CLASS ACTION LITIGATION DEFENSE
K&L Gates has successfully defended clients of the firm against enterprisethreatening class actions brought under a broad range of legal theories and
substantive areas of the law. Firm lawyers have represented Fortune 500
companies, financial institutions, mortgage lenders, investment companies,
broker-dealers, public companies, nonprofits, municipalities, limited
partnerships, and law firms, as well as their owners, officers, directors, and
partners, in class actions brought around the globe. Based on interviews
with hundreds of corporate counsel, BTI Consulting Group’s 2014 Litigation
Outlook survey ranked K&L Gates among those at the top of the list and a
“Powerhouse” in Class Action Litigation and Securities and Finance Litigation.
We’ve defended major class actions brought
in state and federal courts in nearly all
of the United States and in Australia,
the United Kingdom, Taiwan, and other
jurisdictions. We are uniquely positioned
to defend local, national, and global
companies in class actions wherever they
may arise, and to manage the complexities
posed by simultaneous litigations in
multiple venues, including concurrent
regulatory and civil proceedings. Our class
action practice also takes us before many
appellate courts, in the United States and
elsewhere, to defend the denial of class
certification or the dismissal of claims in our
clients’ favor.
Areas of Practice
Consumer Financial Services/
Mortgage Banking
Lawyers in the firm’s Financial Institutions
and Services Litigation Practice Group regularly defend banking, mortgage lending,
and consumer financial service institutions
in consumer class action litigation. The
firm has represented clients in putative
national, state, and multi-state classes
involving claims under federal statutes
such as the Fair Housing Act, Equal Credit
Opportunity Act, Real Estate Settlement
Procedures Act, Truth in Lending Act, Fair
Debt Collection Practices Act, Fair Credit
Reporting Act, Credit Repair Organizations
Act, Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions
Act, and Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
BTI Consulting Group’s 2014 Litigation Outlook survey ranked
K&L Gates among those at the top of the list and a “Powerhouse”
in Class Action Litigation and Securities and Finance Litigation.
Organizations Act, among others. The group
also includes lawyers, based primarily in
Washington, D.C., who specialize in regulatory and compliance issues.
The firm also represents clients against 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,
as well as common law claims. Representative engagements include:
•Representing residential mortgage
lending trade associations as amici
curiae in fair lending class actions
under review by the United States
Supreme Court. These cases raise the
question whether the Fair Housing Act,
42 U.S.C. § 3601, et seq., recognizes
a disparate-impact theory of discrimination, and if so, the appropriate standard and burden of proof applicable to
such claims.
•Defending national mortgage loan
servicers in class actions, pending in
federal and state courts around the
country, alleging that the servicers
did not live up to alleged contractual
obligations arising from federal loan
modification programs.
•Defending national mortgage loan
servicers in class actions alleging
violations of the Fair Debt Collection
Practices Act and state unfair and
deceptive acts and practices statutes.
The cases address, among other
issues, the use of third-party vendors
to assist in loss mitigation efforts.
•Defending banks against RICO and qui
tam claims alleging that fees charged
at closing exceeded those allowed by
Department of Veterans Affairs guidelines for the types of refinancing loans
at issue.
Securities and Derivative Suits
K&L Gates has a long record of success
defending large publicly held securities
issuers, investment companies, investment
advisory firms, underwriters, large and
small brokerage firms, and venture capital
firms, as well as the officers and directors
of these organizations, in shareholder 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. Representative
engagements include:
•Defending investment companies and
investment advisers against purported
breach of fiduciary claims, including
claims arising from the failure of the
auction rate securities market and
from the exposure of fund shareholders to trading by market timers. These
cases led to groundbreaking rulings
under the Securities Litigation Uniform
Standards Act, including a decision by
the U.S. Supreme Court.
•Defending a diverse range of publicly
held corporations, officers and directors, that have been named as defendants in securities class actions, often
arising from financial restatements and
involving complex accounting issues.
•Defending Wall Street and regional
brokerage and investment firms in
class actions based on a wide range of
allegations, including failure to reinvest
mutual fund dividends held in customers’ IRA accounts and facilitating
unlawful market timing and late trading
of mutual fund shares.
•Defending shareholder actions arising
from the sale or acquisition of businesses, including suits challenging the
adequacy of deal terms and processes.
•Defending investment advisers against
“excessive fee” claims brought under
Section 36(b) of the Investment
Company Act of 1940.
Products Liability/
Antitrust/Trade Regulation
Consumer Protection
K&L Gates lawyers have defended clients in
class actions involving asserted violations of
Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, the
Robinson-Patman Act, and RICO, as well
as state unfair trade practice statutes based
on claims of price fixing and other forms of
collusion, price discrimination, monopolization, and life insurance sales practices.
Representative engagements include:
K&L Gates lawyers have extensive experience defending clients in class actions
asserting claims under consumer protection
laws, including statutes imposing severe
penalties for what was once accepted
commercial behavior. The firm also defends
clients against claims relating to allegedly
defective products, breach of warranty
claims, claims for false or misleading
advertising, failure to disclose, misrepresentations of purpose or use, inadequate
service or support, and other consumer
fraud-based theories. In addition, we have
experience defending consumer protection
actions for damages while also defending
parallel government enforcement proceedings. Representative engagements include:
•Defending a manufacturer of decking
material in an alleged nationwide
class action, and multiple statewide
class actions, claiming violations of
the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and
state consumer protection statutes
relating to alleged product defects.
