Martin L. Roth, P.C.

Trials

• Campus Oaks Apartments 1, LLC v. BBC Roseville Oaks, LLC: Lead trial counsel for Bixby Bridge Capital affiliate in complete defense jury verdict in Placer County, California state court involving land purchase and sale.
• SM Buyer LLC et al. v. RMP Seller Holdings LLC: Lead trial counsel in arbitration over substantial M&A deal dispute; award confirmed in $90 million judgment (including pre and post judgment interest) entered by Delaware Chancery Court on behalf of client.
• Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund Litigation: Trial counsel for British Petroleum in complete defense jury verdict in South Carolina state court. Successfully argued motion to dismiss resulting in complete dismissal of Illinois False Claims Act case. Successfully argued summary judgment motion resulting in dismissal of significant claims related to environmental pollution under South Dakota law. Affirmed on appeal by South Dakota Supreme Court. Obtained multiple other summary judgment victories and favorable dispositive rulings in similar suits filed in Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Utah, Missouri, and Montana. Responsible for managing the continued coordinated defense against other suits and government investigations nationwide, most brought by state AGs, over BP’s recovery of money from state trust funds for cleaning up environmental contamination at its current and former service stations.
• In re Aéropostale: Trial counsel for Sycamore Partners and affiliates in complete trial victory in bankruptcy court regarding teen retailer Aéropostale’s attempt to limit Sycamore’s recovery of $150 million of secured debt.

Class Actions

• Privacy Class Actions: Lead counsel to a diverse range of clients in a variety of putative class actions brought under state and federal privacy statutes and common law, including:
  • Malinowski v. IBM, et al. (S.D.N.Y.): Lead counsel for IBM and Johnson & Johnson, Health Care Systems, Inc. in consolidated putative class action related to data incident involving Janssen CarePath patient support platform.
  • Bridges v. Blackstone, Inc. (N.D. Ill.): Secured complete dismissal of class action under Illinois Genetic Information Privacy Act arising out of purchase of Ancestry.com; affirmed on appeal to Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals (profiled in The National Law Journal and recognized for “Litigator of the Week” by The American Lawyer).
  • ZoomInfo: Lead counsel in three putative class actions in the Northern District of Illinois and the Northern District of Ohio under right of publicity statutes and common law claims related to ZoomInfo and its subsidiary Datanyze’s online database of business contact information; secured complete dismissal of the Ohio action.
  • Doe, et al. v. GoodRx, et al. (N.D. Cal.): Lead counsel in consolidated class actions under California and New York privacy statutes and common law involving the use of pixels and software development kits.
  • Q.J., et al. v. PowerSchool Holdings, et al. (N.D. Ill.): Lead counsel for PowerSchool Holdings LLC and its subsidiary, Hobsons, Inc., in putative class action litigation alleging violations of privacy rights in connection with PowerSchool's online platform, Naviance.
• Volodarskiy v. Delta Air Lines, Inc.: Defended Delta in class action and subsequent appeal related to European Union Regulation 261; received complete dismissal of all claims and complete affirmance on appeal to Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
  
• Das v. Rio Tinto plc: Defended Rio Tinto in securities fraud class action regarding the company’s compliance with anti-corruption laws; received complete dismissal of all claims.

Private Equity

• Garda USA v. Sun Capital Partners, et al.: As profiled in Bloomberg and the New York Law Journal, secured complete summary judgment win for Sun Capital affiliates in M&A lawsuit alleging breach of confidentiality obligations resulted in a lost deal nearly a month after exclusivity ended. Argued for and secured key New York appellate decision limiting damages to “amounts expended in the negotiation and diligence process” that can be tied to the alleged breaches.

• Ney v. 3i Group, et al.: Lead counsel in lawsuit based on alleged oral contract entered with CEO in connection with M&A transaction. Argued for and secured dismissal of all claims in trial court and argued for and secured Fifth Circuit affirmance.

• Baymeadows LLC v. City of Ridgeland, Mississippi: Lead counsel for Bixby Bridge Capital affiliate in successful federal court suit against Ridgeland, Mississippi based on city’s discriminatory attempt to rezone and amortize apartment complexes occupied by racial minorities without paying just compensation. After aggressive litigation, resulting in the intervention of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and favorable news coverage (see “No Property Rights Zones,” Wall Street Journal, May 13, 2016), the city revoked the offending zoning provisions and agreed to send its employees to fair housing and anti-discrimination training. For more information, see HUD’s settlement announcement.
  

Personal Injury and Product Liability

• In re Oil Spill by the Oil Rig Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico: Counsel for BP in federal MDL proceeding for portfolio of more than 700 personal injury lawsuits arising out of Gulf of Mexico oil spill. 

• In re Heparin Products Liability Litigation: Successfully defended Baxter Healthcare Corporation and Scientific Protein Laboratories, LLC in multidistrict litigation and parallel state court action involving manufacture of allegedly defective heparin products. MDL court granted Daubert and summary judgment motions on several categories of claims, affirmed by Sixth Circuit, resulting in hundreds of dismissals, favorable settlements, and successful state court trials.

• Watts v. Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation: Successfully defended Medicis in product liability action brought by plaintiff alleging acne medication caused injury. Case dismissed at motion to dismiss phase.

Other Notable Representations

• G. William Hunter v. Derek Fisher, et al.: Defended NBA player Derek Fisher in litigation brought by the former executive director of the players’ union. All 14 claims dismissed at pleading stage and attorneys’ fees awarded under the anti-SLAPP statute.

Martin devotes significant time to community service. He served as pro bono amicus counsel in the Fisher v. University of Texas U.S. Supreme Court cases and mentors diverse law students through the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity. Martin previously served as President of the American Jewish Committee’s ACCESS Chicago Board. 

Martin has also served as pro bono appellate counsel in a number of matters in the Sixth and Seventh Circuits, including United States v. Debra Hills (Seventh Circuit). As a member of the Northern District of Illinois Trial Bar, he has taken assignments as court-appointed counsel for pro se litigants.