John Q. Lewis of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP's Cleveland office is a seasoned trial lawyer specializing in high-stakes, complex disputes. Adept at securing court-approved class action settlements and managing multidistrict litigation, Lewis frequently leads defense teams in class action and contract-related lawsuits, notably those involving FDA-regulated devices and medicines, and sophisticated commercial disputes. He also represents plaintiffs in various contract and business tort matters. Recent representations include tech giant IBM in an ERP software dispute and telecoms infrastructure company Crown Castle in nationwide real estate and construction litigation.
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John is an experienced trial lawyer who has represented clients in high-stakes, complex disputes throughout the world. He has secured trial wins for public and private company clients against America’s top trial lawyers in jurisdictions around the country. But he also has frequently initiated innovative legal strategies that have led to early pre-trial exits for clients at the motion to dismiss or summary judgment stages of litigation, resulting in savings of millions of dollars in litigation expenses and verdicts. John’s experience includes delivering creative resolutions to complex disputes, including large-scale business solutions, protective court-approved class action settlements, and global resolution of all or major parts of multidistrict litigation. John on multiple occasions has defended against challenges to class settlements by objectors claiming the settlements were too favorable to clients, including the U.S. Department of Justice and state attorneys general. Clients engage John on both plaintiff-side and defense-side matters. On the defense side, he often heads up trial teams and national coordinating counsel representations in product liability, class action, and contract-related lawsuits, including those involving FDA-regulated devices and medicines, consumer products, recurring contract and property-related claims, and environmental and toxic tort actions. He also leads defense-side legal teams in one-off sophisticated commercial disputes, including transaction-related shareholder derivative and class actions, employment litigation related to non-compete and trade secret matters, professional liability and ethics-related claims, and complex supply and distribution agreement disputes. On the plaintiff side, John has represented clients and their legal departments in various types of contract and business tort matters, including joint venture, LLC and corporate governance disputes, post-closing disputes involving commercial transactions, pre-closing private equity and sophisticated shareholder class actions, professional negligence claims, trade secret and intellectual property litigation, and vendor and customer supply disputes.

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Key clients

  • IBM
  • Crown Castle Communications
  • Associated Materials, LLC
  • AbbVie Inc.
  • Safariland