Complex Commercial Litigation

Life Sciences

• Successfully opposed a motion for preliminary injunction in a case alleging trade secret misappropriation under federal and state law.
• Obtained a nine-figure award for a biopharmaceutical company in a contract dispute with an international pharmaceutical company involving milestone payments under a license and development agreement. Following extensive discovery, briefing, and an evidentiary hearing, the Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce awarded our client all requested relief, including attorneys’ fees and expenses, and rejected the respondents’ nine-figure counterclaims in their entirety.
• Represented Alafi Capital Trust, an investor of a biotech company focused on research to combat the cause of Huntington’s Disease. After a bench trial, the court ruled that the founder, a prominent geneticist, misled investors and misrepresented its status with the FDA. The defendant was ordered to pay restitution to our client.
• Represented Leading BioSciences, a privately held Delaware corporation headquartered in California, in a suit brought by its largest shareholder. Plaintiff shareholder sought to impose California’s cumulative voting requirements, which, if granted, would have given plaintiff significant control over our client’s board of directors. At issue was the internal affairs doctrine—whether California law mandating cumulative voting would pre-empt Delaware law, which would prevent cumulative voting based on the bylaws of the company. With no case law to draw upon, we successfully settled the novel case.
• Won an arbitration award, following over a week of trial, completely dismissing all claims of material breach of a collaboration agreement that would have deprived our client, an international biotech company, of its fifty percent interest in a billion-dollar drug.

Private Equity

• Mintz represents a global private equity firm in a large variety of business disputes and investigations including highly contentious breach of contract cases, securities cases, partnership disputes, employment, and real estate and leasing disputes, as well as general portfolio company counseling matters.
• Represented a leading global asset management company and a senior director of company against claims of breach of contract, tortious interference, and civil conspiracy.
• Currently representing a Los Angeles-based private equity firm in litigation concerning breaches of representations and warranties made in the acquisition of an enterprise level experience management platform.
• Successfully represented Fox Paine & Company, a private equity company, in breach of contract case against insurer Equity Risk Partners who procured general partnership liability insurance and other excess insurance for Fox Paine. We secured a unanimous jury verdict on four counts against Equity Risk Partners. As the damages phase of the trial was about to conclude, defendants negotiated a settlement.
• Successfully represented a global alternative asset investment manager in a derivative matter in Delaware Chancery Court, securing a motion to dismiss which was later upheld by the Second Circuit.

Energy & Sustainability

• Representing a commerce-centric EV charging provider in a commercial dispute involving an underlying personal injury lawsuit and a related breach of contract and indemnity claim.
• Served as trial counsel for a global energy company in litigation against its minority investors who sought to force a sale of the $3+ billion company. After prevailing at summary judgment, and then proceeding through trial, Mintz was part of the team that achieved a full victory before the Delaware Supreme Court.

Technology

• In complex civil RICO case, represented Taiwanese creditor in claims against 34 foreign and domestic defendants. Successfully defeated over 30 motions to dismiss, managed millions of pages of written discovery, over 40 depositions on two continents and hundreds of discovery disputes before two court-appointed Special Masters. Defeated summary judgment and in limine motions. Favorably settled case at commencement of trial.
• Defeated 27 trade secret misappropriation claims on behalf of Volcano Corporation relating to medical technology, following a two-week trial and related hearings.
• Represented the founder and former CEO of a telecommunications company in an action arising out of allegations concerning the backdating of employee stock options.
• Represented the ousted founder of an automation company in a fiduciary dispute.
• Served as lead trial counsel for a well-known public company in a corporate governance, breach of fiduciary duty, and contract dispute against former company officers. Case was settled on client-favorable terms following jury selection.
• Successfully prosecuted alter-ego arbitration. Navigated complex array of obstructive discovery tactics to recover documents from off-shore shell companies. Obtained order from US Bankruptcy Court lifting stay on arbitration and remanding case to tribunal following defendant's bankruptcy filing. Obtained positive finding of alter-ego liability against CEO of defendant corporation and judgment of over $26 million.

Healthcare

• Represented a manufacturer of cleaning devices for continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines in a false advertising suit brought in the Southern District of New York by a multinational competitor which dealt with complex Lanham Act claims.
• Successfully defended a portfolio company of a large health care-focused private equity fund in an action brought in the Southern District of Florida. We won the summary judgment dismissing all of plaintiffs’ claims that they effectively were the owners and inventors of our client’s products. Following this dismissal on summary judgment, we obtained a ruling proposing one of the largest legal fee awards ever granted in Florida.
• Represented over 100 chain and independent pharmacies and, following a bench trial, obtained a judgment from the Massachusetts Business Court overturning the state’s pharmacy assessment tax and ordering the Commonwealth to refund $18 million in taxes collected from the pharmacies. The court enjoined any further collection of the tax, resulting in a savings to our clients of over $36 million annually. This case was reported by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly as one of the largest trial verdicts awarded in Massachusetts in that year.

