INDUSTRIES & PRACTICES

winning strategies

Commercial Litigation
WINNING CASES FOR MORE THAN A CENTURY.

Overview

No business welcomes conflict, but when disputes do arise, trying – and winning – cases is in our DNA. More than 75 attorneys in our Commercial Litigation Group represent clients in cases involving complex commercial disputes, the UCC, business torts, and virtually any other business conflict. We handle cases ranging from billion dollar disputes to matters of principle.

The skill, experience, and judgment that our attorneys bring to trials also make our Group highly effective in winning dismissals and summary judgments, obtaining favorable settlements, and finding creative solutions for matters of all sizes and degrees of complexity.

We try dozens of cases each year before judges, juries, and arbitrators, and our successes have been noted. U.S. News – Best Lawyers ranked us as a Tier 1 firm for our Commercial Litigation practice.

Our litigation group members practice in a wide range of areas.  To see the variety of industries and disciplines of our core group members' practice, click here.

Litigation can produce an astonishing number of documents – email messages, word processing files, spreadsheets, legal agreements, memos – as an ever greater number of computer users leave an endlessly expanding trail of electronic records. And improved storage capacity means those records may well be kept indefinitely. LegalMine™, our e-discovery service, offers our clients a powerful tool to review huge amounts of documents efficiently, thoroughly, and accurately. This is a critical in-house tool – and an advantage we have over many of our competitors – through which we help our clients effectively manage costs.

Global Reach + -

Experience

Representative Matters
Whether a case involves a courtroom or arbitration, our Commercial Litigation group can represent clients on a cost-effective basis. For a list of our core Commercial Litigation group members and the wide range of their practice areas, click here. A small sample of the hundreds of cases we have handled includes:

