognition, and Community Impact

Tal J. Lifshitz named one of America's Top 200 Lawyers in 2024 by Forbes

Tal J. Lifshitz named one of America’s Top 200 Lawyers

Further evidencing his achievements, Tal was named this year to the 2024 Forbes Top 200 Lawyers List. Forbes announced that it selected the recipients of this first-annual award through a rigorous, multi-stage process of researching, evaluating and rating thousands of candidates, conducted by an editorial team with broad experience in law practice and the legal marketplace.

This year, Tal was recognized by Chambers USA as Up and Coming in Litigation.  Additionally, he was recognized by the Daily Business Review’s 2024 Florida Legal Awards, in the “On The Rise” category for lawyers under 40 years of age.

Since 2019, Tal has been recognized by Super Lawyers in the area of Class Actions/Mass Torts, and was included in the 2023 Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch. He has served as a Faculty Member for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA), teaching multi-day trial and deposition technique programs using NITA’s hands-on, “learn-by-doing” method, and recently concluded his term as President for the South Florida Chapter of the Federal Bar Association.

In December 2023, he was featured in a Daily Business Review profile for his impact and influence at a young age, among other media placements.

Education and Judicial Clerkship

Tal received his Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, from the University of Central Florida and his Juris Doctor from the University of Miami Law School, summa cum laude. While in law school, he was a member of the Charles C. Papy Jr. Moot Court Board and served as the Eleventh Circuit Editor of the University of Miami Law Review. During law school, Tal received the Soia Mentschikoff Award for Excellence in Scholarly Writing for his publication, “Arguable Probable Cause:” An Unwarranted Approach to Qualified Immunity, 65 U. Miami. L. Rev. 1159 (2011).  After law school, Tal served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Kenneth A. Marra, Southern District of Florida, from September 2012 to September 2013.