Class Action & Multi-Claim Litigation

Time-tested, broad-spectrum experience and depth 

• National, lead, and coordinating counsel for MDLs including individual and class action claims
• Lead class action counsel in national, regional, and statewide claims in state, federal district, and federal bankruptcy courts, and before arbitrators
• Enterprise-wide electronic discovery counsel for clients with global operations, multi-claim including management of massive ESI identification, review and production
• Lead trial counsel in high-profile multi-claim product liability/personal injury cases
• Large-inventory litigation management skills and experience
• Flexible, scalable, cost-effective teambuilding capabilities multi-claim
• Project management tools and proprietary software
• Case evaluation tools for the stratification and valuation of claims
• Settlement counsel capacity, ADR practitioners
• Appellate practice, including issue preservation
• Subject matter experience in legal and regulatory frameworks governing
  • Consumer financial services
  • Pharmaceutical products and medical devices
  • Automotive products
  • Consumer products
  • Insurance
  • Environmental and toxic torts
  • No injury classes
  • Franchises
  • Building products

We defend manufacturers of consumer goods, pharmaceutical products and medical devices, automobiles, insurers and financial services providers across the nation 

A deep-rooted knowledge of clients’ businesses, the consumer marketplace, and the regulatory and legal frameworks for our clients’ interactions with consumers in those markets informs our approach to class action and multi-claim litigation.  We represent clients in the following industries  

Class actions

• Building products and construction 
• Consumer financial services
  • Online lending and other services
  • Mortgage litigation
  • Credit cards
  • Consumer finance
  • Alternatives to conventional consumer financing
• Consumer goods
  • Automobiles
  • Electrical receptacles
  • Home appliances
  • Travel trailers, mobile and manufactured homes
• Environmental
• Healthcare
• Homeowners associations
• Insurance 
• Pharmaceutical products (cough and cold medicine)
• Utilities - electric 

Multidistrict litigation

• Consumer goods
  • Automobiles
  • Electrical receptacles
• Pharmaceutical products and medical devices (product liability and medical monitoring)
  • Statin medication
  • Vena cava filters
  • Vaginal mesh products

The Multi-Claim and Class Action Litigation Team has decades of experience in the management of multi-claim and consumer class actions and product litigation 

Attorneys on our Multi-Claim and Class Action Team are leaders in their respective fields, with deep knowledge of legal, business, medical, and technical issues involved in the defense of such litigation, not only as advocates but as thought leaders—writing, speaking, and participating in such initiatives as the LCJ Class Action Committee and the ALI Principles on Aggregate Litigation and writers and speakers for CLEs and professional publications.

We work with clients to customize defense strategies depending on the nature of the matter and the client’s business and litigation goals.   Whether we are attacking class certification, coordinating discovery across a large inventory of cases, targeting weak and unsubstantiated claims through strategic motions, or sequencing discovery and motions in MDL, we strive to achieve these goals using cost-effective means.  

Our attorneys work with our clients to strive for desired outcomes from the earliest stages of potential claim development through final resolution of class action and multi-claim litigations

• Early responsive action – including time-sensitive investigation and inspection, expert involvement, data preservation, and development of preventive actions to minimize claims and litigation
• Regulatory advice and counseling and responses to regulatory bodies
• Exposure and risk assessment using client data and case experience
• Internal and external communications plans for your board of directors, customers, public agencies, and the public
• Case planning and development oriented to legal defenses, discovery challenges and opportunities, anticipated motions, and ultimate resolution objectives
• Litigation plans and budgets providing strategic methodology and cost containment to   “right size" the defense of matters
• Class certification challenges based on both well-established precedents and leading-edge approaches to ascertainability, standing, and commonality of proof in the anticipated trial setting
• Shaping the structure and schedules for multi-claim litigation to meet the needs of the client
• Developing corporate and expert witnesses key to defense, and bringing our past experience with experts used by opposing parties to the defense
• Expert witness identification and integration into defense
• Managing massive ESI productions by negotiating terms and efficiencies, protecting privileged materials, and maintaining databases of information for ease of use throughout the litigation
• Creating and implementing effective strategies for evaluating and resolving large inventories of claims cost effectively.
• Providing billing alternatives which help clients better maximize corporate certainties regarding the costs of mass litigation
• Exploring settlement in strategic, cost-effective ways and properly documenting and supporting class settlements to withstand scrutiny by courts and attacks by objections
• Trial strategies that leverage success to reduce exposure

Following is a selected sampling of matters and is provided for informational purposes only. Past success does not indicate the likelihood of success in any future matter.

• National coordinating counsel in multidistrict litigation involving inferior vena cava filters
• One of several firms that coordinated overall strategic management an MDL regarding a statin medication, including serving as co-liaison counsel for thousands of cases, including an MDL, including the preparation and defense of company witnesses, preparation of expert witnesses, and trial team
• National coordinating counsel in multidistrict litigation involving vaginal mesh products.
• Decades of service as national coordinating counsel for multiple companies in the asbestos mass tort litigation
• National coordinating counsel in the Travel Trailer Multidistrict litigation following Hurricane Katrina (formaldehyde issues)
• Lead counsel for defendants accusing of violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)
• Lead counsel for floor care consumer product manufacturer in “no injury” product defect putative class actions in state courts
• Lead counsel for automotive manufacturer in unintended acceleration MDL, emissions MDL, and fuel economy “no injury” cases
• National counsel for manufacturer of electrical receptacles sued in various jurisdictions in alleged “no injury” class actions
• Lead counsel representing manufactured home company and lending affiliate, defending claims arising under state laws in Texas, Ohio, Tennessee, and other states. 
• Lead counsel for certain defendant class members in bilateral class action in which court decertified class
• Lead counsel for mortgage lender in putative class action predicated on language contained in mortgages, dismissed for lack of standing. 
• Lead counsel for lender in putative class action arising under Uniform Commercial Code, dismissed based on statute of limitations
• Local counsel, argued motion for dismissal in putative class action alleging violation of FCRA
• Co-counsel in no-injury trial to verdict involving home appliances in Ohio
• Lead counsel in Florida class action alleging defects in building products
• Counsel for international automobile manufacturer in emissions litigation MDL, which included individual cases and class actions
• Counsel in MDL for international automobile manufacturer against claims of unintended acceleration economic loss
• Counsel for tax preparation service franchisor facing claims that franchisees were encouraged to prepare fraudulent tax returns to inflate customer refunds and tax preparation fees (claims included breach of contract, RICO violations, and unjust enrichment)
• Lead Counsel in California class action alleging defects in plastic component of travel trailers