Established in 1916, BakerHostetler is one of the largest law firms in the United States, with more than 1,000 lawyers and 18 offices nationwide. The firm handles clients’ most critical legal matters – securing advantageous outcomes amid regulatory scrutiny and bet-the-company litigation, closing deals that fuel strategic growth, managing intellectual property and digital assets, and providing advice and counsel to facilitate long-term competitiveness.
BakerHostetler’s Class Action Defense team is among the most highly regarded in the country in terms of its attorneys’ experience, strategic sophistication, and track record. The team is known for its ability to end class actions before they begin, to get meaningful traction through creative case management and motion practice, and to defeat class certification. BakerHostetler attorneys are routinely recognized by Chambers USA, The Legal 500 and other publications.
Paul Karlsgodt will speak at the European Class Actions Forum 2025, organized by ThoughLeaders4 and held in Amsterdam on 11 and 12 June 2025.
Paul Karlsgodt leads BakerHostetler’s Privacy and Digital Risk Class Action and Litigation team. He is an international thought leader in class action defense with over 20 years of experience defending hundreds of consumer class actions. Paul has significant experience defending class actions in the complex and cutting-edge area of data privacy on behalf of companies and organizations in various industries. He has served as lead counsel for defendants in class action litigation arising from data breach incidents affecting numerous industries and governmental entities.
BakerHostetler defeated a $600+ million financial services class action that included an eight-day trial on behalf of an American banking company. Law360 recognized the win in its “Legal Lions of the Week.” An Ohio federal jury found that the firm’s client owed no damages for the $444 million (plus significant pre-judgment interest) breach of contract claim brought against it for allegedly charging loan program customers a higher annual percentage rate than it advertised and giving inaccurate summaries of those loans to borrowers. The case, first filed in 2012, continued for over a decade.
