Over the past 35 years, Joe McLaughlin has successfully represented clients in hundreds of class action, shareholder derivative and other aggregated proceedings in trial and appellate courts across the country, including the U.S. Supreme Court.
The American Lawyer has featured Joe as national Litigator of the Week for his New York Court of Appeals win for Countrywide Home Loans in a closely-followed residential mortgage-backed securities case, and referred to Joe as a “reliable winner” and a “class action star.” Joe successfully represented B.A.T. Industries plc as lead counsel at the federal court jury trial of a healthcare expense reimbursement action seeking multibillion-dollar damages. He also successfully represented 52 limited partners of LJM2 Co-Investment as lead counsel at a trial regarding the validity of the removal of the general partner, and was lead trial counsel in proceedings for the limited partners around the country. Joe obtained a rare reversal of class certification in 10b-5 litigation for Best Buy, Inc. in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, followed by another certification denial on remand and entry of summary judgement dismissing all claims, and denial of certification for Virtus Investment Partners in federal district court, achievements that received widespread media recognition.
He has extensive experience representing clients in securities and complex commercial litigation and has represented clients in all types of government and internal investigations and related trial and appellate matters. He represented several underwriter defendants in the largest securities litigation in history, the Initial Public Offering Securities Litigation, in which he served as lead counsel for scores of defendants in obtaining an order striking the class allegations in numerous cases and subsequently negotiating a favorable settlement. He frequently advises corporate boards of directors and special committees in responding to shareholder demand letters and derivative claims.
Joe has also successfully represented the following companies and/or boards in various litigation: Best Buy, Inc., Brighthouse Financial; Bright HealthCare, CEO of Perrigo; Lorillard, Inc., Petrohawk Energy Corp., Halcón Resources Corp., Bank of America’s Countrywide subsidiaries, Tetragon Financial Group, J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., Bear Stearns, Special Transaction Committee of Clearwire Corp., Dillard’s, Smithfield Foods, Inc., GeoResources, Inc., Blackstone, Carlyle, Centerbridge, First Reserve, Lexington Partners, Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners, Hellman & Friedman and Silver Lake.
He is the author of the two-volume treatise, McLaughlin on Class Actions: Law and Practice (Thomson West 21st ed. 2024), a leading treatise cited in class action and shareholder derivative litigation in federal and state trial and appellate courts around the country, and for which he was awarded the Burton Award for Legal Achievement.
Joe is consistently recognized as a key figure in his field by numerous publications, including Euromoney’s Benchmark Litigation where he is named as a “Litigation Star” and The Legal 500, where commentators have called him a “terrific lawyer, both at the appellate and trial court level,” a “very strong oral advocate and writer,” an “excellent client services lawyer” and “a true professional.”
Updated Oct 2024
