Pat Lundvall

Practice Areas

Commercial & Complex Litigation

Employment & Labor Law

Appellate

Professional Memberships

Senior Fellow, Litigation Counsel of America

Co-Founder and Advisory Board member, Complex Commercial Litigation Institute

Member, Southern Nevada Association of Women Attorneys

Nevada Fellow, American Bar Foundation

Personal

Board Member, Secretary, Friends of the Nevada Mansion (current)

Board Member, Nevada Military Support Alliance (since its founding in 2003)

Work Highlights

Fremont Emergency Services (Mandavia), et al. vs. UnitedHealth Group, Inc. et al., case number A 19-792978-B (December 7, 2021) Pat served as lead Nevada trial counsel in a case that upended the national out-of-network healthcare reimbursement system with a jury verdict that awarded $60 million in punitive damages and $2.65 million in compensatory damages to three Nevada-based emergency room provider practice groups affiliated with Tennessee-based TeamHealth. The three groups filed suit in 2019 against UnitedHealthcare for underpaying out-of-network emergency room healthcare providers. After five days of jury selection, Pat presented opening statement before Eighth District Court Judge Nancy Allf in Las Vegas. Pat’s team at McDonald Carano conceived and directed all discovery; drafted, argued and won all of their 55 substantive pretrial motions; successfully convinced the court to sanction UnitedHealthcare with an adverse inference in the form of a jury instruction that was critical in closing arguments; and drafted and successfully opposed UnitedHealthcare’s two petitions for writ review and two motions to stay before the Nevada Supreme Court that UnitedHealthcare had attempted to use to prevent the case from being tried promptly. Pat and her team also drafted the briefs and Pat argued a critical case before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that established new precedent on ERISA preemption. Without a victory in that case, all cases across the nation brought by TeamHealth against UnitedHealthcare and other insurance carriers were at risk of being dismissed.

Endo Health Solutions, Inc., et al. v. The Second Judicial District Court (Washoe), et al. and City of Reno (Real Party in Interest) 81121, before the Supreme Court of the State of Nevada, En Banc. (Opinion dated July 29, 2021) Pat led oral argument, representing her clients (Petitioners Endo Health Solutions, Inc. and Endo Pharmaceuticals, Inc.) as well as 25+ attorneys and their clients. The successful outcome involved the original petition for a writ of mandamus challenging a district court order denying in part a motion to dismiss in a tort action. The Supreme Court held that a city’s power to maintain a lawsuit must be derived from an express grant of power or fall within a “matter of local concern” as defined in applicable statutory language. Though the district court found that the action involved a “matter of local concern,” it used its own definition of that term and misapplied the statutory definition. Thus, the Supreme Court remanded, directing the district court to reconsider the motion to dismiss and strictly apply the definition of a “matter of local concern” (as set forth in NRS 268.003) to the City’s claims. The district court granted in full Pat’s client’s and other co-defendants’ motion to dismiss all pending municipality and county cases filed in Nevada related to the opioid epidemic.

California Franchise Tax Board v. Gilbert P. HyattAfter a complete defense victory, on April 6, 2022, the Clark County District Court awarded McDonald Carano’s client $2,262,815.56 in recoverable costs, representing a conclusion to more than 24 years of litigation in a case that also overturned U.S. Supreme Court precedent dating back to 1979. Pat led a litigation and appellate team representing the California Franchise Tax Board since 1998 in a matter adverse to inventor Gilbert P. Hyatt which went before the U.S. Supreme Court three times and the Nevada Supreme Court numerous times. The case was closely watched throughout the country as it evolved from a simple state income tax dispute to a broader constitutional concern about state sovereignty and whether a private party may sue a non-consenting state in another state’s courts. Hyatt, who had moved to Nevada from California, complained the FTB had committed torts while auditing him. In the first case, he won hundreds of millions of dollars in Nevada state courts, but the FTB appealed. In 2016, the second time the parties appeared at the Supreme Court, Hyatt’s award was greatly reduced, but on the constitutional matter of whether Hall should be overturned, the court split 4-4 in the wake of Justice Antonin Scalia’s death, spurring the FTB to come back in another attempt to overturn Nevada v. Hall. In a 5-4 decision from Justice Clarence Thomas, the justices overturned their 1979 precedent in Nevada v. Hall that had allowed such suits and handed a victory to the FTB. For California and more than 40 states that joined as amici, the decision is significant as a resident of one state will no longer be able to sue another state except in its own courts. Law360 reported on the May 2019 SCOTUS ruling in an article titled “States Can’t Be Sued In Other States’ Courts, Justices Say.”

