Bruce Luckman
Sherman, Silverstein, Kohl, Rose & Podolsky, P.A.
Bruce Luckman is a shareholder and General Counsel to the Firm. He is an accomplished commercial litigator. He has achieved notable results for clients in jury and non-jury cases before state and federal courts throughout the United States, handling both individual and class actions.
Bruce has a particular expertise in the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). By representing credit providers and Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs) for over 20 years, he has gained unmatched knowledge of—and insight into—the credit reporting industry, credit scoring models, consumer lending practices, and compliance concerns. He has deposed numerous lenders, industry experts, and consumers.
Bruce’s litigation successes include high-profile jury trials from Mississippi to California, and precedent-setting FCRA decisions dating back to 1995. Mr. Luckman was trial counsel in several district court individual and class action cases which led to the development of the FCRA law nationally, including the Supreme Court’s landmark standing decision in TransUnion v. Ramirez.
Clients have praised Bruce not only for his exceptional courtroom presence, but also for a pragmatic, strategic approach that adds client value outside the courtroom. For example, Bruce has advised clients concerning their FCRA compliance protocols, particularly with respect to existing and proposed products, processing consumer disputes, reinvestigations, and communications between CRAs and credit data suppliers, and CRAs and consumers.
Outside of the office (and often commuting to it) Bruce enjoys his motorcycle. He spends his free time trying to learn to cook, exercising in his historic Philadelphia neighborhood, biking, skiing and ice skating with his wife and two adult children.
Bruce has taught seminars to seniors at Central High School in Philadelphia, PA and GIRLS, Inc. on building credit, the responsible use of credit and the impact of financial conduct and decisions today on credit history and costs of credit in the future. He also volunteers as a certified Philadelphia Election Board Worker and a Motorcycle Escort for the American Cancer Society Annual Bike-A-Thon – Bridge to the Beach Ride.
Practice Areas
- Litigation
- Mediation
- Fair Credit Reporting Act
Education & Bar Admission
- Harvard Law School Executive Education
- Mediating Disputes Program Certification 2022
- Suffolk University Law School, J.D. 1983
- Boston University, B.A. English Literature, 1980
Recent Representative Matters
Consumer Litigation: Acts as national litigation counsel to cost effectively defend and settle numerous individual consumer actions for various consumer reporting agencies, furnishers and towing forwarding companies in the federal courts throughout the country. Bruce appears as counsel in almost 200 cases on Westlaw and Lexis, running the gamut from FCRA to contract cases. He has been lead or co-counsel in jury trials tried to verdict in state court in Philadelphia, and federal district courts in California, Connecticut, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
FCRA Vendor Dispute: Retained by an FCRA Reseller as special litigation counsel in a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy case in which the reseller’s main data furnisher threatened to terminate services which would have destroyed the Reseller’s business. After vigorous pre-trial motion practice and dozens of depositions, the case was tried over several days, including testimony by three national FCRA experts regarding consumer privacy and FCRA permissible purpose issues. Reseller prevailed at trial on the material FCRA and contract issues and during the appeal successfully settled and reorganized.
New Jersey Chancery: Commercial Leases: (a) Successfully represented regional retailer in dispute with publicly held landlord over three North Jersey office building locations. Obtained temporary restraining order and subsequent preliminary injunction preventing a wrongful lease pre-termination and eviction which led to favorable resolution and confirmation of all three leases. (b) Represented a franchisee selling multiple stores back to a national franchisor and filed a TRO to successfully force a landlord to comply with lease assignment provisions thus preventing the total sale from breaking down.
LLC Dispute: Represented an equal owner in a hotly contested dispute over control and ownership of a nine-figure LLC with assets throughout the country. The case concerned novel issues under the revised NJ LLC statute, including fiduciary duties and entitlement to dissociation. The aggressive and successful motion practice, including defeating a complex discovery motion over sensitive electronic discovery (ESI) and laptop issues, led to a favorable settlement.
Mediating Cases: Bruce has been lead counsel in over 100 mediations and settlement conferences in over 25 state and federal jurisdictions and private mediations. The cases include FCRA, Fair Debt Collections Practices Act individual and class actions, commercial litigation and business divorces.
Results may vary depending on your particular facts and legal circumstances.
