Antitrust
- Represented a major employer in challenging a $2.7 billion no-opt-out settlement in the In re Blue Cross Blue Shield Antitrust Litigation, focusing on preserving rights to future antitrust claims.
- Represented a leading home improvement retailer in the In re Payment Card Interchange Fee & Merchant Discount Litigation against Visa and Mastercard, on antitrust violations and excessive interchange fees totaling billions of dollars.
- Represented a major retailer in the In re Polyurethane Foam Antitrust Litigation, negotiating a series of confidential settlements to recover significant damages from major carpet pad manufacturers accused of conspiring to raise prices.
- Represented a major retailer in the In re Domestic Drywall Litigation, pursuing an opt-out claim for damages due to an alleged drywall price-fixing conspiracy, involving extensive disputes in both the MDL court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
- Advised corporate clients regarding their option to participate in, object to, or opt out of a series of settlements regarding the alleged price fixing of financial benchmarks, including LIBOR, Foreign Currency Exchange, ISDAfix, Interest Rate Swaps, SSA Bonds, and Treasury Notes.
Business Disputes
- Successfully represented a major retailer to recover damages for losses of non-compliant inventory delivered in a $100 million-plus business acquisition.
- Represented director and shareholder in close corporation to prevent and recover damages for breaches of fiduciary duty, corporate waste, and theft of corporate opportunities.
- Successfully pursued claims that a former business owner breached covenants not to compete or solicit clients after selling the business to its new owners.
- Successfully represented a major retailer in the In re Deepwater Horizon claims process, helping the client recover millions of dollars in contested awards and additional settlements.
- Represented a major home builder in a bet-the-company case over an alleged default on hundreds of millions of dollars in bonds. Successfully forestalled claims for default on the terms of the bonds under the Trust Indenture Act.
- Successfully represented a major home builder and mortgage lender in court and arbitration, on claims for breach of contract, tortious interference with contract, and unfair competition against Bank of America Co. and one of its subsidiaries.
Insurance Litigation
- Represented a publicly traded REIT in $50 million plus insurance coverage disputes over representation and warranty policies in connection with the breach of representations and warranties in two major business acquisitions.
- Represented a major retailer seeking coverage for costs to settle class action claims for the lost use of plastic payment cards in connection with a major data breach.
- Successfully represented a major employer in insurance coverage disputes with insurance carriers and an insurance broker to recover payment for wage and hour coverage.
- Successfully represented a publicly traded rent-to-own company to negotiate coverage and payment for property losses in a major hurricane.
- Successfully represented a medical manufacturing company to recover losses in connection with mold damage to a manufacturing facility.
- Advised a publicly traded oil company in connection with an arbitration seeking coverage for a major oil spill.
Intellectual Property Litigation
- Represented a Georgia brand owner on claims that Google violated the owner’s right to exclude others by auctioning brand names to serve competitive advertising via Google’s AdWords program.
- Counseled and investigated claims for a major hotel company in connection with the Google AdWords program and online travel agencies bidding on branded keywords to deliver competitive advertising.
- Counseled and investigated claims for an airline regarding travel companies’ unauthorized access to frequent flyer programs and use of the airline’s marks in advertising to promote the travel company’s app.
RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations)
- Successfully represented an institutional investor in high-stakes fraud and RICO cases against Bank of America, Countrywide, JP Morgan, and UBS, involving the alleged fraudulent sale of over $6 billion in mortgage-backed securities and complex successor liability issues.
- Successfully represented employees as Class Counsel in a RICO case against their employer for hiring illegal workers, leading to an $18 million settlement after arguing in the Eleventh Circuit and litigating in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Defense Cases
- Successfully represented a Fortune 50 home improvement retailer in dozens of cases on claims ranging from $50,000 to $150 million in federal and state courts in Georgia, California, Texas, and Illinois over the last 20 years.
- Successfully defended a $500 million RICO case against a gun manufacturer, first persuading the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia to abstain due to foreign litigation, then securing dismissal of all plaintiff’s claims, a decision upheld in the Eleventh Circuit.
- Successfully defended a private corporation and its outside counsel in a series of malicious prosecution cases alleging RICO claims, conspiracy, and violations of the plaintiff’s constitutional rights, achieving dismissals in both federal and Fulton County State Courts and upholding these in the Eleventh Circuit and Georgia Court of Appeals.
- Successfully defended a major international hotel company against a $35 million claim for breach of a lease agreement, securing a summary judgment against the owner and recovering fees for the client.
- Successfully defended a regional fuel jobber against claims for breach of contract, conversion, tortious interference with contract, and defamation.
- Successfully defended the Hospital Authority of Albany-Dougherty County against FTC and Georgia State Attorney General antitrust claims, securing a district court’s immunity ruling and dismissal of the $195 million Palmyra Medical Center acquisition challenge.
- Defended an international hotel company against claims of fiduciary duty breaches and operating agreement violations.
- Successfully thwarted attempts for a restraining order and preliminary injunction in federal court, leading to the plaintiff’s dismissal and subsequent defeat of the re-filed claim in Gwinnett County Superior Court.
- Successfully defended a plastics manufacturing company and its owners against claims of trade secret misappropriation and breach of confidentiality agreements after a failed merger, setting a precedent in applying the statute of limitations in a Georgia trade secret case.
- Served as liaison counsel for an internet advertising company in a multi-district litigation, defending against claims that keyword advertising infringed copyrights and trademarks, resolving multiple cases filed by Fortune 100 plaintiffs.
Pro Bono
- Representing capital defense organizations against Georgia and the Attorney General for breaching a COVID-related agreement to halt executions. Led a team to secure a preliminary injunction to prevent an imminent execution. Successfully argued in the Georgia Supreme Court, achieving a unanimous decision upholding the agreement and emphasizing the State’s obligation to honor its commitments.
- Representing long-jailed juvenile offenders who claim that the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole is failing to honor the Constitution’s requirement to treat juvenile offenders differently based on their capacity for maturation and rehabilitation.
- Secured the release of a man wrongfully detained at Guantanamo Bay by filing a habeas corpus petition in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, leading to his release after five years.
- Volunteered in the prosecution and trial of a man charged with defrauding his 80-year-old godfather, leading to his conviction on multiple counts of theft-by-deception and elder abuse after a multi-day trial.
- Obtained reversal of a denied Title VII retaliation claim against the Federal Railroad Administration, resulting in the plaintiff’s reinstatement and an award of nearly $1 million in back pay (pro bono appointment, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit).
- Successfully represented Max Blau, investigative journalist, to force the Georgia Department of Corrections to answer open records requests despite Secrecy Act objections.
