Litigation and Dispute Resolution
- Holland & Knight's Litigation and Dispute Resolution Practice is one of the largest in the United States.
- We offer a full range of advocacy services and a combination of seasoned trial lawyers with experienced alternative dispute resolution lawyers to craft a personalized approach to address each client's unique needs.
- Our team leverages technology, including our own proprietary data management systems, to manage the high volume of paperwork that is endemic to litigation, and we provide leadership to our clients on the latest developments in the fast-moving field of e-discovery.

Overview
Holland & Knight’s Litigation Practice, one of the largest in the United States, has been successful in achieving results in a wide range of controversy work – federal and state, trial and appellate, international and domestic, and through arbitration and other forms of alternative dispute resolution. Our litigation attorneys regularly handle complex commercial litigation, class actions, international litigation, securities litigation, bankruptcy and creditors' rights matters, product liability and mass disaster cases, white collar and enforcement defense cases, and labor and employment matters. We apply our deep experience to handling matters in certain key industries, including construction, government contracts, aviation and maritime.
Whether you are a large, medium-sized or small company, we are committed to your satisfaction through responsiveness and the value of the services we provide.
Strength in Your Corner
We understand the importance of choosing the right lawyer and the best law firm to handle litigation, or controversies that could result in litigation. Our litigation lawyers have extensive case-handling experience, and can draw on broad subject matter knowledge throughout the firm as necessary to support your positions. We have the resources to properly staff cases, and the sensitivity to avoid overstaffing. We look for approaches that will be most effective, taking account of economic and non-economic objectives. Our services include:
- evaluation and risk assessment
- development of strategy in consultation with the client, informed by knowledge of your industry, the substantive law, and the procedural requirements of the forum
- vigorous and sustained advocacy
- timely consultation and responsive communications
- a focus on results
Representation Wherever and Whenever You Need Us
With offices across the U.S., and international offices and relationships that give us a global reach, we are able to mobilize wherever and whenever you need us. Working with our litigation practice means partnering with problem solvers who have gone toe-to-toe with some of the toughest adversaries in the country. Further, our trial and appellate litigators – including former judges, prosecutors and regulatory officials – work collaboratively with other Holland & Knight practice teams to provide the most informed and efficient representation possible.
Using Technology to Your Advantage
Our technology (including RealPractice) gives us the ability to retrieve extensive work product saved in our system, increasing efficiency and decreasing costs. In recent years, fueled by the December 2006 e-discovery amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, e-discovery has transformed litigation and created new risks – including default judgments, adverse inference instructions and imposition of fines and attorneys' fees – for companies who are not prepared to meet their obligations to identify, preserve and produce electronically stored information (ESI).
Holland & Knight has a dedicated E-Discovery Team to help you manage those risks intelligently and efficiently. We will guide you through the critical early e-discovery process, and follow through by cost-effectively managing the collection and production of ESI. In addition, our e-discovery attorneys work closely with our Global Compliance Team to design and implement records management programs. Smart records management helps reduce data management and storage costs and, at the same time, achieve e-discovery readiness. With this coordinated approach, we can help you reduce risk and ease the cost and burden of future e-discovery activities.
The Value of Having a Seamlessly Integrated Team on Your Side
Our ultimate goal is two-fold: to create opportunities for you to prevail in your dispute, and to provide you with the value that results from having an efficient, seamlessly integrated team for addressing any case or controversy on which we are engaged.
Representative Engagements
- Lead counsel for a closely held manufacturing company and its founder/majority shareholder in corporate governance and freeze-out litigation with family-member shareholder and former company CEO; after successfully advising client to enforce the terms of the shareholder agreement to allow client to repurchase shares from one minority shareholder, client was able to settle with the former CEO on highly favorable terms for the client on the eve of trial in 2021
- Lead counsel for information technology (IT) infrastructure firm in breach of contract lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina involving the technology buildout for a national consumer services franchise involving more than 1,000 locations nationwide; successfully dismissed Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) counterclaim and settled the case on client-favorable terms prior to trial in 2020
- Lead counsel for an international travel and real estate rental business in a regulatory enforcement matter before the Massachusetts Division of Professional Licensure; obtained complete victory for the client at summary judgment in 2021
- Trial counsel for a storied video codec company that was founded in San Diego in 2000 as complainant at the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) enforcing patents relating to internet video and streaming media against several large company defendants; several weeks before the USITC hearing, two of the parties settled all matters on client-favorable terms and another was terminated from the investigation, leaving one remaining respondent/defendant; the trial went forward in July 2021 and the remainder of the investigation was terminated following a client-favorable settlement in fall 2021
- Lead counsel for a New England labor union in defense against antitrust and labor claims asserted by competing labor unions in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut; successfully obtained summary judgment in clients' favor and successfully upheld the victory after oral argument at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
- Lead trial counsel for a personal creditor in a breach of oral contract claim brought against a debtor in Massachusetts Superior Court in 2019; jury returned a verdict for the full amount of the debt owed and judgment entered for that amount plus interest; also successfully represented the same client before the Appeals Court, which issued a decision affirming the trial court judgment in all respects
- Lead counsel for a Milwaukee-based manufacturing company in defense of a lawsuit pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California; successfully argued and convinced the court to dismiss the plaintiff's Lanham Act and unfair trade practices claims, and successfully briefed and won an objection to the plaintiff's motion; the remaining patent claims were resolved heavily in the client's favor after favorable claims construction ruling from the court
- Lead counsel for the trustee for the holders of $189 million worth of industrial development revenue bonds in an adversary proceeding in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Texas involving multimillion-dollar claims of fraud and equitable subordination brought by a creditor of the development project debtor; case was resolved favorably for the client in context of bankruptcy
- Lead trial counsel for a San Francisco-based life sciences company in defense of a commercial contract dispute with a supplier of essential supplies in Maryland state court; successfully knocked out plaintiffs' $170 million damages claim
- Lead trial counsel for a multinational insurance company defending against bad faith claims brought in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts by another insurance company; obtained a complete victory for client after two-week bench trial
- Lead trial counsel in a Massachusetts Superior Court for iconic, family-owned Boston restaurant business that was forced into bankruptcy and eventually closed as a result of the Big Dig construction project; after a three-week trial, the jury awarded the full measure of clients' requested damages, which was among the top jury verdicts in 2015 in Massachusetts
- Served as lead trial counsel for a well-known public company in a corporate governance, breach of fiduciary duty and contract dispute against former company officers; case was settled on client-favorable terms following jury selection
- Represented a national healthcare services company following a $125 million acquisition in post-transaction litigation brought by the seller in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts and obtained a favorable summary judgment and an award of full attorney's fees for client
- Successfully defended the same national healthcare services company in several business disputes, including as lead trial counsel in trial victory against claims brought by a commercial services provider
- Successfully defended a municipal police department and police commission against reverse race discrimination claims brought by a police officer and obtained judgment in his clients' favor following a one-week bench trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut