Civil RICO: Fifty-Five Years on Substantive and Conspiracy Claims Under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1962 and 1964(C)

Kevin P. Roddy | Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer, P.A

Kevin P. Roddy is a shareholder at Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer, P.A. whose practice focuses on complex litigation, including class actions involving antitrust, consumer protection, unfair trade practices, anti-racketeering, and securities fraud claims. For more than 35 years, he has represented plaintiffs in significant class actions, representative actions, derivative actions, and civil RICO matters in federal and state courts throughout the United States. Widely recognized as an authority on civil RICO litigation, Kevin has served as lead or co-lead counsel in numerous high-profile cases that have resulted in substantial recoveries for consumers, shareholders, and businesses. He is also a prolific author, lecturer, and expert witness whose work has helped shape the development of class action and RICO jurisprudence nationwide.

• Education & Credentials

Kevin is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, numerous federal circuit courts of appeals, and multiple federal district courts throughout the country. He is admitted in New Jersey, New York, California, and Virginia. His extensive admissions and decades of experience in federal and state courts have enabled him to litigate complex class actions, securities cases, antitrust matters, and civil RICO claims across a broad range of jurisdictions.

• Recognition & Leadership

Kevin has held numerous leadership positions within the plaintiffs’ bar and class action community. He served as President of the National Association of Shareholder and Consumer Attorneys from 2005 to 2007, served on its Executive Committee from 2000 to 2011, and chaired its Amicus Committee from 1991 to 2011. He was also selected for inclusion in the New Jersey Super Lawyers list for Class Action and Mass Torts law. His reputation as a leader in complex litigation is reflected in his appointments as lead or co-lead counsel in major nationwide class actions and significant civil RICO cases throughout his career.

• Professional Involvement

Kevin has made substantial contributions to legal scholarship, professional education, and appellate advocacy. He is the author of RICO in Business and Commercial Litigation, a leading treatise on civil RICO law, and has served as Civil Law Editor of the RICO Law Reporter and as a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Civil RICO Report. He has been a frequent speaker at continuing legal education programs sponsored by organizations including the American Bar Association, the Federal Trade Commission, the American Law Institute-American Bar Association, Litigation Counsel of America, and numerous state bar associations. In addition, he has participated extensively in appellate advocacy through the filing of dozens of amicus curiae briefs in the United States Supreme Court and other appellate courts.

• Experience

Kevin has more than three decades of experience litigating complex class actions, antitrust disputes, securities fraud claims, shareholder derivative actions, consumer protection cases, and civil RICO matters. Throughout his career, he has served as lead or co-lead counsel in significant litigation resulting in recoveries exceeding $2 billion. His experience includes trial work in federal and state courts across the country, appellate advocacy before multiple federal circuit courts and the United States Supreme Court, and expert witness testimony in both civil and criminal matters. He has successfully represented classes involving consumer fraud, financial services, securities litigation, health care disputes, antitrust claims, environmental contamination, product liability, shareholder rights, and racketeering allegations. His appellate experience includes arguing a civil RICO case before the United States Supreme Court in Anza v. Ideal Steel Supply Corp., a decision that established an important standard for proximate causation in civil RICO litigation.

Jeffrey E. Grell | Ted Lyon Law

Jeffrey E. Grell is a nationally recognized commercial litigator, educator, and authority on civil RICO litigation. Currently serving as Special Counsel with Ted B. Lyon & Associates, Jeff has spent more than three decades representing clients in complex commercial disputes involving fraud, racketeering, deceptive trade practices, business torts, consumer fraud, class actions, and other sophisticated litigation matters. Widely known for his extensive work under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, he has prosecuted and defended civil RICO claims since 1990 and is the author of Grell on RICO, a leading resource developed from his years of teaching and practice. Throughout his career, Jeff has combined litigation, government service, legal education, and thought leadership, earning recognition from attorneys, academics, journalists, and business leaders seeking insight into complex racketeering and commercial litigation issues.

• Education & Credentials

Jeff graduated magna cum laude from Augustana College with a Bachelor of Arts in Government and International Affairs in 1987 before earning his Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center in 1990. He was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Minnesota in 1990 and has been admitted to numerous federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court and several federal circuit courts of appeal. His legal career began with private practice at Jones Day, where he worked on significant commercial litigation matters, including litigation arising from the collapse of BCCI.

• Recognition & Leadership

Jeff is widely regarded as an authority on civil RICO litigation and has been recognized internationally for his knowledge of racketeering law. His expertise has been sought by major media organizations including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Economist, the BBC, NPR, USA Today, Newsweek, and numerous other national and international publications. In addition to his litigation
practice, he has played a leadership role in legal education through decades of teaching and scholarship focused on RICO and complex commercial litigation.

