Overview
Ropes & Gray litigators have an impressive track record of obtaining dismissal of class-action claims and defeating class certification motions. Our attorneys are skilled advocates who have negotiated scores of settlements, often creatively using nonmonetary solutions to resolve matters. We are also skilled and accomplished trial attorneys, prepared to take even the most complex class-action matters to trial.
Our litigators aggressively defend clients in enterprise-threatening class-action litigation in courts at all levels, and we represent clients in class actions involving consumers, shareholders, employees, business partners, financial institutions and competitors.
Ropes & Gray litigators have successfully defended class actions involving a wide range of issues and claims, including:
- Antitrust
- Banking
- Consumer fraud
- Consumer products and safety
- Employment-related matters
- Environmental
- ERISA
- Financial services
- Health care
- Insurance
- Investment management issues
- Mass torts
- Privacy and data security matters
- Product liability
- Securities and shareholder rights
- Telecommunications
Class-action strategies
Class-action litigation can quickly become expensive. We work efficiently on multiple procedural and substantive fronts to achieve the best possible resolution. Our knowledge and experience allows us to employ a variety of procedural mechanisms unique to class actions when we formulate and execute a defense strategy. Whether seeking to transfer a case to the most appropriate forum, moving to consolidate actions—often through successful petitioning of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation - or fighting plaintiffs’ attempts to achieve class certification, we understand class-action procedure.
Experience
Ropes & Gray has the resources and experience to handle the most complicated and time-sensitive class action matters. Clients appreciate our team approach and ability to seamlessly handle discovery, multi-district litigation, parallel civil and criminal proceedings, and concurrent government investigations.
Recent successes for clients include representation of:
- Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings and Polar Air Cargo, winning dismissal of all claims in a multidistrict antitrust litigation alleging market manipulation and claiming international pricing practices violated U.S., state, and European Union antitrust laws
- BioMimetic Therapeutics in securing dismissal of a securities fraud class action in which plaintiffs claimed over $75 million in damages, based on allegations that the company overstated the FDA approval prospects of its flagship medical product
- Cablevision in an antitrust class action alleging unlawful tying and monopolization
- Genzyme Corporation in multiple securities class actions filed in the wake of a series of manufacturing and regulatory setbacks claiming at least $2 billion in damages, which a District of Massachusetts judge dismissed in March 2012
- Heartland Payment Systems, winning dismissal of all class action claims in litigation stemming from an alleged data breach
- IASIS Healthcare in the denial of certification of one of two proposed classes of nurses alleging claims arising out of wage-setting activities
- A Leading Consumer Technology Company and its entities as global coordinating counsel in multiple litigations and government investigations that have arisen from criminal cyberattacks on certain computer networks
- State Street Bank & Trust Co. in multiple actions arising out of investment losses in mutual funds and unregistered common trust funds due to exposure to mortgage-backed securities. These cases include a class action under ERISA on behalf of a putative class of scores of retirement funds, an action under the federal securities laws, and cases asserting state law contract and fiduciary duty theories.
- The Timberland Company and its directors in a shareholder class action in connection with VF Corporation’s agreement to purchase Timberland for approximately $2 billion
- TravelCenters of America in defeating a motion for class certification in the first of over 20 putative class actions alleging consumer protection violations and unfair trade practices in connection with motor fuel retail sales