Eric T. Werlinger

Representative Experience

• Appellate

• Multiple successful appeals on behalf of retail financial institutions in overdraft-fee class actions. After prevailing on motions to dismiss in trial court, Eric convinced the Fifth Circuit, Seventh Circuit, and Washington Court of Appeals to affirm with-prejudice dismissals on behalf of his clients.
• Persuaded the Federal Circuit to reverse a case-ending claim construction regarding the application of general rounding principles to specific pH values recited in patent claims. Following remand, Eric’s client prevailed on renewed claim-construction briefing and eventually at trial.
• Secured dismissal of a securities fraud suit against former officers of a merger target brought post-closing by a putative class of investors in the acquiring company. In a precedent-setting decision, the Second Circuit affirmed that investors in the acquiring company had no cause of action for pre-closing statements that the target company made about itself.
• Convinced the Federal Circuit to reverse the PTAB’s invalidation of a telecommunication patent by successfully challenging the Board’s construction of a crucial claim limitation.
• Obtained a rare defense-side petition for interlocutory review of a class-certification order in the Ninth Circuit in a securities fraud suit against a shipping-supply company and its executives.
• Represented a group of market makers as amici curiae challenging the SEC’s Transaction Fee Pilot program. In vacating the rule, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit quoted extensively from our brief—which explained the adverse impact of the Fee Pilot ignored by the Commission. N.Y. Stock Exch. LLC v. SEC, 962 F.3d 541 (DC Cir. 2020).
• Defeated multiple interlocutory appeals on behalf of a debtor in a mega-bankruptcy as part of a fiercely contested adversary action, navigating through a thicket of bankruptcy jurisdiction issues in the process.
• Successfully defended a medical device company in the Tenth Circuit against claims of securities fraud involving allegations of channel stuffing.
• Convinced the DC Circuit to vacate administrative findings and penalties assessed against two portfolio managers by the Securities and Exchange Commission related to the use of derivative hedging.
• Defended a complete dismissal of putative securities class action in the Third Circuit on behalf of leading bio-pharmaceutical company. Plaintiff argued that the company omitted information regarding regulatory proceedings before the Food and Drug Administration from its public filings.
• Successfully represented a major generic pharmaceutical company in the Federal Circuit, convincing the court to affirm the invalidation of several patents covering a multibillion-dollar drug.

• Trial court

• Obtained dismissal of multiple consumer class actions against banks and credit unions, succesfully arguing that the relevant account agreements foreclosed plaintiffs’ challenges to overdraft and NSF fee policies.
• Convinced a district court to dismiss with prejudice allegations of false Medicare billing under the False Claims Act, despite prior suggestions by the court that it might allow an amended complaint to go forward.
• Represented a start-up company in a securities suit involving allegations of misstated inventory and goodwill valuations and allegedly inadequate internal controls. The case settled favorably after limited discovery and mediation.
• Defended a super-regional bank in a putative securities class action suit involving allegations regarding bank’s internal controls over underwriting and reserving for loan loss. The case settled favorably after filing a motion to dismiss.
• Successfully enforced arbitration provisions on behalf of financial institutions and employers in various courts across the country.
• Represented a major hospitality company as plaintiff in contractual dispute in Fairfax Circuit Court, prevailing on demurrer to counter claims and navigating the case to favorable resolution.
• Prepared a successful motion to dismiss for a lender who was pled into third-party contract dispute on the eve of trial. Unable to respond to the motion, plaintiff voluntarily dismissed client in a matter of days.