Business Litigation & Dispute Resolution

We have represented corporations in nearly every industry, handling some of the largest and most complex commercial lawsuits and arbitrations for domestic and international clients. This experience allows us to develop the most efficient litigation strategy that meets your business objectives. Depending on your needs, we can provide complete state and federal trial and appellate representation; arbitration, mediation, and alternative dispute resolution services; and counsel and representation before administrative adjudications and in regulatory investigations and hearings.

A breach of contract lawsuit is one of the most common disputes for a business or property owner, and can arise from a written or oral partnership agreement, a purchase and sale agreement, a lease, or other business contract. We have the experience you need to negotiate, arbitrate, or take your breach of contract issue to trial. We offer an assessment of your claim and defense to help you make judicious decisions when weighing the merits of litigation versus your business objectives.

Our tax, valuation, and fiduciary litigation professionals provide international counsel and draw upon the experience of attorneys in offices throughout the United States and in Brussels, Shanghai, and Tokyo. We offer breadth of experience, high levels of skill and experience, and comprehensive risk management and dispute resolution services that produce bottom-line results in and out of the courtroom. By its nature, tax, valuation, and fiduciary litigation counsel requires a multidisciplinary approach, and our approach reflects this diversity. We count former IRS and U.S. Department of Justice Tax Division attorneys among our ranks, as well as attorneys who also are CPAs; therefore, we have the ability to represent you in a range of taxation and other specialty areas.

We represent clients like you in a variety of product liability disputes. Our knowledge of the technical aspects of your products allows us to evaluate personal injury claims and develop defenses to help you realize the best possible outcome. We have handled many precedent-setting appeals involving damage caps, recovery of punitive damages, and recovery of economic loss, and work with you to handle claims prevention, management, and defense strategy. We regularly consult with clients on product design issues, perform product liability audits, review insurance coverage, and analyze warning labels and instructions. We also provide counsel at all stages of the recall process and actively can advise you about potential litigation risks in product distribution, including risk-limiting contract language.

We offer comprehensive counsel in consumer protection, an area of law of increasing complexity and reach, and have advised and defended clients in high-profile matters before the FTC, federal and state investigations, enforcement actions, including before the Office of Civil Rights, and private and class actions based on consumer protection statutes and regulations. Our attorneys have experience in a range of key areas, including the FTC Act; false advertising matters; privacy and security; consumer class actions; and consumer financial services.

Our litigators have the skills and experience to combat the threat of class actions. It begins with an extensive knowledge of, and successful experience in, developing cutting-edge tactics. Our extensive class action work has included actions involving consumer fraud, wage and hour claims, RICO, financial services, Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), and securities, to name just a few. We are equipped to represent you in multiple jurisdictions, as our attorneys are admitted in more than two-thirds of the states and numerous federal district and appellate courts nationwide, including plaintiff-friendly states, such as California, New York, Florida, Illinois, Texas, West Virginia, and Washington.

If you find yourself facing environmental litigation, Foley attorneys will help you manage and resolve disputes involving regulatory agencies, business interests, or private plaintiffs. We will implement our multidisciplinary team approach, allowing us to help you mitigate delays, reduce costs, and minimize your risk whenever possible.

Our services include:

• Civil and criminal enforcement actions
• Environmental appellate litigation in state and federal courts
• Superfund litigation and settlement negotiations
• Cost recovery and allocation suits
• Toxic tort and nuisance claims
• Plaintiff class-action litigation
• Waste disposal and land use planning proceedings
• Permit and license proceedings
• Lobbying on local, state, and federal levels
• Participation in administrative rulemaking
• Amicus briefs
• Public and private actions for recovery of clean up costs under all environmental statutes
• Litigation over environmental indemnifications included in real estate sales
• Litigation challenging land use or zoning decisions
• Litigation to protect historic resources
• Natural resource damages litigation
• Hazardous materials transportation, including personal injury caused by the release of hazardous materials during transportation
• Challenging newly adopted environmental regulations

Generally, it is safe to say that a prudent settlement is better than prolonged and costly litigation, no matter how successful. That is why, when appropriate, we advocate the use of alternative dispute resolution methods to resolve your litigation matters quickly and efficiently, which may help to reduce the costs and delays often associated with commercial litigation. Our attorneys are experienced in all of the dimensions of ADR.

