A partner in the Litigation Department, Dan Toal has extensive experience representing major corporate clients in complex, high-profile disputes, with a focus on commercial disputes, securities litigation and environmental litigation. He also has handled numerous significant international arbitrations, regulatory matters, employment matters and internal investigations for a broad range of clients.
An experienced trial lawyer, Dan has litigated numerous high-stakes cases in federal and state courts throughout the country. Among his significant matters, Dan represented:
- ExxonMobil in:
- the first climate change lawsuit to be tried to verdict in the United States, a Martin Act claim in which the New York Attorney General (NYAG) sought $1.6 billion in damages. After a three-week trial that Dan co-led, the court issued a complete defense verdict;
- numerous climate change-related matters, including an SEC investigation that concluded with a recommendation of no enforcement action; a CWA and RCRA citizen suit relating to a terminal in Everett, Massachusetts; multiple state attorney general lawsuits alleging excessive production and deceptive promotion of fossil fuels; and more than a dozen climate tort lawsuits brought by various states, counties and municipalities;
- substantially defeating a class certification motion in a long-running putative federal securities class action alleging that the company made a series of false and misleading statements that artificially inflated the company’s stock price, costing stockholders billions of dollars; and
- a precedent-setting natural resource damage litigation in which the State of New Jersey sought damages of $8.9 billion, one of the largest environmental damage cases ever tried. After an eight-month bench trial where Dan served as trial counsel, the case settled for $225 million while awaiting verdict.
- Major League Baseball in a nationwide antitrust class action challenging its broadcast structure and out-of-market packages. After a three-day evidentiary hearing, the court granted MLB’s motion to exclude the damages opinions of plaintiffs’ economic expert and dismissed plaintiffs’ $1 billion damage claim.
- World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in a lawsuit brought by a former employee alleging that she was sexually assaulted and trafficked by WWE’s former CEO and head of talent relations. The plaintiff seeks significant damages under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 and common law causes of action.
- TKO Group Holdings and WWE in litigation involving multiple plaintiffs seeking to hold TKO, WWE and certain executives accountable for their alleged knowledge and negligent handling of alleged misconduct by former WWE employee Mel Phillips.
- Activision in a $1 billion employment and contractual dispute with the designers of the Call of Duty video-game title and 40 former employees of their design studio. The case was successfully resolved on the eve of trial.
- Citigroup in:
- two separate ICDR arbitrations, each time defeating multibillion-dollar fraud and breach of contract claims brought by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority related to its $7.5 billion investment in Citigroup;
- securing dismissal of a securities class action asserted under Sections 11 and 12 of the Securities Act in connection with its underwriting of an IPO and secondary offering, and thereafter successfully resolving the claim;
- the civil litigations and a bankruptcy examiner investigation arising out of its WorldCom equity research coverage;
- defeating a $900 million fraud and breach of fiduciary duty claim by an investor who allegedly was defrauded by equity research on WorldCom; and
- securing dismissal of a $1 billion fraud and negligence claim asserted against Salomon Smith Barney by a former investment banking client.
- Goldman Sachs
- a securities class action and shareholder derivative litigation relating to large bond offerings in Southeast Asia; and
- the dismissal of an aiding and abetting claim in the Delaware Court of Chancery.
- Solvay Specialty Polymers as trial counsel in securing a landmark $394 million settlement of an environmental liability lawsuit brought by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection relating to the alleged discharge of PFAS at a Solvay facility in New Jersey.
- JPMorgan Chase in:
- its resolution of a nationwide race discrimination class action, and in a Seventh Circuit appeal that upheld the settlement against a collateral attack;
- winning summary judgment on a multi-hundred-million dollar breach of contract and tortious interference claim asserted by hedge fund Amaranth following its epic collapse; and
- the dismissal of a Commodities Exchange Act claim accusing JPMorgan Chase of conspiring to manipulate the market for natural gas futures and options.
- ING in:
- the successful resolution of a breach of contract and declaratory judgment action arising out of its $1.5 billion sale of certain insurance and bonding businesses in Mexico; and
- the successful resolution of a nationwide race discrimination class action.
- Kraft Heinz Company in litigation advice during its $3.2 billion dollar sale of its cheese business to Groupe Lactalis when the transaction came under antitrust scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Justice.
- Morgan Stanley in a series of federal and state regulatory investigations.
- Soros Fund Management in the successful prosecution of an international arbitration involving the breach of a joint venture agreement, winning a $47 million award.
Awards and Recognitions
In 2019, Dan was named an American Lawyer “Litigator of the Week,” and also received a Benchmark Litigation “National Impact Case Award,” for securing a landmark defense verdict on behalf of ExxonMobil in a securities fraud lawsuit brought by the New York Attorney General. Dan is recommended by The Legal 500 US for General Commercial Disputes, M&A Litigation and Sports, and is recognized as a “Local Litigation Star” by Benchmark Litigation. He was also named to Lawdragon’s 2025 “500 leading Litigators in America” and “500 Leading Global Entertainment, Sports & Media Lawyers” guides.
Dan is a former member of the firm’s Management Committee. He frequently writes and speaks about e-discovery matters, and is the co-author of a monthly column on e-discovery that appears in The New York Law Journal, for which he was recently awarded Law360’s Distinguished Legal Writing Award.
During law school, Dan served as the Administrative Editor of the Georgetown Law Journal and received a John M. Olin Fellowship in Law and Economics. He is a member of the New York State Bar Association and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.
