Jason Burnette

Jason Burnette is an appellate lawyer with particular experience in products liability and class action issues. He has briefed and argued numerous appeals in state and federal courts, either defending successful defense verdicts or seeking reversal of multimillion dollar damages awards.

He has in-depth experience in challenging punitive damages verdicts and advising trial teams on procedural and substantive issues related to punitive damages claims. He has served as trial counsel on legal issues in dozens of state and federal trials in Florida on behalf of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.

In that capacity, he regularly advises trial teams and appears at trial to argue jury instructions, dispositive motions, and other legal issues. These include preemption, comparative fault, medical causation, admissibility of expert testimony, and statutes of limitation, among many others.

In addition to his work for Reynolds, Jason’s other products liability experience includes obtaining reversal of a jury verdict for a plaintiff against an ATV manufacturer (Yamaha Motor Corp., U.S.A. v. McTaggart, 2011). He has extensive complex litigation experience in a wide range of substantive areas encompassing numerous procedural issues such as class certification, removal, and post-trial relief.

Jason also has an active pro bono practice. He was part of the team of lawyers who successfully represented a habeas petitioner in McQuiggin v. Perkins (2013), and he regularly represents pro bono clients in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

EDUCATION:

• The University of Georgia (J.D. summa cum laude 2006; Editor-in-Chief, Georgia Law Review;
• A.B. in English summa cum laude with honors 1999)

BAR ADMISSIONS : Georgia and Florida

EXPERIENCE:

• Plaintiff-appellant successfully appeals civil rights case related to PLRA “three strikes” rule
• R.J. Reynolds wins jury verdict in Rounds “Engle progeny” trial
• R.J. Reynolds prevails in appeal of preemption decision
• U.S. Supreme Court rules for habeas corpus petitioner asserting “actual innocence”
• Non-citizen prevails before Eleventh Circuit in important immigration case
• R.J. Reynolds wins jury verdict in federal Fazekas ”Engle progeny” lawsuit
• Jones Day appointed appellate counsel in challenge to Ohio parole regulations
• Yamaha prevails in Georgia Supreme Court after certiorari is denied and Yamaha’s reversal of adverse jury verdict stands
• Jones Day obtains reversal and remand for civil detainee in Fourth Amendment case