Robert W. Fuller

Corporate, Class Action & Commercial Litigation

• Represents individual defendants in three cases pending in North Carolina Federal Court defending contract and voidable transfer claims challenging dividends received by the individuals, in which the plaintiff is seeking recovery of over $200 million. See FS Medical Supplies LLC v. Tanner Pharma UK Ltd., 2025 WL 2794502 (W.D.N.C. 2025) (dismissing two of the three cases).
• Represents a major public company in a CPR arbitration in Chicago with a supplier in which the amount at issue totals over $100 million.
• Represents a privately held conglomerate that is pursuing pre-arbitration claims (Delaware) against a rep and warranty insurance carrier in connection with an acquisition of a business primarily located in France. The amount at issue is in the tens of millions of dollars.
• Represents the Southeastern Conference in multiple federal actions filed against the NCAA and the autonomy conferences challenging restrictions on compensation to student-athletes (including Alston, House, Hubbard, Fontenot and related cases filed in Oakland, California, and Denver, Colorado, in the past decade). The House and Hubbard cases were settled in 2025 for $2.7 billion and future injunctive relief. The settlement is now on appeal, with over 300 plaintiffs who opted out of the settlement pursuing individual claims in the Fontenot action in Denver. See, e.g., In re NCAA Grant-in-Aid Cap Antitrust Litig. (Alston), 958 F.3d 1239, 1247 (9th Cir. 2020); In re College Athlete NIL Litigation (House/Hubbard), 2025 WL 1675820 (N.D. Cal. 2025).
• Represents law firms defending various alleged malpractice and aiding/abetting actions. See, e.g., Zloop Inc. v. Parker Poe Adams and Bernstein LLP, 2018 WL 943954 (N.C. Bus. Ct. 2018).
• Represents the Southeastern Conference in 11 "single-school, single-sport" putative class actions (MDL centralization in Illinois) filed by former football student-athletes related to concussions in college sports, securing dismissals in nine of the 11 actions, to date. See In re NCAA Student-Athlete Concussion Injury Litigation – Single Sport/Single School (Football), 2023 WL 6461232 (N.D. Ill. 2023); Richardson v. Southeastern Conference, 612 F. Supp.3d 753 (N.D. Ill. 2020).
• Represented the Southeastern Conference and acted as lead counsel for the college conference defendants in the District Court and the Sixth Circuit in Marshall v. ESPN, et al., 111 F. Supp. 3d 815, 825 (M.D. Tenn. 2015) aff’d 668 Fed. App’x 155 (6th Cir. 2016) (holding that televising a sports contests requires no release of publicity/NIL rights of participants).
• Represented Wachovia, which arranged multiple financings for a defunct entity, in defending numerous suits in New York, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh filed by bondholders, senior secured lenders, a bond trustee and a liquidating trustee in bankruptcy. See, e.g., Manufacturers and Traders Trust Co. v. Wachovia Capital Markets LLC, 2010 WL 1541683 (W.D. Pa. 2010); In re Le-Nature’s Inc., 2009 WL 3526569 (W.D. Pa. 2009); Harbinger Capital Partners Master Fund I Ltd. v. Wachovia Capital Markets LLC, 2008 WL 3925175 (S.D.N.Y. 2009); Wachovia Bank N.A. v. Harbinger Capital Partners Master Fund I Ltd., 2007 WL 2690165 (N.C. Super. 2007).
• Represented Wachovia in defending dozens of tax strategy cases and responding to multiple governmental investigations concerning the tax strategies, including one action that made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court on a jurisdictional issue (argued there by a Supreme Court practitioner, with briefs prepared by RBH). See, e.g., Wachovia Bank N.A., v. Schmidt, 546 U.S. 303 (2006); Puckett v. KPMG LLP, 2007 WL 1200825 (W.D.N.C. 2007).
• Represented multiple hospital systems in defending putative class actions alleging systemic patient overcharges, with no class actions certified to date. See, e.g., Gleason v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority, 2020 WL 10147049 (N.C. Super. 2020), 2021 WL 2561505 (N.C. Super. 2021), 284 N.C. App. 205 (2022); Hefner v. Mission Hospital, 2016 WL 797426 (N.C. Bus. Ct. 2016).
• Represented numerous parties in corporate merger and acquisition litigation, including Wachovia in the Wachovia/Wells Fargo merger litigation in 2008 and First Union in the First Union/Wachovia/Sun Trust merger litigation in 2001 (in both the primary litigation and in a number of satellite claims by disaffected shareholders in both cases), as well as sponsors and companies in going-private litigation. See, e.g., In re Pike Corp. Shareholder Litig., 2015 WL 5918183 (N.C. Bus. Ct. 2015); Ehrenhaus v. Baker, 2008 WL 5124899 (N.C. Bus. Ct. 2008), 216 N.C. App. 59 (2011); In re PPDI Litigation, 2021 WL 1912420 (N.C. Bus. Ct. 2012); Rivers v. Wachovia Corp. 665 F.2d 610 (4th Cir. 2011); Harris v. Wachovia Corp., 2011 WL 1679625 (N.C. Bus. Ct. 2011); Browne v. Thompson, 2011 WL 1675000 (N.C. Bus. Ct. 2011); In re Wachovia Shareholders Litigation, 607 S.E.2d 48 (N.C. App. 2005); First Union Corp. v. SunTrust Banks Inc., 2001 WL 1885686 (N.C. Bus. Ct. 2001).
• Successfully defended putative class action seeking recovery for alleged defeasance overcharges. Avalon Center Inv. Co. v. Commercial Defeasance LLC, 2010 WL 2176072 (W.D.N.C. 2010).
• Prevailed in a tax refund case in which the IRS challenged an alleged tax shelter for lack of economic substance, setting precedent for tax refunds in future years approximating $100 million. Duke Energy v. United States, 49 F. Supp.2d 837 (W.D.N.C. 1999).
• Litigated various fiduciary matters, including claims involving administration of trusts and estates, many of which (including one trial to verdict) have been resolved without opinions. See, e.g., Morris v. E.A. Morris Charitable Foundation, 161 N.C. App. 673, 589 S.E.2d 414 (2003); Morris v. Thomas, 161 N.C. App. 680, 589 S.E.2d 419 (2003).

Construction Litigation

• Represented the EPC contractor for a 62 MW Hydro Turbine Generator installed at the Rainbow Redevelopment Project in Great Falls, Montana, in litigation with the owner of the project concerning extra work, design, acceleration and other related claims.
• Represented the general contractor for a large Orlando, Florida, resort hotel project in litigation with the owner and several dozen subcontractors concerning delays, design defects and extra work claims.
• Tried and arbitrated numerous construction disputes, including two cases concerning powerplant construction defects and delays, a case concerning construction of a liquified natural gas storage facility.
• Handled dozens of cases filed against contractors alleging that exterior synthetic stucco systems at high-rise beach condominiums were defectively installed, which typically included design professional defendants and subcontractors as third-party defendants.

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