From the onset of a lawsuit, we focus on delivering cost-effective solutions while achieving top legal results. Our strategic approach and legal arguments have been extremely successful, resulting in a high dismissal rate for our clients.

• Represents State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company and its subsidiaries as national lead counsel in its COVID-19 business interruption coverage litigation. In September 2020, the federal district court in Michigan dismissed, with prejudice, a proposed class action brought by a chiropractor purporting to represent all Michigan business owners seeking business interruption coverage from State Farm due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Also in September 2020, the Illinois Circuit Court granted State Farm’s motion to dismiss with prejudice a complaint brought by a restaurant seeking COVID-related business interruption coverage.
• In two first-of-their-kind suits against Apple, Dechert secured dismissals after a two-year battle in class action cases alleging violations of a New Jersey consumer protection statute – the New Jersey Truth-in-Consumer Contract and Warranty and Notice Act and concurrent suits in the Northern District of California and the Superior Court of California, Santa Clara County, alleging that certain provisions in the Company’s standard terms and conditions violate TCCWNA, even though the plaintiffs did not suffer actual harm.
• Represented Walmart in dismissing a class action lawsuit under D.C. consumer protection statute brought by consumer organization.
• Represented Whole Foods in securing the dismissal of a nationwide class action lawsuit alleging false advertising of its homeopathic products.
• Represented Joe Theismann in securing the dismissal of a class action lawsuit alleging false advertising of his celebrity endorsement of a dietary supplement, affirmed by the Ninth Circuit.

Our advocacy in landmark cases has resulted in new class action law, and we’re particularly experienced with class certification issues – both ending the litigation at this stage, or using it to propel the plaintiffs to settle in a favorable manner for our client.

• On behalf of Dean Foods, Dechert defeated certification of class of direct purchasers of milk and obtained summary judgment on five of six claims for violation of the U.S. antitrust laws. We then settled the final remaining claim advantageously one day prior to start of trial.
•  Dechert represented FMC Corporation in In re Hydrogen Peroxide Antitrust Litigation, which alleged an industry-wide and international price-fixing conspiracy. In a watershed ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit vacated class certification and clarified the standard requiring courts to consider evidence opposing class treatment under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23.
• Represented Comcast Corp. in three separate putative class actions in the state courts of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, and federal court in California. These cases, based on consumer protection statutes, involved allegations that consumers were improperly charged for cable converter boxes and remote control equipment. We successfully defeated class certification.

Dechert has successfully ended numerous class actions on summary judgement.

• Represented Apple in a putative nationwide class action alleging the company mislead consumers about the safety of iPhones with respect to radiofrequency (RF) radiation. The case was dismissed at summary judgment after minimal discovery and no depositions.
•  Represented Rent A Center in its defense against allegations by a putative state-wide class of more than 300,000 consumers of violations of California consumer protection laws. Dechert succeeded in reducing the claims at summary judgment, resulting in a settlement of US$13 million, reduced from the initial claim in excess of US$100 million.

On those rare occasions when a class action reaches the trial stage, Dechert brings a strong record of class action wins in court. Our lawyers have handled many complex jury trials in state and federal courts, and we regularly obtain defense verdicts in nationwide “test” cases. As a result of our success in this arena, we are often able to resolve these matters at an early stage and on very favorable terms for our clients. But when do go to trial, we expect to win.

• Represented Boiron Inc., a leading homeopathic drug manufacturer, in a successful jury and bench trial in the Central District of California. The bet-the-company false advertising and consumer fraud class action was subsequently affirmed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Represented Pennsylvania-based egg producer, R.W. Sauder, in a full victory in a US$1.1 billion direct purchaser antitrust class action brought by a powerful group of plaintiff law firms against 13 egg producers alleging a conspiracy to reduce the domestic supply of eggs and raise prices. After a five-week trial and seven days of deliberation, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania concluded that while a conspiracy existed, R. W. Sauder had not joined it.

