Joshua Yount

Joshua D. Yount, a Litigation & Dispute Resolution partner in Mayer Brown’s Chicago office and a member of the firm’s top-ranked Supreme Court & Appellate practice, focuses his practice on class certification defense and appellate litigation. With experience successfully representing a wide variety of businesses, he offers clients sophisticated legal analysis, careful strategic thinking and vigorous advocacy.

Josh has been defending class actions for over 15 years, accumulating deep and wide experience. He has represented defendants in securities, consumer and insurance class actions in state and federal courts. He has obtained trial court denials and appellate court reversals of class certification.

He has handled petitions for interlocutory appeals from class certification rulings. He has defeated class actions at the dismissal and summary judgment stages. He has served as preservation counsel at a class action trial. And he has litigated jurisdictional issues under the Class Action Fairness Act.

In his appellate work, Josh has briefed and argued appeals in numerous federal and state courts. He also has assisted clients with trial and post-trial strategies to develop and preserve arguments for appeals. Josh’s work has been instrumental in achieving significant successes for major corporate clients in the US Supreme Court and other appellate forums.

Josh also has represented clients in some of the largest securities fraud cases ever litigated. He has participated in all phases of such litigation, from discovery to class certification to dispositive motions to appeals.

His cases have involved the major securities laws (the Securities Act, the Securities Exchange Act, and the Investment Company Act), as well the various preemption and immunity doctrines that govern common law and antitrust suits involving securities transactions.

Beyond his extensive work on appellate, class action, and securities matters, Josh has experience with a wide variety of business litigation in the areas of insurer defense, bankruptcy, accountant’s liability, antitrust, tort, contract, products liability, commercial disparagement and white collar criminal. In addition, Josh has worked on a number of pro bono appeals through Mayer Brown’s Seventh Circuit Project.

Before joining Mayer Brown in 2001, Josh worked at the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, first as a staff attorney and a temporary law clerk for Circuit Judge Diane P. Wood, then as a law clerk to Circuit Judge Ann Claire Williams.

Education :

• Illinois Wesleyan University, BA, summa cum laude
• The University of Chicago Law School, JD, with honors

Admissions :

• Illinois
• US Supreme Court
• US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
• US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
• US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
• US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
• US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
• US District Court for the District of Colorado

Experience :

• Achieved victory in the US Supreme Court for major investment banks, persuading the Court that an alleged agreement to rig the initial public offering process was immune from antitrust challenge.
• Obtained reversal of class certification for major investment banks in a securities fraud suit alleging manipulation of stocks recently taken public.
• Secured a series of voluntary and involuntary dismissals in putative class actions against a leading insurance company over allegedly improper reductions in payments for medical treatment.
• Handled strategy for opposing class certification in district court and briefed a petition for interlocutory appeal in a securities suit against underwriter and broker.
• Served as counsel for a paint company in an MDL multistate class action alleging product defects, ultimately negotiating favorable settlement.
• Handled appeals from excessive attorneys’ fee awards against an appliance manufacturer following class settlements.
• Obtained affirmance for an investment firm in an appeal that upheld the dismissal of a class action complaint challenging mutual fund practices.
• Obtained denial of class certification and dismissal for an on-line brokerage in a suit challenging the promptness of on-line securities transactions.
• Prevailed at trial and on appeal in a suit against a major bank subsidiary over the proper interpretation of lease and remarketing contracts.
• Obtained judgment for a turbo blower manufacturer, prevailing on defamation claims and defeating various counterclaims in a suit over allegedly false and disparaging statements about the parties and their products.
• Obtained judgment for an auto finance company in a state court and related bankruptcy action arising out of the auto dealer’s failure to repay loans.