Jacobs v. Abbott Laboratories: Achieved summary judgment victory for Abbott in products liability matter claiming personal injury arising from the use of allegedly contaminated powdered infant formula. After claims were brought against Abbott concerning its February 2022 recall of certain formula products from its manufacturing facility in Sturgis, Michigan (in which Kirkland continues to represent Abbott), additional cases such as this one challenged formula produced from other Abbott facilities as well. In the first of these cases to be litigated to judgment, the court adopted in full Kirkland’s argument that a jury could not find for the plaintiffs without impermissibly “speculating that contamination existed” during manufacturing of the at-issue formula and granted judgment in Abbott’s favor.
Securitized Asset Funding 2011–2, Ltd. v. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce: Counsel for Cerberus-affiliated investment vehicles in lawsuit bringing breach of contract claims against CIBC, stemming from CIBC’s payment obligations related to deals aimed at reducing CIBC’s exposure to risk in its portfolio of U.S. residential cash and synthetic securitized assets. After a 13-day bench trial in the Commercial Division of the New York Supreme Court, the court entered judgment for Cerberus to the tune of over $855 million, embracing Cerberus’s reading of the complex deals. The American Lawyer recognized the Kirkland team as Litigator of the Week runners up following the win, and the result was reported in numerous publications, including Reuters, Bloomberg, and Law360.
United States v. UnitedHealth Group: Obtained complete victory for United following bench trial in antitrust action brought by the Department of Justice seeking to enjoin United’s $13 billion acquisition of Change Healthcare. The court’s denial of the government’s requested injunction was highlighted in the Wall Street Journal and Law360, while the Kirkland team was honored as Litigators of the Week by The American Lawyer.
In re Intelsat S.A.: Represented Debtors in $1.8 billion contested matter in which SES, Intelsat’s largest competitor, brought a variety of claims arising out of a contract to jointly pursue a private auction of the C-band spectrum for use in 5G communications. Following a bench trial, the court disallowed SES’s claims in full, accepting Kirkland’s arguments for Intelsat on every issue and holding that the parties’ contract did not apply to the FCC’s chosen public-run approach for reallocating the C-band spectrum.
Kirkbride v. Antero Resources Corporation: After Kirkland achieved dismissal of a previous suit from the same plaintiff and successfully defended that dismissal on appeal in the Sixth Circuit, Kirkland defeated class certification in a follow-on federal class action alleging breach of oil and gas leases, with the court accepting in its entirety Kirkland’s argument that “assessing any claim for breach will require an individualized lease-by-lease and owner-by-owner analysis.”
La Fosse, et al. v. Sanderson Farms, Inc.: Secured dismissal on behalf of Sanderson Farms in putative class action brought by class of consumers alleging false advertising of poultry products. After successfully moving to reduce the size of the putative class through motions practice, Kirkland obtained voluntary dismissals from the remaining plaintiffs with prejudice following discovery and upon threat of summary judgment. As part of a stipulated dismissal, plaintiffs conceded that “after a considerable expenditure of legal resources and a detailed review of the facts and law,” they determined to voluntarily dismiss the remaining claims and acknowledged that Sanderson had not paid them any consideration or provided any other form of relief.
Counsel for Navient Solutions LLC in wide-ranging state AG litigation matters and government investigations regarding student loan origination, servicing, and collection practices. Following years of litigation, Kirkland secured a complete, forty-state settlement in which the company maintained its express denial of any borrower harm and the claims brought against it.
Counsel for several oil and gas producers across multiple litigation matters in Ohio concerning payment of royalties to lessors and related issues.