  • City of Minot v. Cypress Development, LLC, No. 51-2018-CV-00518 (District Court, Ward County, North Central Jud. Dist. July 23, 2021) No. 300. (secured a $2.4 million unanimous jury award for the City of Minot and rejection of the concessionaire's $50 million claim in North Dakota State Court in one of the first public-private partnership cases to be tried to a jury in the United States)
  • Xenia Rural Water Dist. v. City of Johnston, 2021 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 54, 2021 WL 1822780 (Iowa May 7, 2021) (state supreme court response to questions certified by U.S. district court regarding territorial dispute between municipal water utility and rural water district)
  • Spinner Consulting LLC v. Stone Point Capital LLC, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 10477; 2021 WL 1382809 (2d Cir. Apr. 13, 2021), aff’g 623 B.R. 671; 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 181942 (D. Conn. Sep. 30, 2020) (counsel for defendant Stone Point Capital LLC, in dismissing antitrust claims under Sec. 1 of the Sherman Act and the antitrust laws of both CA and CT)
  • Recovery Fund II USA LLC v. Rabobank, N.A., et al., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17395; 2020 WL 509166 (D. Del. Jan. 31, 2020) (counsel for defendants, Bankruptcy Management Solutions, Inc., the largest provider of software services to Chapter 7 trustees, and its CEO, in dismissing, with prejudice, plaintiff’s class action complaint alleging RICO, fraud, and numerous other claims); 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 94065; 2020 WL 2784080 (D. Del. May 29, 2020) (awarding defendants attorneys’ fees as a sanction against plaintiff for filing a frivolous claim.)
  • Spinner Consulting LLC v. Bankruptcy Management Solutions, Inc., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 65 (3d Cir., Jan. 3, 2020), aff'g 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98577 (D. N.J., Jun. 12, 2019) (counsel for defendant, the largest provider of software services to Chapter 7 trustees, in dismissing plaintiff's class action complaint alleging price-fixing under §1 of the Sherman Act.)
  • Charych v. Siriusware, Inc., 790 Fed. Appx. 299 (2d Cir. Nov. 4, 2019) (counsel for appellees SKIDATA AG and SKIDATA, Inc., manufacturers of RFID-based ski lift access gate products, in obtaining affirmance of dismissal with prejudice of antitrust claims, with costs, for failure to allege anticompetitive conduct.)
  • Money Mailer, LLC v. Brewer, 2019 Wash. LEXIS 585; 2019 WL 4508353 (Sup. Ct. Wash. Sep. 19, 2019) (en banc).  Represented national franchisor  Money Mailer before the Supreme Court of Washington, which favorably interpreted that the language “fair and reasonable price” in the Washington Franchise Investment Protection Act is based on what prudent franchisors and franchisees in similar circumstances would regard as an appropriate price.
  • McGarry & McGarry, LLC v. Bankruptcy Management Solutions, Inc., 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 110264; 2018 WL 3218659 (N.D. Ill., July 2, 2018), aff'd, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 26764; 2019 WL 4197546 (7th Cir., Sep. 5, 2019); 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 93133; 2017-1 Trade Cas. (CCH) P 80,029; 2017 WL 2619143 (N.D. Ill., Jun. 16, 2017) (counsel for defendant, the largest provider of software services to Chapter 7 trustees, in dismissing plaintiff’s class action complaints alleging claims under §1 of the Sherman Act and 740 ILCS 10/3, the Illinois Antitrust Act price-fixing provision.)
  • Slater & Gordon (UK) 1 Ltd. v. Watchstone Group Plc (Defending a listed public company in a high profile £637 million claim for fraudulent misrepresentation and breach of warranty arising out of a sale of a number of its operating subsidiaries.)
  • Seattle Times Co. v. LEATHERCARE, Inc. v. Touchstone SLU LLC, No. 2:15-cv-1901-TSZ (W.D. Wash. 2018) (Dorsey was lead trial counsel for TB TS/RELP LLC (joint venture between Touchstone Development Partners and USAA Real Estate) in a month-long federal bench trial against the Seattle Times and an industrial drycleaner regarding environmental contamination.  Our client secured a complete victory and was awarded millions of dollars in remediation damages.)
  • Otello Corporation ASA v. Moore Frères & Company and Last Lion Holdings Limited [2018] EWHC 2347 (Ch) (represented listed Norwegian software company Otello in its successful High Court action arising from Moore Frères & Co’s attempts to block Otello from selling its minority shareholding interest in Last Lion Holdings Limited for $53 million.)
  • Kedrowski v. Lycoming Engines, 933 N.W.2d 45 (Minn. 2019). Lead counsel for defendant airplane pump manufacturer in post-trial motions and appeal following $28 Million jury award for plaintiff, the third biggest personal injury award in Minnesota state history. As a result of post-trial motions, jury verdict on liability was overturned, and the state Supreme Court affirmed a new trial order.
  • Thomas A. Berg, et al. v. Honeywell Int'l, Inc.,740 F. App'x 535 (9th Cir. 2018), aff'g 226 F. Supp. 3d 962 (D. Alaska 2016) (lead counsel for Honeywell in federal False Claims Act qui tam suit; summary judgment granted on all claims; affirmed by the Ninth Circuit.)
  • Bay Side Recycling et al. v. SKB Environmental et al. (Henn. Co. Dist. Ct., MN) (Lead trial counsel for solid waste disposal company in 3 1/2-week jury trial; jury verdict for defendants on all claims in May 2018.)
  • Global Access Investment Advisor LLC, et ano. v. Oscar Lopes, et al., 2017 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2150 (Sup. Ct., N.Y. Co., May 31, 2017) (counsel for defendant, Banif (Cayman), Ltd., a subsidiary of a large Portuguese banking group, dismissing all claims against it, including aiding and abetting a conversion of funds.)
  • Larson v. Gannett Co., 915 N.W.2d 485 (Minn. Ct. App. 2018) (Ground-breaking First Amendment trial involving claims of defamation against NBC affiliate and newspaper of general circulation by private citizen mistakenly arrested for the murder of a police officer in a small MN town.  The case involves the applicability of the fair report privilege, First Amendment protection of the press, and issues relating to common law defamation under Minnesota law.  Jury verdict in favor of media clients; reversed by judge in post-trial order and set for new trial; new trial order now on appeal.)
  • Midbrook Flowerbulbs Holland B.V. v. Holland Am. Bulb Farms, Inc., 874 F.3d 604, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 21172, 98 Fed. R. Serv. 3d (Callaghan) 1623, 2017 WL 4799263 (9th Cir. 2017) (Lead appellate counsel for Dutch agricultural company in multimillion dollar international contract dispute involving meaning of “due process” in connection with the enforcements of foreign country judgments. Judgment for client affirmed.)
  • B & R Supermarket, Inc. v. Visa, Inc., 2016 WL 5725100 (N.D. Cal. Sep. 30, 2016) (As lead counsel for national bank in suit alleging price-fixing conspiracy related to credit card security chips, we obtained the dismissal of all claims against our client.)
  • SymQuest Group, Inc. v. Canon U.S.A., Inc., No. 15 CV 4200, 2016 WL 2855501 (E.D.N.Y. May 16, 2016) (Lead counsel to defendant business equipment supplier in action alleging that supplier's failure to provide spare parts, consumable supplies and online tech+B22:B25nical support to dealer acquired by competitor breached dealer agreement and tortiously interfered with dealer's customer contracts; motion for preliminary injunction denied and motion to dismiss granted.)
  • Collins v. U.S. Bank, N.A., No. 2:14-cv-07726-ODW, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13413 (C.D. Cal. Feb. 3, 2015) (As counsel for U.S. Bank in class action lawsuit brought under California Business & Professions Code 17200, et seq., we obtained the dismissal of all claims stemming from the purchase of forced hazard insurance.)
  • Simmons v. Author Solutions LLC, 2015 WL 4002243 (S.D.N.Y. Jul. 1, 2015) (Dorsey acted as counsel for defendant, the supported self-publication industry leader, and its parent, Penguin Group (USA) LLC, defeating plaintiffs’ motion seeking to certify a large nationwide class and state subclasses of authors regarding claims of deceptive trade practices.)
  • Nissan of North Olmsted v. Nissan North America, Inc., 38 N.E.3d 500; 2015 WL 3963958 (Ct. App. Ohio 2015) (Lead counsel for defendant Nissan in add-point dispute. Plaintiff’s claims dismissed, affirmed on appeal.)
  • Webster v. United States, 784 F.3d 1123 (7th Cir. 2015)(en banc) (successfully argued ground-breaking habeas case on behalf of federal death row prisoner.)
  • Penguin Group (USA) Inc. v. Time/Warner Retail Sales & Marketing Services, Inc., 979 N.Y.S. 2d 69, 2014 WL 338977 (1st Dep’t, Jan. 28, 2014) (as counsel for plaintiff publisher, obtained a judgment in the amount of $3 million in favor of publisher for breach of the parties’ distribution agreement.)
  • Kamins v. The Empire Plan, et al. (Sup. Ct. Suffolk Co. 2014) (Lead counsel to health care plan and plan administrator in putative class action alleging violations of New York mental health parity statute; motion to dismiss claim asserting private right of action granted.)

