Practice Areas: Class Action

The plaintiffs’ bar is increasing its use of complex, multijurisdiction class action litigation as a primary weapon against target companies. For individual plaintiffs, the risks involved in such litigation are relatively low; for defendants in these large-scale cases, the threat can be enormous.

The lawyers of McGuireWoods’ Class Action Litigation practice have the skills, resources and decades of experience necessary to manage and defend these large-scale cases. We understand class action litigation inside and out; in fact, as leaders in this arena, we maintain the highly regarded Class Action Countermeasures blog and one of our lawyers is the author of The Class Action Playbook (Oxford University Press, 2010), a new standard reference for class action defense. A number of our team members are listed among the top practitioners in Chambers USA and Best Lawyers in America, and have been profiled in legal and business publications such as Virginia Business, Business North Carolina, Law & Politics and more.

From our offices across the United States and in Europe, we serve as national counsel and first-chair trial lawyers, helping clients conclude high-profile and mission-critical litigation as quickly and favorably as possible. Through our proprietary Early Case Assessment (ECA) process, we provide clients with the information required to determine the most effective course of action, whether through settlement, alternative dispute resolution or, when necessary, in federal district, state lower courts, appellate or supreme courts.

Our document collection and discovery processes are among the most sophisticated and efficient available today. We have made a significant investment in the technology and infrastructure required to manage high-document-volume cases, and maintain two offsite e-discovery facilities that together can accommodate the work of hundreds of reviewers simultaneously. We have developed numerous best practices that have been tested and refined through direct application to client matters, all of which contribute to reduced client costs, improved efficiency and minimal exposure to discovery-related error.

We represent clients and groups of clients from all major economic sectors, including food and agricultural products, pharmaceuticals, financial services and securities, and retail, among others. We have won summary judgment in numerous employment, employee benefits and ERISA class actions; have obtained favorable verdicts in some of the largest mass tort and products liability matters in the United States; and have a strong record of success in shareholder derivative suits and securities class actions, including representation of director and officer defendants, accounting defendants and broker-dealer defendants.