Tal J. Lifshitz is a partner in Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton’s complex litigation department.

An experienced litigator and former federal judicial law clerk with federal jury trial experience, Tal is part of a team at KTT that handles “bet the company” cases and class actions. He has represented a wide range of sophisticated corporate and individual clients, including investors in high-stakes business disputes, investment and securities frauds, and Ponzi scheme litigation.

High-stakes cases that Tal has worked on include representing 70% of victims of the $1.2 billion Scott Rothstein South Florida Ponzi scheme, leading to a nearly 100% recovery of the victims’ $250 million in losses. More recently, Tal also had 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, and in 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 In re: Champlain Towers South Collapse Litigation, Case No. 2021-015089-CA-01 in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court.  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.

Other complex cases and class actions in which Tal has made substantial contributions include:

  • South Broward Hospital District v. ELAP Services, LLC, et al., 20-cv-61007 (S.D. Fla.);
  • MasTec Renewables PR v. Mammoth Energy Services, Inc., 20-cv-20263 (S.D. Fla.);
  • Fundacion Segarra-Boerman v. Alfredo Martinez-Alvarez, 16-cv-02914 (D.P.R.);
  • Marty v. Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC, 13-cv-23656 (S.D. Fla.); and
  • In re: Mushroom Direct Purchaser Antitrust Litig., 06-cv-00620 (E.D. Pa.).

Tal speaks and writes regularly on trial practice, class actions, and the intersection of law and technology including FinTech, blockchain, and digital currency. He is active on social media and can be followed on LinkedIn and Twitter for litigation skills and tips, thoughts on law and technology, and more.

He 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.

Since 2019, Tal has been recognized by Super Lawyers in the area of Class Actions/Mass Torts. He was recently included in the 2023 Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch, and has been invited to serve 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. Tal also currently serves as the President for the South Florida Chapter of the Federal Bar Association.

 

PERSONAL STATEMENT

I’m driven by the challenge of continuously striving for higher levels of greatness. There are many good lawyers. There are few great ones. That’s why I teach advocacy and mentor younger lawyers. It keeps me sharp, and forces me to think critically about my own techniques and litigation strategies. Being a part of the FBA gives me the same benefits. I’m surrounded by greatness – the elite lawyers and judges of our community. That’s where I want to be.