We have successfully litigated cases before the U.S. Supreme Court as well as federal and state appeals courts nationwide. We are also adept at crafting innovative solutions to the challenge of coordination between the federal and state judiciary, where no ready-made structure exists. Drawing on a wealth of government experience, our team includes a former Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, a former Assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States, a former Associate White House Counsel who clerked for two U.S. Supreme Court Justices, a former member of New York City’s Office of the Appellate Defender, and many former prosecutors. More than 25 Dechert lawyers have served as law clerks for federal or state appellate judges, one current partner was shortlisted for the Supreme Court, and two current Dechert partners were previously recommended for appointment to the New York Court of Appeals by the New York Commission on Judicial Nominations.

• Served as national counsel to Pfizer for more than a decade in litigation involving Pfizer’s top-selling statin, Lipitor. In 2019, Pfizer filed companion petitions for writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States regarding jurisdictional rulings in the California Lipitor litigation. In the first petition, Pfizer sought review of the federal courts’ finding that there is no jurisdiction under the Class Action Fairness Act over thousands of cases joined by judicial proposal to a California coordinated proceeding. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Washington Legal Foundation, PhRMA, ATRA and NAM submitted amicus curiae briefs in support of that petition.
•  Representing Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corporation in high-profile civil litigation and regulatory matters relating to its use of materials containing perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a widely used chemical that has been unregulated for most of its history and is now the object of emergent public attention. We are presently defending numerous actions, including putative class actions in New York, New Hampshire and Vermont, alleging Saint-Gobain contaminated the groundwater with PFOA and asserting medical monitoring and property damage as a result of exposure. In New York, we persuaded the Second Circuit to hear interlocutory appeals on key legal issues affecting the viability of Plaintiffs’ property damage and medical monitoring theories, which are now fully briefed and argued. In the meantime, fact discovery is proceeding in NY federal court in both the individual cases and putative class action. In Vermont, following the district court’s certification of a medical monitoring class and an issue class on liability, we filed a Rule 23(f) petition for permission to appeal to the Second Circuit with amicus support from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, ATRA, and the National Association of Manufacturers. In the New Hampshire litigation, we successfully opposed an effort to resist production of medical records; and class certification and Daubert briefing are now underway.
• Represented State Farm in obtaining emergency appellate relief in a class action concerning calculating “labor depreciation” in payments to homeowners after State Farm had been ordered to respond to burdensome discovery. Our team prepared a mandamus petition and requested a stay of discovery. Although such petitions are hardly ever granted, the U.S. Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit accepted State Farm’s petition and granted the stay. After the district court certified a class, we sought appellate review, which the Eighth Circuit also granted. The Eighth Circuit decided the consolidated appeals and dismissed the complaint in its entirety. The court adopted out argument that it was appropriate for State Farm to factor labor depreciation into its policy payments, which mooted both the discovery appeal and class certification decision.
• Filed amicus briefs in successful class action appeals, including in Moussouris v. Microsoft Corp., No. 18-35791 (9th Cir. 2019), and we have developed relationships with key amicus curiae organizations who have filed briefs in our appeals.

Often class action matters involve parallel government investigations and enforcement. Dechert has handled some of the largest and most complex of these matters.

• Advised Takata Corporation on airbag litigation that included more than 60 class action matters filed throughout the United States and Canada and various MDLs. Additionally, we represented Takata in various investigations, including: congressional hearings; a grand jury investigation by the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan; an investigation by the South Carolina Attorney General’s office; investigations by various regulatory agencies worldwide, including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; as well as coordinating regulatory inquiries in Germany and Japan and handling employment/HR, and public relation issues.
• Represented Amgen Inc. as lead counsel in litigation and investigations arising from its Erythropoiesis-Stimulating Agents (ESAs) used to treat anemia, in response to several consumer fraud class actions, government investigations, Congressional inquiries and an SEC investigation.