Overview
Many of the largest companies in the Carolinas have entrusted their class action defense to Robinson Bradshaw, including the Southeastern Conference, Wells Fargo, Lowe's, Duke Energy, National Gypsum, SPX Technologies (formerly SPX Corp.), Family Dollar, CommScope, BB&T and Bojangles'. The subject matter has included federal and state securities claims, antitrust, ERISA, employment discrimination, claimed wage and hour violations, claims for breach of fiduciary duty, consumer finance claims, Truth-in-Lending and many others.
The firm and its litigation attorneys are recognized as leaders in the field by numerous legal publications, including Benchmark Litigation, Chambers USA, Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers.
Our Class Actions Brief blog covers class action developments in North and South Carolina. Our editors report on recent cases involving all federal and state courts in the Carolinas, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Experience
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Represented a national bank in multiple class actions in North Carolina and Georgia federal courts, the North Carolina Business Court and the North Carolina Court of Appeals. The firm secured a successful result upholding the protection provisions of a bank merger agreement, while resisting a hostile takeover bid and defending against shareholder claims.
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Represent a major national bank in defending multidistrict putative class actions alleging a $1 billion-plus Ponzi scheme, filed in various locations and centralized in the District of Massachusetts.
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Represent the Southeastern Conference in multiple national antitrust class actions filed by current and former student-athletes challenging the validity of NCAA rules related to name, image and likeness, prohibitions on pay-for-play, and claiming a right to be paid for playing in televised games. Also represent 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.
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Represent a public company in the defense of an action brought by union retirees relating to the transition from group medical and prescription drug plans to the individual Medicare marketplace.
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Obtained the dismissal of certain defendants from multiple lawsuits filed by former students of a professional school in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina and the North Carolina Business Court.
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Defended the governor of North Carolina against class action claims challenging the constitutionality of employment practices in state government. The firm obtained a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit holding that discharges of policymaking state employees were presumptively lawful.
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Represent a national health care firm with over 200,000 employees in a federal court class action alleging improper calculation of disability benefits.
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Represented a Fortune 50 national retail corporation with nearly 300,000 employees in numerous individual claimant arbitrations and 19 separate state class actions, consolidated as MDL proceedings with a nationwide collective action under the FLSA, regarding allegations of unpaid wages for hourly managers.
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Defeated a motion to certify a class of claimants seeking to recover in excess of $100 million based on defeasance of commercial loans, and secured the denial of a petition for immediate review from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
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Defeated the plaintiff’s motion to certify a class of plaintiffs seeking to recover against a national bank based on allegedly improper bank service charges. The North Carolina Superior Court denied the motion to certify the class and granted a motion to compel arbitration, and the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina dismissed the plaintiff’s subsequent federal action.
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View additional class action cases here.