•Defending an internet service provider against a claim under the Truth
in Lending Act and state consumer
protection act claims challenging the
bundling of internet services with computers sold via an infomercial.
•Defending a major franchisor against
enterprise-threatening claims brought
under the Telephone Consumer
Protection Act.
•Defending a major drug manufacturer
in opposing certification of a nationwide consumer class action alleging a
failure to warn of potential health risks
posed by a nonprescription drug.
•Defending a software company against
a putative nationwide class action
claiming consumer protection act violations for an alleged practice relating
to automatic software updates.
•Defending a U.S. manufacturer of
carbon fiber in a grand jury investigation and follow-on class action litigation
alleging price fixing.
•Representing a manufacturer of
foundry resins in multidistrict antitrust
class action litigation alleging price
fixing and abuse of monopsony power.
•Defending a pharmacy benefits
manager before the Judicial Panel
on Multidistrict Litigation and in its
defense of class action antitrust claims
including tying, monopolization and
price fixing brought on behalf of over
25,000 retail pharmacists.
•Defending class actions in U.S.
federal and state courts relating
to alleged illegal price fixing in the
setting of fuel surcharges for international cargo flights.
We’ve defended major class actions brought in state and federal courts in
nearly all of the United States and in Australia, the United Kingdom, Taiwan,
and other jurisdictions.
Wage and Hour
K&L Gates lawyers regularly defend corporate and municipal clients in wage and hour
and wage payment class actions, including
putative national, international, multi-state,
and state classes, sometimes involving
potential classes of hundreds of thousands
of employees and alleged damages in the
billions of dollars. These actions 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.
Representative engagements include:
•Defending a national retailer against
FLSA and state-law claims for meal
and rest period violations and other
off-the-clock work issues brought on
behalf of a putative class of some
2,000 pharmacists across the country.
The federal court granted our motion
for summary judgment and denied
plaintiffs’ motions for Section 216(b)
notice and Rule 23 class certification
as moot.
•Defending a national manufacturer of
household and industrial equipment
against representative claims under the
FLSA covering a putative class of up
to 15,000 employees seeking unpaid
overtime for time passing through
security measures, donning and doffing
personal protective equipment, and
reporting to their workstations.
•Defending a state government agency
in a U.S. Department of Labor enforcement action for failure to properly track
time and pay overtime to approximately
2,000 state social workers. Although
the state had a bargaining agreement
with the social workers providing for
overtime and had never claimed them
as exempt, we established that they
qualified for the professional exemption.
Employment
K&L Gates defends employment class
actions for corporate and municipal clients,
including high-stakes adverse treatment
and adverse impact discrimination class
actions involving race, gender, age, and/
or disability issues, and hiring, promotion,
discipline, harassment, and/or discharge
claims. Firm lawyers also are experienced
defending 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. Representative engagements include:
Telecom/Media/Technology
K&L Gates lawyers are experienced in
defending telecom, media, and technology
clients in consumer class action litigation,
and have represented clients in putative
nationwide and state class actions in federal
courts around the country involving issues
arising under the federal Communications Act, the federal Computer Fraud and
Abuse 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 engagements include:
•Defending a major on-line retailer in a
putative nationwide class action alleging violation of the Computer Fraud
and Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1030, et
seq., and consumer protection laws for
purported misuse of website visitors’
personal information.
•Defending a chemical company against
a class action asserting national origin
discrimination claims under Title VII,
coupled with claims of FLSA violations
against the protected class.
•Defending a major wireless carrier
in a putative nationwide class action
alleging violation of California’s
Consumer Legal Remedies Act,
Civil Code § 1750, and California’s
Unfair Competition Law, Business &
Professions Code § 17200, arising
from the alleged transmission of text
messages in connection with purportedly illegal lotteries.
•Defending a retailer against EEOC class
claims of age discrimination in the hiring
and retention of its sales staff. After
extensive investigation and negotiation,
the matter was settled for a nuisance
amount and an agreement to implement
more standardized hiring procedures.
•Defending a major wireless carrier
in a putative nationwide class action
alleging violation of the federal
Communications Act for purportedly
charging customers for unsolicited
text messages, including unsolicited
premium text messages.
•Defending a major public transportation
authority in an EEOC class action under
the Equal Pay Act and the ADEA.
•Defending a major wireless carrier in a
putative class action alleging violation
of a state tax code and state unfair and
deceptive acts and practices statute
in connection with the structuring of
wireless services rates.
•Defending a health system against a
class action complaint alleging various
ERISA and COBRA violations, retaliatory
discharge and breach of contract claims.
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Learn more about our Class Action Litigation Defense practice at klgates.com.
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locations, practices and registrations, visit www.klgates.com.
This publication is for informational purposes and does not contain or convey legal advice. The information herein should not be used or relied upon in regard
to any particular facts or circumstances without first consulting a lawyer.
©2014 K&L Gates LLP. All Rights Reserved.