Class Action Litigation

Our team is retained as lead, coordinating, and co-counsel on large-scale class actions for major public companies, financial institutions, mortgage lenders, investment companies, broker-dealers, nonprofits, and municipalities, among others. We work as a unified force to defend and resolve actions with many moving parts and significant risk.

Our track record in representing companies in state and federal court class actions, mass torts, and multi-district litigation (MDLs) is impressive. Our experience is broad and includes employment actions to product liability and unfair competition, financial services, data breach and privacy actions, and massive, nationwide pharmaceutical cases.

Our Class Action team has earned a reputation as thought leaders when it comes to multi-jurisdictional and class and mass action cases. Drawing on both the combined trial experience and extensive knowledge of a national commercial law firm, we offer clients big firm organization and support with acute boutique-style know-how and service.

Our litigators know the impact a class action can have on a business. We understand, from decades of “in the trenches” experience, that class actions can have a serious impact on and consequences to our client’s business, reputation, and bottom line. At the onset of our representation, we seek to fully understand the facts of each case to determine a strategy that parallels client objectives and offers the greatest potential for a successful resolution.

Whether pursuing early resolution, seeking to defeat class certification, or tactically positioning the case for a decision on the merits, our advocates prove time and again that we can guide clients through the critical decisions involved in defending these lawsuits. A sampling of our experience includes:

• Handling class actions against large governmental agencies accused of unlawful discrimination.
• Defending collection companies and failure to pay wages.
• Defending air pollution class actions on behalf of a steel mill.
• Defending a real estate investment trust against class claims involving secondary mortgage loans.
• Defending a national food chain in a putative class action alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, successfully opposing class certification.
• Representing a national insurance company in a putative class action regarding motorcycle rider benefits.
• Defending class actions alleging unfair trade and billing practices against utility companies and municipal authorities.
• Defending a class action against a health insurance provider alleging unfair trade and unfair practices.
• Successfully defending a major chemical company in a class action arising from a train derailment and chemical spill, resulting in the evacuation of over 20,000 city residents; defeated class certification on all claims but those for response costs under CERCLA, and thereafter obtained summary judgment on the CERCLA response cost claims.
• Successfully defending a national department store by defeating certification in two alleged statewide class actions claiming various unfair trade practices and deceptive marketing practices.
• Representing the manufacturer of residential siding products in a statewide class action involving alleged product defect, breach of warranty, and deceptive marketing practices.