Class Actions
Class actions can pose enormous risk to a business. Since each one is unique, cookie-cutter approaches to their defense rarely succeed. Ulmer & Berne aggressively and creatively defends nationwide and statewide class actions. Our class action defense practice provides effective, comprehensive and multifaceted legal representation to major corporations, smaller businesses, institutions and individuals faced with defending class action litigation.
Our interdisciplinary approach draws upon the collective and wide-ranging expertise and experience of the firm’s attorneys across its diverse practice groups to assemble and integrate the substantive and class action experience into a client and case-centered team, which comprehensively and efficiently defends the case.
The attorneys within the class action defense practice have extensive experience litigating class action cases in state and federal courts throughout the country. We have litigated class action cases on behalf of clients in a wide range of industries, including financial services, pharmaceutical and medical devices, manufacturing, and consumer goods and services.
Our representation encompasses a broad array of substantive legal issues, including securities, investment fraud, mass and toxic torts, employment practices, consumer sales practices and advertising claims, environmental contamination, debtor/creditor rights, insurance coverage and insurance claims practices, real estate issues, Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and director and officer (D&O) liability.
Ulmer & Berne’s class action defense practice also provides advice and counsel to our clients on matters relating to class action avoidance and due diligence, landmark cases, proposed or enacted legislation, and emerging trends in class action and complex litigation.
A Class Action Was Just Filed – Now What?
A 10-Point Response Plan The company was just sued in a putative class action. Now what? The following 10-point response plan broadly outlines the initial steps to implementing a comprehensive class action defense, recognizing that there is no one-size-fits-all defense plan and each one of the steps entails sophisticated legal...
March 02, 2022
Amanda Martinsek Named to 2019 List of “Women Worth Watching” by Profiles in Diversity Journal
Ulmer & Berne LLP is pleased to share that Partner Amanda Martinsek has been named to Profiles in Diversity Journal’s 2019 list of “Women Worth Watching,” an award that energizes, inspires, and recognizes women who have demonstrated high levels of leadership. “Amanda is incredibly deserving of recognition for her dedication to...
June 26, 2019
Representative Experience
- Represented an insurance company in a nationwide class action involving the use of software to evaluate first-party claims.
- Represented a title insurance company in a federal class action involving mortgage foreclosures.
- Represented an insurance company in a state class action involving the payment of local taxes.
- Represented an insurance company in a federal class action involving the reimbursement of medical benefits.
- Represented a publicly traded company in an environmental class action involving emissions from a power plant.
- Represented several insurance companies in state class actions involving the payment of incidental benefits.
- Represented a publicly traded manufacturing company in class action claims under the federal securities laws.
- Represented several public companies in class actions in the pharmaceutical, medical device, and nutritional supplements industries.
- Represented a financial services company in class action claims under the federal securities laws.
- Represented numerous employers in class action employment and labor cases, including alleged race and gender discrimination claims (equal pay, promotion and hiring), as well as wage and hour and claims relating to the Worker Adjustment and Restraining Notification (WARN) Act.
- Represented a financial services professional in a class action which was tried for several weeks involving contract and fiduciary duty claims.
- Represented a major financial institution in class action consumer protection claims involving credit card charges.
- Represented pharmaceutical companies, a major airline, and a welding distributor in multidistrict litigation (MDL) proceedings.
- Represented a board of directors in shareholder litigation involving a merger between two financial services companies.
- Represented a building products wholesaler in class action claims under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
- Represented multiple major corporations in class actions under the Consumer Sales Practices Act.