Foley brings efficiency, predictability, and consistency to the often-costly task of eDiscovery. With an array of technological tools and vast experience, we can help streamline all phases of eDiscovery, including data mapping, identification, preservation, collection, processing, review, analytics, and production. We have extensive experience with predictive coding and other forms of advanced analytics that can be leveraged in document-intensive matters. We have a dedicated team of eDiscovery attorneys and technical specialists who combine practical experience with technical knowhow to achieve optimal results. Our eDiscovery team has extensive experience interacting with IT personnel, negotiating eDiscovery protocols, conducting custodial interviews, taking/defending eDiscovery depositions, prosecuting/defending eDiscovery motions, working with forensic experts, and managing outside vendors. Our technical specialists are Relativity^® Certified Administrators, who have been thoroughly trained on all of the software’s capabilities and understand the best way to leverage the software to obtain the results you expect. We also provide Relativity^® data hosting at no cost to clients. Finally, we can help you manage your data and IT infrastructure in a way that creates efficiencies in your organization, including working with you to develop and implement companywide document retention policies.

As a value-added service, we regularly employ Litigation Support Services coordinators strategically throughout the country. At the onset of each case, Litigation Support Services members consult with you to discuss and agree upon the best use of technology (e.g., database, images, OCR, extranet, spreadsheets, and so forth) and continue to provide ongoing advice on the best practices for case management pertaining to documents and technology. They also develop, maintain, and oversee relationships with vendors and utilize volume to obtain pricing advantages. By providing services in-house, we are able to control the security and quality of our product while, throughout the life of each matter, members will work seamlessly with the trial team to deliver solutions that benefit you.

Foley’s state attorneys general (AG) team combines a broad understanding of state AGs nationwide and sophisticated litigation skills. With a former state deputy attorney general among our team members, we bring our experience both inside a large state AG office and as corporate counsel to bear for our clients. Our goals are to help clients monitor AG interests and intervene before concerns escalate; to effectively engage AGs and key staff on behalf of clients facing investigations, including multi-state actions; and to realize the best outcome for our clients to resolve matters through settlement or if necessary through litigation.

Areas in which we counsel clients include:

• Consumer protection. The UDAAP attorneys on our AG team maintain the pulse on the latest trends and changes in the law, anticipating problems before they arise. We take action to persuade and, as necessary, to defend against state AG enforcement actions.
• Financial services. Our attorneys have significant experience with regulatory and enforcement issues in the financial services and mortgage industries, including AG authority derived from the Dodd-Frank Act, the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) regulations.
• Health care. By collaborating with members of our Health Care Industry Team, we help clients manage health-care-related mergers requiring state AG review, Medicaid fraud enforcement, health care false claims, and guidance concerning the Affordable Care Act.
• Privacy. Along with our experienced Privacy, Security & Information Management Practice members, our attorneys assist clients with cyber-security compliance analysis, counsel on state AG interests and actions, and engage with state AGs should client privacy policies or security measures come under scrutiny.
• Antitrust. Our attorneys are experienced in a broad spectrum of industries and can counsel, persuade, and litigate as necessary to protect our clients’ interests.
• Securities enforcement. Our experienced attorneys represent clients in a variety of industries who have been targeted by those state AGs with securities enforcement authority.
• Amicus briefs. Our attorneys, including a former state solicitor general, have the experience to position, draft, and gain amici support from state AGs.
• Federalism. As industries come under increasing regulation on the federal and state levels, our attorneys have engaged state AGs on significant constitutional matters addressing preemption, powers, and the proper roles of the federal government and the states.