Motley Rice nationally ranked in Chambers USA for first time

For the first time in Motley Rice’s history, Chambers USA recognized Motley Rice as a nationally ranked plaintiffs’ law firm today in the launch of its 2021 guide in the category of USA – Nationwide: Product Liability: Plaintiffs, Band 1. Motley Rice is one of only three firms nationally ranked as Band 1 in the Product Liability category.  

Motley Rice medical attorneys Fidelma Fitzpatrick,  Carmen Scott and Donald Migliori are newly ranked in this year’s guide as USA – Nationwide: Product Liability: Plaintiffs, Band 3. The firm’s co-founder Joe Rice is also ranked this year for the fifth time. Securities lawyer Serena Hallowell is also ranked in New York for Litigation: Securities: Plaintiffs.  

Chambers USA ranks law firms and lawyers in all 50 states in its “resource for consumers of legal services in the United States.” The publication performs its own research, emphasizing peer and client interviews, to decide which firms and lawyers to include in the rankings. The publication’s researchers “spend several months in carefully analyzing and researching each submitting firm and conducting several thousands of hours of interviews with referees.”

Firms and lawyers “need to demonstrate sustained excellence in order to be ranked in the guide,” according to Chambers USA. 

Motley Rice’s lawyers play a leading role and have influenced some of the most significant cases for plaintiffs in recent years in several practice areas. Led by co-founder Joe Rice as Co-Lead Counsel, Motley Rice is a leader of the National Prescription Opiate Multidistrict Litigation, which aims to hold opioid manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies accountable for their alleged role in causing the opioid epidemic. The firm’s representation includes dozens of states, cities, towns, counties and townships in opioid investigations and litigations filed in state and federal courts, including an ongoing bench trial in Orange County Superior Court for several California communities. Motley Rice also represents the City of Huntington, W.V., in one of the first MDL trials to go forward against distributors.

In 2020, the firm led negotiations of a $1.6 billion settlement to resolve the majority of Essure® birth control cases coordinated in California, helped negotiate a $641 million settlement for Flint, Mich., residents impacted by the city’s water crisis, and helped negotiate a $79 million settlement as co-lead counsel to resolve a class action filed against Wells Fargo under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. The firm also contributed to a $192 million settlement with SCANA Corp., as Liaison Counsel, reaching what was the largest securities class action recovery ever obtained in the District of South Carolina, among the largest in the history of the Fourth Circuit, and among the top 100 securities class action recoveries nationwide. 

Other  leadership roles held by the firm include leading national mass tort litigation for patients harmed by hernia mesh, leading national litigation for women who allege talcum powder products caused their ovarian cancer, serving as lead trial counsel in historic litigation in California that found three lead paint companies created a public nuisance by promoting the use of toxic lead pigment in homes, taking on cutting-edge litigation as lead counsel for more than 6,600 families and survivors of the 9/11 terrorist attacks who seek to bankrupt financiers of terrorism, and consulting on the very first class action settlement in South Africa’s history for workers, and dependents of workers, who suffered health effects from toxic silica dust.  

View Motley Rice LLC’s full Chambers USA profile.  

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About Chambers USA 

Chambers USA ranks lawyers and law firms based on several factors and considerations, including its own research and interviews with clients and lawyers alike in addition to reviewing submissions provided by the law firms. Individual lawyers are ranked in their practice area(s) based on their legal knowledge and experience, their ability, their effectiveness and their client service. An individual lawyer can be ranked while their law firm is not, and vice versa. 

According to Chambers USA, the 2021 guide featured more than 8,000 firms and nearly 22,000 individual rankings in more than 2,000 practice areas. Chambers completed research for the guide between August 2020 and February 2021. Rankings were included across all 50 states as well as nationally. Read more.