With more than 160 attorneys actively engaged in all aspects of business, commercial and product liability matters litigation, Dykema has one of the most experienced, sophisticated and successful litigation and trial practices in the nation. Our litigators are experienced in representing a diverse client base in nearly every substantive area of the law, through trial and appeal. In addition to our practice in state and federal courts throughout the country, we also represent clients in administrative proceedings, arbitration tribunals and other alternative dispute resolution forums.

At Dykema, our litigators are dedicated to the aggressive and efficient prosecution and defense of our clients' disputes. We believe in comprehensive yet cost-effective discovery and case preparation with active client involvement at all stages, including the trial and appellate levels. Through our sophisticated computer network, every litigator - regardless of location - draws upon the resources of the entire firm to address clients' legal concerns. Our computer systems include innovative case management software, our proprietary expert witness database, a robust and cost sensitive discovery management solution, and an extensive work product retrieval system which enables us to provide our services as efficiently as possible. Our outstanding appellate practice not only defends the victories obtained by our own trial lawyers, but is also called upon by many clients for the first time when matters reach the critical appellate stage.

Dykema litigators have successfully handled virtually every type of civil dispute, including those involving complex, high dollar commercial and contract matters, class actions, real estate, partnership, trade secrets, non-compete agreements, financial services and insurance, antitrust, dealer and franchise matters, licenses, trademark and intellectual property, products liability, premises liability, and complex tort claims. Dykema litigators represent entities such as municipalities and insurers in a wide variety of personal injury and commercial matters, including coverage disputes. We also focus on professional liability litigation matters on behalf of physicians, hospitals and other health care entities. Among many other representations, Dykema is the nationally recognized litigation counsel for Fortune-ranked pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing companies, in addition to serving as national science and expert development counsel for a major global pharmaceutical company. We also serve as national or regional class action defense counsel for multiple companies, including some of the largest financial institutions in the country.

For the convenience of our clients, our litigators are organized into several substantive practice areas: (1) Automotive and Product Liability; (2) Business and Commercial; (3) Employment; (4) Financial Services; (5) General; (6) intellectual property; and (7) Pharmaceutical and Medical Device. While many of our trial lawyers specialize in one or more substantive area, there is also considerable cross-specialty collaboration geographically and across practice groups.

Automotive and Product Liability (A&PL): Dykema has a deep and wide automotive litigation practice, which has evolved alongside the domestic auto industry since the firm's Detroit office opened in 1926. The A&PL practice group handles commercial disputes, class actions and product liability matters for OEMs and suppliers, including domestic, Asian and European manufacturers. We have roles as national, regional, specialty, and discovery counsel for a number of the largest OEMS, and we are one of the few firms in the U.S. that has tried class action cases for OEMs in recent years. We defend cases involving all types of products, often involving catastrophic injuries. Notably, we recently obtained a $40 million jury verdict for Chrysler in a hard fought supplier cost recovery dispute.

Business and Commercial Litigation: Dykema is also well known for its business and commercial litigation. For decades, we have been “go-to” counsel in such areas as anti-trust, breach of contract; shareholder disputes; breach of fiduciary duty matters, supplier, dealer and franchise disputes; and business dissolutions. For example, Dykema's antitrust and trade regulation practice is composed of a team of lawyers who have litigated a number of precedent-setting cases involving such issues as tying, price fixing, monopolization, dealer termination, price discrimination and mergers throughout the country. Our business litigators work hand-in-hand with lawyers in our corporate finance practice group to address complex business disputes both in and out of the courtroom. Similar arrangements are in place to handle patent and trademark litigation, real estate litigation, employment discrimination cases; and class action defense, including securities class actions, consumer class actions, and products liability class actions.

Employment: Dykema has perhaps the region’s most sophisticated employment litigation practices. Representing management, we are actively involved in the litigation of all employment-related matters and regularly represent clients in the federal district and appellate courts. The size and resources of our group enable us to respond rapidly to clients' immediate needs, such as negotiations, administrative proceedings, union organization, strikes and picketing.

Financial Services: Dykema's Financial Services litigation group represents banks, finance companies, mortgage lenders, credit card providers and insurance companies in both the defense and prosecution of consumer and commercial lending and insurance disputes; including the defense of consumer class actions. Dykema is one of the very few firms with nationwide class action defense practices substantially devoted to the defense of mortgage lenders and lenders generally. Approximately 40 attorneys concentrate on consumer financial services. Those attorneys, along with other members of our litigation group, represent over 70 banks, mortgage companies, credit card companies and auto finance companies. We counsel and defend clients in putative class actions, and on various federal and state laws affecting consumer lending. Among other significant cases, our litigators recently defeated a putative class action brought against the nation’s largest reverse mortgage lender where the allegations were featured in a network “Newsmagazine.”

Intellectual Property. Dykema’s intellectual property litigation team includes lawyers whose practices are substantially devoted to the defense or prosecution of litigation arising out of patent, trademark, copyright, licensing, internet-based and other technology disputes, and includes litigation involving trade secret and unfair competition claims, false advertising, publicity rights, and intellectual property transfers.

Pharmaceutical and Medical Device: Dykema handles some of the most sophisticated work for the largest pharmaceutical manufacturers, including the handling of science and expert development teams for nationwide litigation involving a number of different products. We represent pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers and blood products suppliers in personal injury litigation, commercial litigation, and class actions, as well as intellectual property disputes. Our pharmaceutical, commercial, and A&PL groups also include a successful cross-department aviation litigation team that represents insurers and equipment manufacturers in various types of aviation litigation, including air carrier crashes.

Our litigators receive top marks from judges, peers, adversaries, and, most importantly, our clients. We are consistently recognized by corporate board directors, preeminent legal referral sources, and leading industry publications.

For more information on our Litigation practice, please contact:
Peter M. Kellett, Director 313-568-6668