James Joseph is a Partner at Eimer Stahl LLP. He is a trial and appellate litigator and counselor with a focus on complex commercial disputes, insurance, health-care cost recovery, foreign sovereign and alter-ego litigation, antitrust and competition law, advertising and marketing, consumer fraud, products liability, employment, and mass toxic and environmental torts. He has also litigated matters involving data privacy, construction, personal injury, accounting and legal malpractice, zoning and land use, trusts and estates, securities, constitutional law, intellectual property, mortgage and consumer fraud, attorney discipline, and other subjects. He also counsels companies and senior executives on corporate governance, advertising and marketing, and compliance matters.
From 1998 to 2000, James helped to establish and lead the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship, a pioneering legal clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, where he was also a Lecturer in Law.
Experience
Case Experience
Representing a national health insurer in cost-recovery actions against major pharmaceutical and device manufacturers for fraudulent or other illicit practices.
Represented the U.S.-based subsidiary of a foreign state’s national oil company in alter-ego and veil-piercing actions brought by creditors seeking to hold it liable for the foreign state’s multibillion-dollar judgment debts; obtained summary judgment for the client.
Represented a national health insurer in federal vacatur proceedings arising from a $643 million arbitration award against a national pharmacy chain; obtained dismissal of a related state-court action seeking to hold the insurer liable for its prior counsel’s alleged breach of fiduciary duty.
Represented a national health insurance company against a nonprofit hospital that alleged over $40 million in systematic underpayments; after a two-week trial, a Cook County jury returned a unanimous defense verdict in an hour. After the verdict was vacated on procedural grounds for matters arising before Eimer Stahl’s involvement, obtained summary judgment on remand and a ruling from the Illinois Appellate Court eliminating most of the hospital’s claimed damages period.
Represented an Illinois municipality in defense against substantial tax-sourcing claims brought by the City of Chicago; persuaded the Illinois Supreme Court to reverse the court below and order dismissal of the claims with prejudice.
Represented a participating-life insurer in a putative nationwide class action seeking $5 billion in dividends; obtained dismissal by a federal district court and affirmance in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Represented a Fortune 50 company in a technology licensing dispute before an International Chamber of Commerce arbitration panel in Hong Kong.
Represented a national refiner in a dispute with a former regional franchisee; obtained summary judgment for millions in early-termination damages and denial of a $200 million counterclaim.
Represented a plastics recycler in defense of a $45 million claim arising out of a business combination, and in related insurance litigation.
Represented large corporate clients in diverse consumer, commercial, and international arbitrations under the AAA, ICC, JAMS, LCIA, and LMAA rules.
Representing a professional athletes’ association in federal litigation against its former general counsel.
Represented a city community-college system in a successful accounting malpractice action, resolving in the colleges’ favor a matter of first impression before the Illinois Supreme Court.
Represented a leading cement producer in the appeal of a subcontractor’s arbitration award and in related cases in the Texas state and federal courts, successfully obtaining reversal of a $5 million award that had been confirmed by the trial court.
Defending a major digital-asset exchange in consumer arbitrations.
Obtained dismissal of a federal consumer suit against an online-platform operator.
Represented an egg producer in multidistrict litigation and related suits alleging antitrust and consumer fraud violations in the egg industry.
Represented an oil refiner in multidistrict litigation and related state and municipal suits alleging groundwater contamination from the use of a gasoline additive.
Represented a medical-device manufacturer in nationwide state and federal chondrolysis litigation.
Served as national counsel overseeing state-court benzene-exposure litigation for a national refiner, including personally obtaining dismissals and summary judgments.
Defended a refiner in a Texas arbitration against a buyer that sought damages for force majeure declarations after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita; obtained an award denying the buyer’s recovery and awarding the refiner its attorneys’ fees.
Defended a leading cement producer to a favorable arbitration award in fraud and breach of contract claims brought by a Canadian supplier.
Represented a refiner before the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, which affirmed dismissal of a claim for interfering in the plaintiff’s offshore exploration efforts.
Defended several construction-injury cases arising from a large Chicago-area industrial facility.
Represented a national business organization as amicus curiae in federal appellate and state supreme courts.
Pro bono cases include representation of food-truck drivers challenging the City of Chicago’s mobile food-vendor ordinance, ride-sharing drivers seeking to intervene in a suit against the City of Chicago by the taxicab industry, constitutional challenges by residential tenants to the inspection ordinance and practices of Illinois municipalities, an artist sued for trademark dilution by a major consumer foods corporation, and a former detainee asserting federal civil-rights claims against a county sheriff and jail personnel.