Biography
Brian has substantial litigation experience across a broad range of disputes involving areas of law such as business torts, antitrust, fraud, product liability, regulatory investigations, environmental litigation, bankruptcy, and appeals.
Some of his recent notable experiences includes serving on Weil teams representing:
- Burger King in multiple consumer class actions in Florida and California related to the alleged use of “forever chemicals.” After motion to dismiss briefing, plaintiffs in each case voluntarily dismissed their claims.
- Pilgrim’s Pride in a number of significant litigations, including:
- a series of federal class actions across the country brought by direct and indirect purchasers alleging the major chicken producers reduced output to raise the price of broiler chickens.
- a series of nationwide class actions consolidated as an MDL in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma alleging poultry producers conspired to anti-competitively lower compensation to growers, in violation of the Sherman and Packers & Stockyards Acts.
- a series of nationwide class actions consolidated in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland alleging that poultry producers and others conspired to suppress wages and other compensation for poultry plant workers, allegedly through the use of industry benchmarking services and other information exchanges.
- Repsol S.A. in complex environmental litigation concerning pollution of the Passaic River in New Jersey, which involves multi-billion-dollar claims of “alter ego” and fraudulent conveyance.
- Michael Foods, Inc. in an ongoing federal multidistrict antitrust class action where a final trial is proceeding in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in which purchasers of shell eggs and egg products allege a conspiracy to control supply and artificially maintain and increase the price of shell eggs and egg products.
- A large mass media corporation defending against claims by a former contractor for breach of contract and tortious interference in Florida state court.
- National Public Finance Guarantee Corporation in connection with the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy proceedings.
- Dometic, a major manufacturer of gas absorption refrigerators, in securing summary judgment and defeating class certification, as well as transfer and consolidation victories prior to those case dispositive rulings, in numerous putative nationwide consumer class actions in Florida and California federal courts alleging that the cooling units in several models of Dometic’s refrigerators purportedly contained a latent defect.
- Nortek, a global manufacturer of HVAC systems, in multiple putative class actions in Florida and Tennessee federal courts alleging that Nortek failed to disclose defects in its air conditioning equipment. Brian and the Weil team obtained the denial of plaintiffs’ motion for class certification in the Florida case, as well as the dismissal of all claims, with prejudice, in the Tennessee case.
As a member of the Firm’s Appeals and Strategic Counseling practice, Brian has represented clients in the United States Supreme Court, United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Eleventh, D.C., and Federal Circuits, the Colorado Supreme Court, and Florida appellate courts.
Brian has been honored in the 2020-2024 editions of Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch for commercial litigation and appellate, and selected as a member of the Florida Board of Bar Examiner’s Practice Analysis Panel, which from 2020-2021, evaluated the knowledge, skills, and abilities that all newly licensed Florida lawyers should have to be admitted to the bar.
Brian is also frequently published on legal topics, including relating to Article III standing, class certification, arbitration, and personal jurisdiction. Additionally, Brian contributes to the Firm’s annual Litigation Trends report.
Brian also is an active participant in the Firm’s pro bono initiatives. Brian has twice been appointed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to represent indigent individuals on appeal, successfully overturning the denial of social security benefits. Brian has also worked with the Innocence Project, seeking to obtain post-conviction relief for a client based on new scientific evidence, as part of a team of Weil attorneys representing deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals seeking accessibility accommodations in Georgia prisons, and as part of a team of Weil attorneys which represented a victim of human trafficking, successfully allowing the client to have her criminal record expunged and vacated.
From September 2017 through September 2018, Brian served as a judicial clerk for the Honorable Adalberto Jordan of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.