Current Employment Position(s)

Partner

Lawyer Overview

Matt Kairis has extensive experience coordinating and trying complex, multidistrict, and multijurisdiction litigation. Matt's civil litigation experience includes successful bench and jury verdicts in corporate contract disputes, antitrust actions, product liability suits, securities actions, and hostile takeover defense litigation. Matt has significant experience in product disparagement, libel, defamation, public speech, and election matters, representing clients who have suffered business torts in the competitive marketplace. Clients for whom Matt has obtained successful results in this area include the Unites States Chamber of Commerce, First American Title Insurance, and the Richard E. Jacobs Group, among others. Most recently, Matt obtained the reversal of what would have been the largest punitive damages award in an economic injury case in Ohio history. Matt currently serves as lead counsel for Diebold, Incorporated and Premier Elections Solutions in disputes throughout the United States relating to the accuracy and certification of Diebold's electronic voting machines.

Well versed in coordinating complex litigation, Matt currently serves as lead counsel on behalf of First American Title Insurance in a putative class action pending in the Northern District of Illinois seeking recovery of all First American title insurance premiums paid on residential real estate transactions by Illinois citizens. Matt also serves as coordinating and lead litigation counsel for the estate of National Century Financial Enterprises, including both the litigation of claims relating to the collapse of NCFE's $3 billion in health care receivables bond issuances and the subsequent investigations launched by the Securities Exchange Commission, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Health and Human Services. In coordinating the litigation of one of the most complex and contentious bankruptcies in American history, Matt supervised the cross-jurisdiction disputes that evolved from the competing bankruptcies of more than 500 medical providers in more than 2,500 locations throughout the United States.

Matt also served as coordinating and lead counsel in ephedra product liability cases throughout the United States on behalf of the top-selling ephedra weight loss product. Prior to that representation, Matt was involved in the coordination of multidistrict consumer protection and product liability litigation on behalf of Bridgestone/Firestone Tire and Cooper Tire & Rubber. Most recently, he represented Time Warner in a $2.5 billion securities litigation case brought by five Ohio public employee retirement pension funds relating to the Time Warner/America Online merger.

Matt's trial experience includes bringing difficult cases to jury verdict in multiple jurisdictions. Matt's jury trial experience began at a unique program at Harvard Law School where he served as a Massachusetts assistant district attorney, achieving a 100 percent conviction rate through numerous criminal prosecutions in a northern Boston district. In 1999, Matt was a member of the lead trial team representing R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in Iron Workers Local Union No. 17, et al. v. Philip Morris, et al., a $2 billion smoking and health class action that resulted in a jury verdict for defendants on all counts and was named one of the "Top Defense Wins of the Year" by The National Law Journal.

Areas of Practice

• Trial Practice
• Financial Services
• Business Restructuring & Reorganization
• Distressed Company Litigation

Representative Cases

• Amedisys, Inc. v. National Century Financial Enterprises Inc., Case No. 04-3365 (6th Cir.), Amedisys, Inc. v. J.P. Morgan Chase Manhattan Bank, Case No. 04-626 (S.D. Ohio)
• Associated Electric, Inc. v. American Municipal Power of Ohio, U.S. District Ct., S.D. Ohio Case No. C2 01 545 (2002)
• Chicago Title Insurance Company v. First American Title Insurance Company and James A. Magnuson, No. 07-649 (U.S.S.C.)
• Chicago Title Insurance Corporation v. James A. Magnuson; First American Title Insurance Company, 487 F. 3d 985, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 11883; 2007 FED App. 084P (6th Cir., May 21, 2007)
• Coy Van Parchman v. Cytodyne Technologies, Inc., Case No. 30389, Titus Cty. Texas (2004)
• Diebold, Inc. v. Positran Manufacturing, Inc., Case No. 02-374-GMS, U.S. District Ct. for District of Delaware (2005).
• Enertech Electrical, Inc. v. Martins Ferry
• Howland v. First American Title Insurance Company, No. 07 C 2628 (N.D. Ill.)
• In re Federated Department Stores, Inc., 135 B.R. 950 (Bankr. S.D. Ohio 1992), aff’d, 171 B.R. 603 (S.D. Ohio 1994); In re Federated Department Stores, Inc., 135 B.R. 962, aff’d, 170 B.R. 331 (S.D. Ohio 1994)
• In re Mosler, Inc.
• In re National Century Financial Enterprises, Inc., Case No. 02-65235, (Bankr. S.D. Ohio)
• Iron Workers Local 17 et al. v. Philip Morris, Inc. et al., 186 F.R.D. 453 (N.D. Ohio)
• Jane Doe v. Indianapolis Life Insurance Co., Case No. C-2-95-250 (U.S.D.C. S.D. Ohio)
• Mosler, Inc. v. Louis Neeb, Lisa Martin, and Diebold, Inc., U.S. District Court, District of Delaware Case No. 02-0470 (2003)
• Ohio Public Retirement System, et al. v. Richard Parsons, Time Warner Inc. et al., Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, Case No. 03CVH-07-7932 (Franklin County, Ohio) (2007)
• Positran Manufacturing, Inc. v. Diebold, Inc., Case No. 02-466-GMS, U.S. District Ct. for District of Delaware (2004)
• Poulsen, et al. v. NCFE, et. al., Case No. 02-65235, Bankr. S.D. Ohio (2004)
• Private Investment Bank Limited v. Med Diversified, Inc. and National Century Financial Enterprises, Inc., U.S. District Court, Central District of California Case No. 02-04802 (2004).
• State ex rel. Essig v. Blackwell, 103 Ohio St. 3d 481
• Steamfitters Local Union No. 614 v. Philip Morris, Inc., Case No. 92260-2
• United Dominion Ind. Ltd., et al. v. Commercial Intertech Corp., et al., 943 F. Supp. 857 (U.S.D.C., S.D. Ohio), Case No. C2 96-0672
• Wilson, et al. v. Bellevue Hospital, et al., No. 3:96-CV-7712 (N.D. Ohio) and Flores v. Bellevue Hospital, et al., No. 96-CV-811 (Sandusky County Common Pleas, Ohio)
• Chapter 11 Debtor Representations
• Cooper Tire Consumer Fraud Litigation
• Cuyahoga Election Review Panel

West Practice Categories

Bankruptcy Litigation, Business & Commercial Law, Business Organizations, Class Actions, Complex Litigation, Dissolution, Federal Appellate Practice, Federal Claims Court, Federal Trial Practice, International Trade Litigation, Litigation & Appeals, Military & Veterans Appeals, Multidistrict Litigation, Patent Litigation, State Appellate Practice, State Trial Practice, Tax Litigation, US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, US Supreme Court

Bar Admissions

• Ohio

Education

• Harvard University

Address

P.O. Box 165017
Columbus, OH 43216-5017

Phones

1.614.281.3605 (Business Phone)

Faxes

1.614.461.4198 (Business Fax)

Emails

Contact Us (Business Email)

Websites

http://www.jonesday.com