Partner

Joshua D. Yount

Litigation & Dispute Resolution, Supreme Court & Appellate, Banking & Finance Litigation

Overview

Businesses rely on Josh Yount for cutting-edge class certification defense, top-notch appellate representation, and sophisticated legal analysis, careful strategic thinking and vigorous advocacy in a wide variety of litigation.

Major corporate clients leverage Josh’s 20 years of experience defending against class actions in mass tort, product liability, securities, consumer and insurance class actions in state and federal courts. He has obtained trial court denials and appellate court reversals of class certification. He has handled petitions for interlocutory appeals from class certification rulings. He has defeated class actions at the dismissal and summary judgment stages. He has served as preservation counsel at a class action trial. And he has litigated jurisdictional issues under the Class Action Fairness Act.

Experience

  • Achieved victory in the US Supreme Court for major investment banks, persuading the Court that an alleged agreement to rig the initial public offering process was immune from antitrust challenge.
  • Obtained reversal of class certification for major investment banks in a securities fraud suit alleging manipulation of stocks recently taken public.
  • Handled class certification and merits briefing for chemical company sued over contamination in dozens of cases across the country.
  • Secured a series of voluntary and involuntary dismissals in putative class actions against a leading insurance company over allegedly improper reductions in payments for medical treatment.
  • Defeated class certification and won summary judgment for a bank in a case alleging wrongful overdraft fees.
  • Represented a pair of banks in an MDL class action challenge to certain bank fee practices.
  • Handled strategy for opposing class certification in district court and briefed a petition for interlocutory appeal in a securities suit against underwriter and broker.
  • Represented an appliance manufacturer in challenging class certification rulings in the US Supreme Court, as preservation counsel at trial, and on appeal from favorable verdict.

Education

  • Illinois Wesleyan University, BA, summa cum laude
  • The University of Chicago Law School, JD, with honors
    Executive Editor, University of Chicago Legal Forum

Admissions

  • Illinois

Courts

  • US Supreme Court
  • US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
  • US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
  • US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
  • US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
  • US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
  • US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
  • US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
  • US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

Languages

  • English

Professional & Community Involvement

  • Associate Editor of The Circuit Rider (the Bar Journal of the Seventh Circuit)
  • Author of the motions chapter of the Attorney's Guide to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals
  • Author of the attorneys' fees and costs chapter of Federal Appellate Practice
  • Co-author of a chapter on class certification in the treatise, Litigating Securities Class Actions
  • Contributor to Class Defense, Mayer Brown’s blog on key issues affecting class action law and policy.
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