More than a dozen class actions are filed in U.S. federal district courts every business day, and similar collective actions are beginning to take hold in Europe and Asia as well. Against this onslaught, K&L Gates’ unparalleled class action defense team represents Fortune 500 companies, financial institutions, mortgage lenders, investment companies, broker-dealers, public companies, non-profits, municipalities, limited partnerships and law firms, as well as their owners, officers, directors and partners, in class action litigation brought under federal, state and non-U.S. laws. Our class action defense lawyers are organized into teams specializing in particular areas of substantive law under which class actions are brought. We thus combine our command of the rules and procedures governing class action litigation with an in-depth knowledge of the substantive areas of the law involved. Our goal is to provide our clients with the best and most cost efficient class action defense possible.
Our ability to defend nationwide class actions is enhanced by the geographic diversity of our offices and the resources we can bring to bear in large class action litigation. K&L Gates’ class action defense teams include lawyers in the majority of our U.S. offices, as well as in Europe and Asia. We have handled cases involving potential classes of hundreds of thousands of individuals and alleged damages in the billions of dollars brought in numerous federal and state courts and other tribunals. We have handled class or collective actions on three continents, including lawsuits in nearly all of the United States and in the United Kingdom, Taiwan and other foreign jurisdictions. Our class action practice also takes us before many appellate courts, in the United States and elsewhere, often to defend the denial of class certification or the dismissal of claims in our clients’ favor.
One of K&L Gates’ unique class action capabilities is the firm’s e-DAT (e- Discovery and Analysis and Technology) practice group. e-DAT uses a combination of cutting-edge technology, specially trained discovery lawyers, and proven business processes to review and produce electronic and hard copy documents, often in a fraction of the time and at a much lower cost than traditional review methods. Given the potentially significant size of discovery in class action matters, we work hard to minimize the economic and operational impact of the discovery process on our clients' operations.
We defend class actions in a broad range of substantive areas, including the following:
Consumer Finance/Mortgage Banking
K&L Gates lawyers regularly defend banking, mortgage lending and consumer financial service institutions in consumer class action litigation. K&L Gates has represented banks, mortgage banks, mortgage loan servicers and other consumer financial service institutions in putative national classes as well as state and multi-state classes. These cases have involved claims against financial institutions under federal statutes such as the Fair Housing Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, the Truth in Lending Act (including the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act and the Consumer Leasing Act), the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Credit Repair Organizations Act, and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, as well as state statutory law claims (including state unfair and deceptive acts and practices statutes, California Business and Professions Code § 17200, state motor vehicle sales finance acts and state statutory analogs to the various federal consumer protection statutes) and common law claims.
Securities And Derivative Suits
K&L Gates lawyers are nationally recognized for their experience and successes in the defense of securities fraud litigation. This experience spans the history of private securities fraud litigation, dating from the successful representation of a national accounting firm in what is believed to have been the first Rule 10b-5 class action ever to be tried to a conclusion, to the recent dismissal of what is believed to be the first securities class action brought against an issuer of auction rate securities. Many of the cases handled by the firm’s lawyers have been multi-district or national class actions. K&L Gates litigators have had frequent success in obtaining the dismissal of putative class action complaints, defeating motions for class certification, and limiting the scope of alleged class periods.
K&L Gates lawyers regularly defend clients including publicly held corporations, investment companies, investment advisory firms, underwriters, stock exchanges, large and small brokerage firms, and venture capital firms, as well as the officers and directors of these organizations, in class actions and derivative suits. In addition to claims under the federal securities laws, these cases often involve common law claims alleging negligence, fraud and breach of fiduciary duty. Increasingly, class actions that at one time might have been brought under the federal securities laws are being brought in state court as purported common law claims for negligence or breach of fiduciary duty, and K&L Gates litigators have been at the forefront of developments in the law permitting the removal of such claims to federal court and the ultimate dismissal of the claims.
Environmental/Toxic Tort
K&L Gates lawyers have defended clients in class actions involving allegations arising from oil spills, gas pipeline leaks, chemical waste discharge, toxic spills from train derailments, lead paint, PCB and petroleum hydrocarbon contamination, vinyl chloride contamination, landfill contamination and contaminated vaccines. K&L Gates lawyers have defended environmental/toxic tort class actions based on state and federal laws, state unfair trade practices and consumer protection acts, the common law of negligence, nuisance and trespass. Relief sought in these cases has included damages for property losses, diminution of property value, emotional distress and personal injury, including fear of cancer, medical monitoring, and increased risk of disease.
Consumer Protection/Products Liability
K&L Gates lawyers have extensive experience defending our clients in class actions asserting claims under consumer protection laws, including statutes imposing severe penalties for what was once accepted commercial behavior, such as the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act. We also defend clients against claims relating to defective products, breach of warranty, false or misleading advertising, failure to disclose, misrepresentations of purpose or use, inadequate service or support, and other consumer fraud issues. In addition, we have experience in defending consumer protection actions for damages while also defending parallel government enforcement proceedings.
Antitrust/Trade Regulation
K&L Gates lawyers have defended clients in class actions involving alleged violations of sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, the Robinson-Patman Act, RICO, and the federal
Telephone Consumer Protection Act, as well as state unfair trade practice statutes based on claims of price fixing, other forms of collusion, price discrimination, monopolization and life insurances sales practices.
Employment/Wage And Hour
K&L Gates lawyers regularly defend our corporate and municipal clients in a broad range of wage and hour and wage payment class actions. These cases have included putative national, international, multi-state and state classes; potential classes of hundreds of thousands of employees; and alleged damages in the billions of dollars. These matters include off-the-clock work claims; overtime claims; challenges to exempt status; claims for employee status and benefits by temporary workers, third-party contract workers, independent contractors and volunteers; and technical claims for violations of meal and rest period, termination pay, wage payment and wage deduction requirements. Our extensive class action litigation experience, when combined with our substantive knowledge in the wage and hour and wage payment areas, enables our lawyers to anticipate issues, to identify and raise arcane defenses that other counsel may miss, and to think strategically to avoid or minimize the potential problems these actions present.
Employment
K&L Gates lawyers have defended a broad range of employment class actions for our corporate and municipal clients. In addition to our extensive wage and hour and wage payment experience, we have handled high-stakes adverse treatment and adverse impact discrimination class actions involving race, gender, age and/or disability issues, and hiring, promotions, discipline, harassment and/or discharge claims. We also have substantial experience with class claims for retaliation, breach of contract, entitlement to benefits, violations of the WARN Act, violations of ERISA, payment of prevailing wages and other employment-related claims. When defending these matters, we involve employment counselors who understand the nuances of the law, the emotional nature of these claims and the needs of the workplace. We use our extensive class action experience and our substantive knowledge in the employment arena to advance our clients’ interests in the litigation and the workplace.
Telecom
K&L Gates lawyers have extensive experience in defending telecom clients in consumer class action litigation. K&L Gates has represented telecom clients in putative nationwide and state class actions in federal courts around the country. These actions concern issues arising under the federal Communications Act, state unfair and deceptive acts and practices statutes, state business tax statutes, and breach of contract and other common law theories of recovery. Representative actions include disputes over the disclosure of line items on customer invoices, disputes over text messaging charges, and alleged violations of the number porting regulations promulgated by the Federal Communications Commission. We also have experience in defending civil actions brought against telecom clients by state lawyers general for alleged violations of state unfair and deceptive acts and practices statutes.
Other Class Actions
K&L Gates lawyers also have defended our clients against class action claims in a broad assortment of other substantive areas of the law, including claims involving insurance coverage, taxes, claims against local governments, healthcare and intellectual property, among others.