Jeff Wilkerson
Jeff focuses on complex litigation and client counseling. He works with his clients to develop and execute litigation and pre-litigation strategies that advance and protect their interests. He has significant experience in all aspects of class action defense, investigations, and appeals.
Key Matters
- Represents a large consumer food company in its defense of numerous false-advertising class actions centralized in a multidistrict proceeding.
- Represented a large food company in its defense of a breach-of-contract action arising out an acquisition of a subsidiary—the complaint was ultimately voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiff before the court had even heard argument on Jeff’s client’s motion to dismiss.
- Represents the crop sciences division of a Fortune 500 company in its defense of a putative nationwide class action alleging that the company failed to disclose elevated levels of impurities in its herbicide products.
- Provides ongoing counseling and guidance to multiple consumer-products companies regarding their advertising, marketing, and labeling.
- Provides ongoing counseling and advice to a major financial institution regarding its investment in large real estate transactions.
- Represented a Fortune 500 company in connection with its response to a false advertising investigation by a state attorney general’s office.
- Represented a major financial institution in connection with its defense of a False Claims Act (FCA) investigation regarding the company’s investment in certain state-sponsored real estate projects.
- Represents a number of Fortune 500 companies defending individual and class action cases alleging that consumer herbicide products they sell are falsely advertised because their labels fail to state that the products are allegedly carcinogenic.
- Represented a large public service consulting company in litigation against a former executive employee regarding the employee’s claim that he was entitled to severance and other benefits upon his resignation.
- Represents a large financial institution in connection with its response to a grand jury subpoena and a concurrent internal investigation regarding the financial institution’s investment in complex financial products.
- Represents the crop sciences division of a Fortune 500 company in its defense of several false advertising actions alleging that the labels of the company’s herbicide products contain a false and misleading statement. Class certification was recently denied in one of these cases after preparing a briefing in opposition to the plaintiff’s motion for class certification.
- Represented a Fortune 500 technology company in connection with its defense of Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and breach of contract claims related to the allocation of responsibility for environmental contamination at a former manufacturing facility.
- Represented the United States’ largest importer of Chinese garlic in its appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals seeking reversal of a district court order dismissing our client’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) claims against competing importers that had made false and defamatory representations about our client to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC); after preparing a briefing, the Ninth Circuit ruled for our client in a published opinion.
- Represented a large financial institution in connection with a purported nationwide class action alleging that our client inappropriately closed consumers’ credit card accounts; after overseeing an investigation into the underlying facts and presenting our client’s defenses to opposing counsel, the plaintiff agreed to voluntarily dismiss the case with no payment from our client.
- Represented two individuals on a pro bono basis in connection with their petition to the Supreme Court of the United States to grant certiorari and review a Tenth Circuit opinion affirming the dismissal of their complaint seeking compensation for Santa Fe County, New Mexico’s practice of jailing pretrial detainees for weeks or months before providing them with access to a court and opportunity to post bail.
- Represented a packaged foods company in connection with its defense of a purported nationwide class action alleging that our client falsely advertised its products as “all natural.” After preparing a briefing, the court dismissed several of the plaintiff’s claims with prejudice, and the plaintiff ultimately agreed to voluntarily dismiss the case with no payment from our client.
- Represented a subsidiary of a Fortune 500 technology company in connection with a dispute it was having with one of its former distributors. After preparing a demand letter and negotiating with the distributor’s counsel, the matter was settled on terms far more favorable to our client than what the distributor had previously indicated was its “best” offer.
- Represented a large financial institution in litigation in which an insurer sought to rescind over a billion dollars of credit insurance. The case settled favorably for our client shortly before trial.
- Prepared a briefing to the California Court of Appeal for our client, a family trust, defending a judgment in favor of our client in a case where the plaintiff sought hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. The Court of Appeal issued an opinion affirming the dismissal in favor of our client and awarding our client attorney’s fees and costs.
- Represented a large financial institution in multiple consumer class actions; after preparing briefing seeking to dismiss the claims against our client, we negotiated favorable settlements before class certification and while motions to dismiss were pending.
- Represented a large financial institution in connection with a wide-ranging third-party subpoena it received in connection with litigation involving a former counter-party; we negotiated a subpoena response comprising less than 1000 pages of documents and avoiding any e-discovery at all, and avoided further litigation.
- Represented our client, an IP owner, prepare a briefing in connection with its successful opposition to an alleged infringer’s motion to stay our client’s litigation against it.
- Represented a Fortune 500 biopharmaceutical company and its executive in connection with a nationwide securities class action which settled favorably for his client shortly before trial.
- Represented a leading real estate and information-services firm in connection with its defense of a nationwide class action suit asserting claims under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA); the case settled favorably for the client while a motion we prepared seeking to excluded the plaintiffs’ key experts was pending.
- Represented a leading real estate and information-services firm in connection with its defense of a breach of contract action brought by the FDIC as receiver for a major lending institution; the case settled favorably for his client shortly before trial.