• Professional Involvement

Jeff has been deeply involved in legal education and professional development throughout his career. From 1999 through 2023, he served as an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, where he taught courses on the RICO Act. He currently teaches a RICO course at the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law and regularly presents continuing legal education programs on racketeering and commercial litigation topics. He is also the creator of RICOACT.COM and the author of Grell on RICO, resources widely used by attorneys and students seeking guidance on this complex area of law.

• Experience

Jeff’s legal career spans private practice, government service, academia, and complex litigation consulting. He began his career at Jones Day before joining Leonard, Street and Deinard, where he became a shareholder and helped develop defenses in significant civil RICO cases, including litigation that reached the United States Supreme Court in Klehr v. A.O. Smith Corp. He later practiced as a solo commercial litigator and RICO consultant before serving as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Minnesota from 2008 to 2010. Following his government service, he founded Grell Feist PLC, where he represented clients in complex commercial, consumer protection, fraud, and racketeering matters. His experience also includes advising on international business disputes, representing clients in multistate investigations, handling consumer protection enforcement matters, and litigating sophisticated commercial and financial disputes across the country. In 2024, he joined Ted B. Lyon & Associates as Special Counsel, continuing a career focused on high-stakes litigation, appellate advocacy, and RICO-related matters.

SESSION 1 – RICO’s Historical Context (1950 -1970) | 1:00pm – 1:10pm

A look at the conditions that produced RICO, tracing the statute’s roots from 1950 to 1970 and the organized-crime concerns Congress sought to confront through federal racketeering law.

SESSION 2 – The Civil RICO Explosion (1980 –1990) | 1:10pm – 1:20pm

The surge of civil RICO filings from 1980 to 1990, when plaintiffs discovered §§ 1962 and 1964(c) reached far beyond the Mafia into fraud and business disputes.

SESSION 3 – Early Intervention by SCOTUS (1985-1995) | 1:20pm – 1:30pm

The Supreme Court’s early intervention from 1985 to 1995, including Sedima, H.J. Inc., Holmes, and Reves, decisions that shaped civil standing, pattern, and the operation-management test.

SESSION 4 – Conceptualizing Civil RICO Claims: §§ 1962, 1964, 1965 | 1:30pm – 1:40pm

The structure of civil RICO claims under §§ 1962, 1964, and 1965, covering prohibited activities, civil remedies, and venue and process across the statute’s interlocking provisions.

SESSION 5 – Pleading the Essential Elements: Person | 1:40pm – 1:50pm

The defendant “person” element, including why a person cannot be the enterprise and why governmental entities cannot be named, drawing on Cedric Kushner and Gil Ramirez Group.

SESSION 6 – Pleading the Essential Elements: Enterprise | 1:50pm – 2:00pm

The enterprise element under § 1961(4), the person/enterprise distinction, and association-in-fact enterprises, with Boyle’s three requirements: common purpose, relationship among members, and sufficient longevity to pursue that purpose.

BREAK | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

SESSION 7 – Pleading the Essential Elements: Operation and Management | 2:10pm – 2:20pm

The operation-or-management test from Reves v. Ernst & Young, requiring some part in directing the enterprise’s affairs—reaching lower-rung participants while excluding ordinary professional assistance and mere negligence.

SESSION 8 – Pleading the Essential Elements: Pattern of Racketeering | 2:20pm – 2:30pm

The pattern element under H.J. Inc., defined as continuity plus relationship, with predicate acts from § 1961(1) and closed- or open-ended continuity distinguishing genuine patterns from isolated events.

SESSION 9 – Pleading the Essential Elements: Civil Standing | 2:30pm – 2:40pm

The civil standing requirement under § 1964(c), limiting recovery to injury to business or property and requiring proximate cause under Holmes and Bridge, not merely but-for causation.

SESSION 10 – Remedies: Damages | 2:40pm – 2:45pm

The compensatory damages available for injury to business or property under § 1964(c), and the exclusion of emotional-distress and personal-injury damages, as recognized in Grogan and revisited in Horn.

SESSION 11 – Remedies: Treble Damages | 2:45pm – 2:50pm

The treble-damages remedy under § 1964(c), automatically trebling a prevailing plaintiff’s actual damages—a provision courts treat as partially punitive, which bars naming governmental entities as RICO defendants.

SESSION 12 – Remedies: Attorney’s Fees | 2:50pm – 3:00pm

The mandatory award of reasonable attorneys’ fees to prevailing RICO plaintiffs under § 1964(c), a fee-shifting provision that materially shapes both the leverage and economics of litigation.

SESSION 13 – Remedies: Equitable Relief | 3:00pm – 3:10pm

The availability of equitable relief in civil RICO actions, an enumerated remedy alongside damages, treble damages, and attorneys’ fees that broadens what prevailing parties can ask courts to order.