Ryan’s diverse litigation experience with a wide range of businesses enables him to recognize risks and manage challenges faced by his clients.

Ryan represents many kinds of businesses—including national retailers, manufacturers, suppliers, financial institutions, and utilities—in a variety of commercial litigation, employment, and intellectual property matters. He regularly defends against class actions, product liability, and toxic tort claims. Ryan also has significant experience with internal investigations and routinely advises national clients on e-discovery and other electronic data storage issues.

Ryan has extensive oral argument experience, including at trial, and has handled multiple appeals. Always working to stay alert to legal trends and provide clients with practical resources, Ryan is an editor of the firm’s Retail Law Resource blog, as well as a contributing author.

Relevant Experience

• Retail and Consumer Products: Representing national retailers, manufacturers, and suppliers in complex multi-plaintiff and class action cases, including alleged property damage, environmental damage, and personal injury.
• Retail and Intellectual Property: Representing national retailers in defense against alleged trademark infringement.
• Antitrust: Representing national retailer in private litigation challenge to vertical merger.
• Healthcare Products: Representing national conglomerate in consumer protection investigations concerning medical equipment.
• Healthcare Services: Representing managed care organization in litigation concerning management and delivery of Medicaid disability and behavioral health services.
• Environmental and Mass Tort: Representing major utility in defense again multi-plaintiff toxic tort claims, reaching favorable settlement.
• Environmental and Regulatory: Representing national retailer and manufacturer in defense against putative consumer class concerning allegedly defective imported products, winning rare dispositive motion in federal court against claims brought under the Clean Air Act.
• Financial Services and Consumer Lending: Representing financial institutions in litigation involving lending practices and federal and state consumer financial services laws, including the Truth in Lending Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and state counterparts.
• Financial Services and Fiduciary Obligations: Representing financial institution concerning its role as trustee, successfully arguing summary judgment motion disposing of breach of contract, fiduciary duty, and negligence claims.
• Labor and Employment: Representing national retailer in wage-and-hour class action, reaching favorable settlement and avoiding publicity.
• Government Compliance: Advising corporation concerning compliance obligations in response to North Carolina Department of Justice inquiry, avoiding fines and statutory penalties.
• Internal Investigations: Coordinating confidential internal investigation into accounting practices for corporation following employee embezzlement.

Bar Admissions

Education
JD, University of North Carolina School of Law, with honors, Editorial Board, North Carolina Law Review, 2007BA, Politics, Messiah College, magna cum laude, Boyer Scholar, 2002