Motley Rice LLC

Chairman: Joseph F. Rice

Number of partners: 46 member attorneys

Number of lawyers: 116

One of the nation’s largest plaintiffs’ litigation firms, Motley Rice works diligently to improve the lives of consumers, workers, families, investors, domestic and international businesses and communities harmed by wrongdoing and misconduct. The firm fights to protect its clients through all phases of litigation, including litigating individual cases, class actions, mass torts and consolidated actions against Fortune 500 companies and other formidable adversaries to recover losses, hold corporations accountable and deter future misdeeds, effecting positive change.

Motley Rice aggressively seeks justice and accountability for victims across a broad range of litigation, from complex securities and consumer fraud cases to leading some of the largest and most impactful product liability cases today.

Strengthened by a breadth and depth of knowledge, resources and experience, Motley Rice attorneys have helped shape some of the most significant settlements and decisions over the past 30 years.

• Anti-Terrorism
• Antitrust
• Asbestos Exposure
• Aviation
• Consumer Fraud Protection
• Corporate Takeover Litigation
• Human Rights
• Medical Devices
• Medical Drugs
• Nursing Home Abuse & Neglect
• Personal Injury & Wrongful Death
• Public Client
• Securities Class Actions
• Shareholder Derivative Actions
• Toxic Exposure
• Transportation
• Whistleblower

Motley Rice is a leader in several prominent product liability cases in state and federal courts related to dangerous medical drugs and devices, product recalls, vehicle defects and other hazardous products. Historically, this includes the leading role played by several of the firm’s attorneys in negotiating the $246 billion tobacco Master Settlement Agreement in the 1990s, the largest civil settlement in US history, for more than two dozen State Attorneys General.

Currently, Motley Rice co-founder Joe Rice is one of three co-lead counsel and a member of the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee for the National Prescription Opiate Litigation, filed in the Northern District of Ohio for more than 3,300 jurisdictions that are seeking accountability with regards to the opioid crisis. Joe recently led negotiations for the $26 billion combined settlement that was finalized in 2022 with opioid manufacturer Johnson & Johnson and the nation's largest opioid distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson. The firm also works closely with multiple state Attorneys General, local governments and other public entities in similar state-filed cases to help investigate and litigate against opioid manufacturers, distributers and pharmacies alleged to have played a role in creating the epidemic.

Additionally, Motley Rice attorneys served as lead counsel of the PEC for more than 30,000 Essure cases coordinated in California state court, and led negotiations for a favorable settlement reached in 2020 for impacted women. The firm also negotiated and established the framework for millions of dollars in settlements for tens-of-thousands of people harmed by TVM.

Motley Rice also co-led negotiations for the nearly $15 billion Volkswagen 'Clean Diesel' settlement to mitigate the effects of vehicle emissions, and represents or has settled more than three dozen claims made by personal injury victims alleging harm by Takata airbags in the US and Malaysia in the wake of the largest automobile recall in history. Motley Rice was the first law firm to thoroughly investigate the deadly Takata defect by disassembling airbag inflators found in junk yards, and played a key role in helping to negotiate a pair of bankruptcy resolutions for current and future Takata victims.

Motley Rice securities attorneys pull from all of the firm’s many practice areas to identify, research and litigate securities fraud, and protect clients through all phases of litigation to recover investor dollars and achieve needed reforms. The firm also advises institutional investors on when to consider opting out of pending class actions in favor of initiating their own direct actions both in the US and abroad.

The firm has held more than 60 lead or co-lead positions in securities fraud class actions and achieved more than $2 billion in aggregate recoveries for shareholders and investors. Motley Rice attorneys recently served as lead counsel for Twitter shareholders, achieving an $809.5 million preliminary settlement in 2021 to resolve litigation that alleged the social media giant misrepresented its daily user growth. The settlement will likely be counted among the top 20 securities class action settlements in the history of the federal Private Securities Litigation Reform Act.

The firm also served as liaison counsel, helping to reach a $192 million settlement for SCANA Corp., shareholders. The settlement 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 counted among the top 100 securities class action recoveries nationwide. Additionally, the firm recently helped negotiate a $79 million settlement as co-lead counsel to resolve ERISA litigation against Wells Fargo.

Motley Rice attorneys have worked for decades to bankrupt financiers of terrorist groups across the globe. The firm brought one of the largest aviation cases in history for 9/11 families, and launched a worldwide, private discovery effort to uncover the alleged negligence of airlines, security companies and airports in connection with the attacks. Motley Rice attorneys also took on innovative 9/11 litigation on behalf of more than 6,600 family members and survivors to investigate the attacks and hold those responsible accountable in civil court. The firm also pursued landmark litigation against Arab Bank for allegedly funding terrorism, marking the first time a financial institution had been brought to trial under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA).

Motley Rice co-led negotiations for the BP Deepwater Horizon Economic and Property Damages and Medical Benefits Settlements reached for businesses and communities impacted by the massive oil spill, one of which was the largest civil class action settlement in US history. More recently, Motley Rice served as one of the Interim Class Counsel on the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee for Flint, Mich., families harmed by the City’s water crisis, and helped negotiate a settlement in 2020 that resolved a federal class action in the Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division.

The firm also served 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, securing a $305 million abatement fund for a massive clean-up effort to protect children and families from exposure to toxic lead paint in homes. Additionally, Motley Rice consulted on the very first class action for workers in South Africa's history, and helped negotiate the resulting settlement for impacted gold mine workers who suffered health effects from toxic silica dust.