Individual

• Represented Shari Redstone in litigation in the Delaware Chancery Court concerning the corporate governance of Viacom, Inc. and related litigation in Probate Court. Negotiated the global settlement that has been described in the press as a complete victory for Shari Redstone.
• Secured a unanimous jury verdict in New York State Supreme Court on behalf of an investment banker client after his decade-long battle with his former fiancée over an investment property in the Hamptons. After a 7-day jury trial, the jury needed only about 1 ½ hours to find for our client, to agree that the two Defendants had been unjustly enriched at our client’s expense, and to award the full amount of the $2.5 million in damages that he had sought at trial.

Professional Services

• Obtained multi-million dollar judgement on behalf of Sandy Alexander, Inc., a marketing communications firm, in a bet-the-company litigation against a manufacturer for breach of contract.
• Represented a multinational professional services firm in a month-long jury trial in which our client admitted employee breach but denied claims of supervisory liability. The jury found no supervisory liability, and rejected claims for punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.
• Won a judgment of dismissal at the close of plaintiff’s evidence in the trial of an eight-figure accounting malpractice claim brought against a Big Five accounting firm.
• Represented two of the plaintiff law firms in a contract action against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to enforce a contingent fee agreement relating to the nationwide tobacco litigation. After a six-week trial in the Business Litigation Session, the jury entered a verdict in favor of plaintiffs estimated to be worth approximately $100 million.

Real Estate, Construction, Hospitality & Infrastructure

• Acting as litigation avoidance and risk mitigation counsel for developer DivcoWest in the construction, development and leasing of the Cambridge Crossing (“CX”) Project in Massachusetts, which is currently the largest mixed use development underway on the East Coast.
• Successfully arbitrated a complex partnership dispute involving claims of breach of fiduciary duties in connection with the management of 3 mixed-use buildings in midtown Manhattan. Secured a $31 million award on behalf of the client, which directed that the partnership be dissolved and that there be an open market sale of the three properties.
• Won a complete dismissal with prejudice of a $3 billion RICO case filed against our client, Wynn Resorts in the District of Massachusetts. The case was brought by Sterling Suffolk Racecourse as part of an ongoing legal battle with Wynn over competing casino projects in the greater Boston area. The matter involved a collection of salacious allegations cutting across multiple jurisdictions, but our team was ultimately successful in arguing that Suffolk had failed to prove a pattern of racketeering activity, a necessity in a RICO case.
• Secured summary judgment and leveraged successful settlement for joint venture fund client in a dispute over ownership rights associated with an $80 million+ hotel property.
• Obtained first-of-its-kind victory for landlord client in the seminal case interpreting Massachusetts’ COVID-19 Eviction Moratorium and its impact on commercial landlords’ remedies.

Retail & Consumer Products

• Lead counsel in defending former directors and officers of Toys R Us (TRU) against fraud and breach of fiduciary duty claims brought by the Litigation Trustee in connection with the TRU bankruptcy. Achieved a very favorable settlement after the Court dismissed the central claim on summary judgment.
• Representing Zoppas Industries de Mexico in an ongoing trade secrets and breach of contract case filed in the District of Delaware Court against Backer EHP. Secured a partial denial of the defendant’s motion to dismiss.
• Representing an American beverage supplier in a breach of contract case against a global equipment manufacturer relating to the termination of the contracts for cause due to safety and reliability issues.
• Represented international multi-billion dollar diversified supplier to the foodservice industry in complex, multi-jurisdictional breach of contract case against a global supplier of food processing technology. Obtained favorable multimillion dollar settlement for our client.
• Achieved a significant victory for our client Manischewitz, a leading brand of kosher food products, in a dispute before the New York State Supreme Court. The plaintiff alleged our client excluded him from the koshering process and that Manischewitz products did not meet the Orthodox Union (OU) kashrut standards required to be sold with the OU symbol. The New York State Supreme Court granted Manischewitz and the Orthodox Union’s motion to dismiss all causes of action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and failure to state a claim.
• Represented SpinMaster, a leading global children's entertainment company, in a patent infringement case related to the company's Zero Gravity® Laser toy vehicle, which was named "Best Toy" by Popular Mechanics at the 2019 Toy Fair. Obtained a preliminary injunction in December 2019 enjoining the sales of the infringing toys by defendant, which was appealed. The parties settled their dispute and the case was dismissed by stipulation.
• Won a verdict of dismissal representing a multibillion-dollar grocery chain and its president following a trial in the US District Court in Massachusetts in a case alleging violations of ERISA.
• Won a five-week jury trial in which our client, the co-founder and CEO of a very successful private company, was sued by stockholders on three $1.5 billion RICO claims arising out of alleged unfair business practices and breach of fiduciary duty. Two of those claims were defeated on pretrial motions to dismiss and for summary judgment, and the third was rejected by the jury.

Sports & Entertainment

• Defended a French video game production studio in a breach of contract claim brought by a film production company seeking to recover the entire contract amount. Negotiated a successful resolution on behalf of client, thus avoiding a costly trial.
• Secured a rare, complete dismissal of an ADA lawsuit on behalf of BDG Media Inc. d/b/a Elite Daily, which alleged that the company lacked a closed caption option on the website’s videos.
• Served as co-counsel for an American global communications company in a highly-publicized lawsuit brought by a Boston television affiliate seeking injunctive relief to compel the renewal of its affiliation beyond its scheduled expiration at the end of 2016.
• Represented an internet gaming company in an action for breach of contract against a software developer that demanded equity interest in our client.