Overview
Dozens of lawyers in Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell's Litigation Department are members of the Firm’s Class Actions Practice Group. These seasoned trial lawyers have extensive backgrounds in class action litigation in jurisdictions nationwide. From high profile national cases for Fortune 500 clients to more limited state-wide class litigation, we regularly resolve class action disputes brought against our clients by their customers, competitors, suppliers, investors, shareholders and regulators. We are experienced at all stages of class action litigation, including pursuit of dismissal, denial of certification, summary judgment, decertification, interlocutory appellate work and trial.
We often serve as national counsel for clients facing “bet the company” litigation and coordinate the defense of competing or parallel class cases across the country, as well as multi-district litigation involving both class and individual claims. Our lawyers have the skills and experience to defend any and all types of high stakes class action disputes. The knowledge and experience gained from handling hundreds of class action cases is key to ensuring success in “bet the company” litigation.
Our approach is to work together with our clients to determine the client’s overall goals for resolution of the case and to carefully plan a strategy that will accomplish those goals. We are sensitive to concerns about business reputation and the protection of our clients’ brands.
Our class action practice reaches across the major substantive areas of the law, including:
- Antitrust
- Securities
- Business tort
- Mass tort
- Consumer finance
- Consumer fraud
- Contract
- Franchise laws
- Insurance
- Product liability
- Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO)
- Debt collection
We represent clients in a host of diverse industries, including:
- Casualty and auto insurance
- Energy and oil field services
- Banking and financial services
- Health care
- High technology
- Investment banking
- Life insurance
- Manufacturing
- Mortgage, credit card and other consumer finance companies
- Pharmaceutical companies
- Real estate investment trusts (REITs)
- Retail
- Video and media
We regularly handle class action litigation in jurisdictions across the United States. Because we have litigated so many purported class action cases, in so many jurisdictions across the country, we understand the determinative legal and factual issues, and we have refined defense strategies to present those issues in the best possible light. Through creative preliminary motion practice, focused discovery and compelling written and oral advocacy, we have achieved many outright victories or dime-store settlements in alleged class cases with enormous stakes.
Our class action practice group is cohesive, cooperative and committed. We enjoy practicing law together, and we bring our collective enthusiasm and talents to bear on solving our clients’ problems. Recognizing that law is a personal service business, we make every effort to understand a class action lawsuit in the broader context of a client’s current and future business plans. We insist on open and frequent communication with our clients so we can recommend the best possible choices on litigation strategies and tactics from the client’s point of view. We vigilantly monitor the costs of litigation and the cost/benefit ratio of discovery and trial versus mediation, arbitration or settlement.
We are a leader in integrating modern technology and litigation management techniques into our class action practice. While we do not advocate a “one-size-fits-all” approach, in appropriate cases we can, for example, integrate our word processing and billing systems with those of our clients, or employ computerized document and data retrieval systems in discovery. We have an organized “e-discovery” group that is highly trained in complex electronic discovery and is pre-trained on latest software utilized by the major e-discovery vendors. We also have a state-of-the-art graphics facility in-house that produces high quality exhibits and other presentation materials, saving clients time and money.