Mayer Brown is the driving force behind some of the most significant and cutting-edge appellate jurisprudence in the country. If the law does not favor our clients, we look to change the law—and we frequently succeed, as shown by our record in these areas of emphasis.
Punitive Damages
Securities Class Actions
Insurance Torts
Preemption
Antitrust
Intellectual Property
Product Liability
Environmental Litigation
Arbitration
Punitive Damages
Mayer Brown has been involved in all of the significant punitive damages cases in the United States Supreme Court during the last decade, serving as counsel of record for the business defendant in three of those cases—including the landmark BMW of North America, Inc. v. Gore (which established for the first time that a punitive damages award can be “constitutionally excessive”) and the Court’s most recent punitive damages case, Philip Morris USA v. Williams (which imposed new curbs in the award of punitive damages). In a number of the cases we have handled, appellate courts have vacated the award of punitive damages against our clients and rendered judgment in their favor. In numerous other cases, we succeeded in obtaining substantial reductions of the punitive awards. Collectively, our clients have saved billions of dollars as a result of our appeals and post-trial motions on punitive damages issues.
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Securities Class Actions
Mayer Brown is a leader in the field of class actions. Working with lawyers from our Securities Litigation & Corporate Governance and our Consumer Litigation & Class Actions practices, our group has successfully opposed the certification of consumer class actions in numerous state, federal and international jurisdictions and tribunals. We have a particularly notable record in securities class actions, most recently in Stoneridge Investment Partners v. Scientific-Atlanta, Inc., 128 S. Ct. 761 (2008). Hailed by The Wall Street Journal as the “the biggest securities-litigation court clash in a generation,” the Supreme Court agreed with Mayer Brown’s argument that third parties who do not themselves mislead investors cannot be held liable for damages even if their conduct facilitates the fraud of another. In another case, In re Initial Public Offering Securities Litigation (Miles v. Merrill Lynch), the Second Circuit in 2006 reversed the district court’s grant of class certification in 310 consolidated IPO class actions involving trillions of dollars, thousands of plaintiffs, and 55 of the nation’s leading underwriters. The opinion dramatically altered class action jurisprudence in the Second Circuit by tightening the standard that plaintiffs must satisfy.
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Insurance Torts
Mayer Brown represents life, disability, auto and home insurers in a wide range of cases in forums throughout the country. Our practice includes not only the representation of insurers in specific cases but also the filing of amicus briefs in numerous cases raising issues of interest to insurers, such as State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Campbell. In that case, the Supreme Court agreed with our argument—made on behalf of the United States Chamber of Commerce—that a court may not impose punitive damages on a defendant for conduct directed at individuals who are not before the court.
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Preemption
We have secured dismissal on federal preemption grounds—at trial or on appeal—in purported class actions involving everything from bank fees and practices to product liability, and have been involved in virtually every Supreme Court product liability preemption case—representing either a party or an amicus—in the past ten years.
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Antitrust
Our lawyers have extensive experience litigating at trial and on appeal a broad variety of significant antitrust and competition matters. The published opinions in many of these cases stand as among the leading authorities on such topics as price fixing and monopolization. Along with our Antitrust & Competition practice, our antitrust appellate lawyers have argued or briefed nearly every significant antitrust case to reach the US Supreme Court during the past decade. In Credit Suisse First Boston v. Billing, 127 S. Ct. 2383 (2007), a case closely followed by Wall Street, the Supreme Court reversed a Second Circuit decision and ruled in favor of Mayer Brown’s clients, finding that investment banks and mutual funds could not be sued under antitrust law over losses from the crash of technology stocks when the “dot-com bubble” burst. Mayer Brown’s resounding success saved its clients billions of dollars in potential damages and ended the threat of crippling liability in this matter. Weyerhaeuser Co. v. Ross-Simmons Hardwood Lumber Co., 127 S. Ct. 1069 (2007) was an important development in the Supreme Court’s ongoing review of antitrust law. The Court overturned a Ninth Circuit ruling and unanimously agreed with Mayer Brown that the two-pronged Brooke Group test used in predatory-pricing cases also applies to predatory-buying claims, thus rejecting the Ninth Circuit’s more lenient standard. In Europe, we handle EU antitrust issues in the European Court of Justice, the German Federal Supreme Court, and UK appeal tribunals.
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Intellectual Property
Working together with the firm’s highly regarded IP practice, our appellate group is well qualified to handle IP matters in any forum—from the Federal Circuit and the Supreme Court in the United States to the German Federal Patent Court and the German Federal Supreme Court. Our precedent-setting victories include Illinois Tool Works Inc. v. Independent Ink, Inc. (a significant victory for all patent holders, in which the Supreme Court ruled that in all cases involving a tying arrangement the plaintiff must prove that the defendant has significant market power in the tying product), and Festo Corp. v. Shoketsu Kinozoku Kogyo Kabushiki Co. (in which the Supreme Court redefined and clarified the “doctrine of equivalents”).
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Product Liability
Our group has briefed and argued numerous cutting-edge issues in toxic tort and product liability litigation in appellate courts and the United States Supreme Court. These issues include class certification and mass consolidation matters, preemption, the standards for the admissibility of scientific evidence and punitive damages. We also regularly work with trial counsel—both from Mayer Brown and other law firms—to assist in the briefing of such issues at the trial level, as well as to assist with trial strategy.
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Environmental Litigation
High-profile Supreme Court and appellate representation is a key part of Mayer Brown’s highly regarded environmental litigation practice. For example, in South Florida Water Management District v. Miccosukee Tribe, we petitioned for certiorari on behalf of the plaintiff over opposition of the United States and we were successful in overturning the lower appellate court ruling. Mayer Brown also successfully argued on behalf of the plaintiff in Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. US Army Corps of Engineers, defeating the United States in this Clean Water Act matter.
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Arbitration
Our group frequently represent corporations, companies, partnerships, financial institutions, insurers and governmental entities before the leading international arbitration bodies. Our team has extensive experience with the international institutions that administer international arbitration and dispute settlement, including the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce, London Court of International Arbitration, the International Center for Dispute Resolution of the American Arbitration Association and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. In addition, we have extensive experience with ad hoc proceedings under the rules of, for example, the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution. We also regularly assist clients with domestic arbitration issues, both providing the legal support in arbitrations and litigating motions to compel arbitration and to confirm, modify or vacate arbitral awards in trial and appellate courts.