Career

Pat Lundvall is a highly skilled litigator and Chair of McDonald Carano’s Commercial & Complex Litigation Practice. Since 2001, Pat has been Board Certified in Civil Trial Law and Civil Practice Advocacy by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (which awarded her a President’s Award in 2023) and is also Board Certified as a Civil Trial Advocacy Specialist by the State Bar of Nevada (the first attorney certified in the State).

Pat’s clients include local, state, national and international businesses of all sizes operating in nearly every sector of Nevada’s economy. She represents them as their primary outside counsel in every phase of complex commercial litigation. Pat also serves as Nevada counsel in complex multiparty and multidistrict litigation, and out-of-state law firms regularly select Pat to represent their clients when suit is necessary in Nevada.

Pat has successfully represented clients in judge and jury trials in state and federal courts, as well as on appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court. She is particularly experienced in handling complex business disputes involving business entity disputes and dissolutions, healthcare, fraud including government fraud, unfair trade practices, unfair competition, RICO and antitrust violations, among others. Pat also handles matters involving employment law, defamation, deprivation of constitutional rights, and wrongful death.

Pat also dedicates time and expertise to pro bono work, including cases through the Office of Military Legal Assistance under the Attorney General’s Office, which is a pro bono service program that McDonald Carano helped create.

Awards and Recognition

Martindale-Hubbell – AV Preeminent Peer Review Rating (since 2001)

Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business – Band 1 in Commercial Litigation (2011-2024)

The Best Lawyers in America – Commercial Litigation (2006-2024), Labor and Employment Litigation (2011-2024), Appellate (2023, 2024)

Business Today – “Top 10 Remarkable Nevada Commercial Litigation Lawyers to Watch” (2023)

National Board of Trial Advocacy – President’s Award (2023)

Nevada Business Magazine – “Women to Watch” (2023)

Profiles in Diversity Journal – “Women Worth Watching in Leadership” (2023)

Vegas Inc – “Top Lawyers” in Appellate (2024) and Business Litigation (2024, 2023)

Real Las Vegas – “Leading Lawyers of Las Vegas” (2021-2024)

Vegas Inc – “Women Inspiring Nevada” award (2022)

Mountain States Super Lawyers – “Super Lawyers” (2007-2024)

Mountain States Super Lawyers – “Top 50 Women Lawyers” (2010-2024)

Mountain States Super Lawyers – “Top 100 Lawyers” (2022-2024)

Top Verdicts & Settlements of the West “Top 25 Verdicts 2021” – #1 largest in Nevada, #1 largest in Contract Law in the 13-state West region, and #9 largest in all areas of law in the 13-state West region, (Fremont Emergency Services (Mandavia), et al. vs. UnitedHealth Group, Inc. et al., Dec. 7, 2021)

Vegas Magazine – “Vegas Gives Honoree” (2019)

Nevada Business Magazine – “Top Rank Attorneys” (2009, 2011, 2015, 2017)

“Distinguished Nevadan” Award presented by Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents (2012)

“New Thinking About Thinking” Award from Keep Memory Alive/The Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health (2011)

Publications

Presenter, “Litigation v. Arbitration: What to Choose and Why,” Litigation Counsel of America, Spring Retreat, April 17-19, 2024

Leadership Q&A, “How I made Practice Group Chair,” Law.com, March 22, 2024

Feature Interview, “Legal Goddess Leads the Way in Commercial Litigation at Every Judicial Level, Including the High Bench,” Of Counsel, November 2023

Scheduled Presenter, Women In Law Series – Appellate Law, Southern Nevada Association of Women Attorneys, August 3, 2023

Quoted, “Lawyers Must Navigate Client Privacy Before Suits See Public Eye,” Bloomberg Law, June 2, 2022

Presenter, Nevada Supreme Court Roundup, Association of Corporate Counsel, May 25, 2022

Quoted, “‘This is Not a Criminal Trial,’ Ford’s Lawyer Tells Judiciary Republicans,” National Law Journal, September 25, 2018

Quoted, “How Companies Can Avoid Pitfalls of a Bad Sexual Harassment Policy,” Corporate Counsel, November 22, 2017

Quoted, “Lawyers as HR Leaders? The Jury’s Still Out,” Bloomberg BNA – Human Resources Report, July 10, 2017

Quoted, “Avoiding a Business Foul: Practical Steps to Dodge Business Litigation,” Nevada Business Magazine, March 1, 2017

Feature Interview, “Gender Blindness: Meet Pat Lundvall,” My Vegas magazine, January 1, 2017