Accolades

Benchmark Asia Pacific 2022

US News Best Lawyers 2021 Tier 1 Commercial Litigation Law Firm

Top Ranked Law Firm in Alaska 12 Practice Areas Corporate Law, Commercial Litigation, Real Estate, Employment Law, and Others 2020

Best Lawyers

Ones to Watch

American College of Trial Lawyers-3 Attorney Members 2019

BTI Client Service A-Team 2022

Among 27 Highly Recommended Law Firms BTI Consulting Group 2019

US News Best Lawyers 2017 Top Real Estate Litigation Law Firm

US News Best Lawyers 2017 Top Environmental Litigation Law Firm

Contacts

For a list of our core Commercial Litigation group members and the wide range of their practice areas, click here.
Christopher Karagheuzoff
Practice Group Co-Chair
Jake Larson
Practice Group Co-Chair
F. Matthew Ralph
Practice Group Co-Chair
Jaime Stilson
Practice Group Co-Chair

Industries & Practices

International Arbitration & Litigation
Securities & Financial Services Litigation & Enforcement
  • Antitrust & Competition Law
  • Appellate
  • Class Action Litigation
  • Construction Litigation
  • ERISA Litigation
  • Healthcare Litigation
  • Intellectual Property Litigation
  • International Arbitration & Litigation
  • LegalMine Document Review Solutions
  • Products Liability
  • Securities & Financial Services Litigation & Enforcement
  • Trusts & Estates Litigation