Brian I. Hays

Brian Hays focuses on defending clients in high-stakes class action litigation. His practice includes the representation of insurance companies, financial institutions and national corporations against claims brought under federal and state antitrust laws, RICO, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, breach of contracts/insurance policies and other consumer protection statutes. He has participated in a wide variety of litigation matters before state and federal courts, including bench and jury trials.

Brian has a national litigation practice and appears regularly in courts throughout the country. He is seasoned in handling hard cases with substantial financial exposure. He has served on a number of national defense steering committees, where he has been responsible for directing and coordinating litigation in multiple jurisdictions. His experience includes:

Telephone Consumer Protection Act Litigation

Brian serves as the Chair of Locke Lord's TCPA Litigation and Compliance Section. He tracks new decisions addressing the TCPA on a daily basis to keep up to date on the latest developments around the country. He represents some of the nation’s largest companies in responding to class action litigation pursuant to the TCPA. He has obtained orders of dismissal in a number of TCPA cases and resolved others on a class-wide basis. Brian has also worked with clients to develop and strengthen their TCPA compliance programs.

Consumer Class Actions

Brian defends clients in class action and high-exposure individual cases that often seek recovery for breach of contract, common-law fraud, violations of state or federal consumer-fraud or deceptive-trade-practice statutes, various consumer-protection statutes, purported RICO claims or other related theories.

Antitrust and Competition

Brian has defended numerous civil antitrust cases. He also advises clients on substantive merger analyses and investigations and has worked on numerous high-profile mergers in the insurance industry.

Intellectual Property/Trade Secrets

Brian has also represented companies in defending their intellectual property by enforcing non-compete and non-solicitation clauses in employment and dealership contracts to protect customer data and proprietary business information. He has also represented clients in protecting their trademarks under the Lanham Act.

Brian's representative experience includes:

• Represent direct marketers in TCPA class actions
• Defend companies against class action claims seeking to hold client liable for telemarketing calls placed by independent contractors
• Represent companies placing informational calls promoting career opportunities against TCPA claims
• Advise clients on developing vigorous TCPA compliance programs for direct marketing, marketing through independent agents and lead vendors
• Represent insurance companies and financial institutions in connection with investigations by state Attorney General over allegations involving violations of the TCPA and state consumer protection statutes and regulations
• Represent insurers in disputes with medical providers over usual and customary rates for services
• Defend insurance companies against class action allegations that they were operating "Silent PPOs" to improperly reduce payments to medical providers
• Defend auto insurance companies in class actions filed by providers challenging payments under MedPay/PIP coverage
• Represented workers compensation carriers in numerous antitrust, RICO and state law claims against claims for price fixing, conspiracy and breach of contract
• Represent insurance companies and financial institutions enforcing non-compete and non-solicitation agreements in state and federal courts around the country
• Acted as antitrust counsel to health insurer to obtain regulatory approval from over a dozen states for acquisition of managed health care organization, for approximately $8.7 billion
• Acted as antitrust counsel to health insurer to obtain regulatory approval from more than two dozen states for acquisition of another health insurer
• Liaison counsel for joint defense group in putative class action litigation involving more than 100 defendants alleging that homeowners' insurers conspired to draft and then misrepresent policy terms to homeowners. Plaintiffs asserted antitrust and RICO claims, violations of state consumer fraud acts and 22 other causes of action
• Represent P&C companies defending class actions arising after major catastrophes alleging breach of insurance policies, fraud, violations of state consumer fraud acts and other theories
• Lead counsel enforcing the consent decrees entered in Shakman v. Democratic Organization of Cook County, 69 C 2145, prohibiting state and local governments from discriminating against employees and job applicants on the basis of their political affiliation. Brian was successful in obtaining court appointed monitors to oversee hiring and other employment actions for the City of Chicago, Cook County, the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, the Cook County Sheriff, the Cook County Assessor, the Cook County Recorder of Deeds and the Governor of the State of Illinois