Jeff Tillotson, P.C.
Partner
P: 214.981.3838
vCard: Jeff Tillotson, P.C.
Complex Civil Litigation including, Consumer Class Actions, Fraud, and Securities Matters
Overview.
Few lawyers in the country have as much complex litigation experience as Jeff Tillotson. Even fewer have as much trial experience in complex multi-party cases. For example, over the past few years alone, Mr. Tillotson has been the lead lawyer in over a dozen major multi-party cases brought in courts in nine different states for clients such as the nation’s largest consumer finance company, its third largest bank; its second largest credit card issuer and forty of the nation’s leading industrial concerns. These cases involved all possible aspects of complex litigation -- multiple parties, competing venues, extensive discovery, complex strategy and intense media scrutiny. While the cases were profiled in everything from the Wall Street Journal to Nightline to CBS Evening News to People magazine, the results were the same -- victory for his clients.
Some Representative Trials and Cases.
Zixit v. Visa USA and Visa International. Represented Visa USA and Visa International in a first-of-its-kind internet defamation case. Zixit sought some $700 million in damages but, after a four week trial, the jury found for Visa. The case received considerable media attention and was later profiled by the National Law Journal as one of the "Defense Wins of the Year" in 2003.
City of Dallas v. Redbird Development Company. A true "David and Goliath" case if there ever was one. Tillotson represented RDC, a small company that operated Redbird Airport in Dallas (now Executive Airport). The City, in an act motivated more by local politics than common sense, terminated the lease, locked RDC out of the property, used the termination as grounds for accelerating a loan the City had made to RDC and then sued RDC for the balance due. Left with little more than a few boxes of personal records, RDC asked Jeff Tillotson to take on the City in a wrongful termination lawsuit. Tillotson and LTP put together a daring trial strategy and after a three week trial, the jury not only rejected the City’s case but awarded RDC $3 million in damages on its counterclaim. The case was later affirmed on appeal and then settled for the amount of the jury award. Other cases include Saminia v. BancTec, Southwestern Bell and PacifiCare BOA
Appellate Experience.
Mr. Tillotson has successfully handled numerous cases on appeal. Over the past few years, he argued cases before the Second, Fifth and Ninth Circuits, the Texas Court of Appeals for Dallas, Eastland, Tyler and Corpus Christi. Some representative appeals include:
Mireles v. Southwestern Bell Telephone (now SBC). Mr. Tillotson handled the appeal of this groundbreaking class action case. The appeal involved complicated class action certification and settlement approval issues. It resulted in two opinions from the Court of Appeals (one of which announced a new standard for how objectors gain standing to pursue an appeal of a class action judgment and one of which affirmed the lower court’s judgmentx) and two trips to the Texas Supreme Court. On subsequent briefing filed by Jeff Tillotson, the Texas Supreme Court reversed itself and dismissed its prior granting of review as "improvidently granted."
Others include In Re Gibraltar Litigation and Dallas Independent School District v. Dr. Waldemar Rojas, Superintendent of DISD
Awards and Honors
Mr. Tillotson was recognized in August 2002 by the National Law Journal as having tried The Defense Win of the Month. On September 10, 2001 The Texas Lawyer Recognized him as "One of Texas' 40 Outstanding Lawyers Under 40."
Admissions
Mr. Tillotson is admitted to the State Bars of Texas and California. He has handled cases in over fifteen different Texas counties (including Dallas, Houston, Austin, El Paso, Tyler, Fort Worth, Wichita Falls, Corpus Christi, McAllen, as well as cases in Southern and Northern California.
In addition, he is admitted to practice before the United States Courts of Appeal for the Second, Third, Fifth and Ninth Circuits. Additionally, he is admitted to practice before the U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Western, Southern and Eastern Districts of Texas as well as the Northern, Central and Southern Districts of California.
Personal Background
A native Texan, Jeff was born in San Antonio, Texas. His forbears settled in Texas generations ago, and his great-great-great-great-great grandfather, Jose Antonio Navarro, was a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, a drafter of the Texas Constitution, one of the first elected to the Texas Congress and later its Senate, and the namesake for Navarro County in East Texas.
Mr. Tillotson’s talent at advocacy revealed itself early on as he was the 1979 Texas State Debate Champion while a junior at Jesuit College Prep in Dallas. He attended Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and the London School of Economics, graduating from the former in 1984. He obtained his law degree with honors from the University of Texas at Austin. Before putting his name on the door at LTP, Mr. Tillotson practiced with New York’s Shearman & Sterling (in their Los Angeles office) and Baker Botts, LLP (in their Dallas office).
Michael Lynn Named to D Magazine Best Lawyers List For Third Time - PDF (240kb)
Michael Lynn, name partner in Dallas' Lynn Tillotson & Pinker, L.L.P., has been named one of the Best Lawyers in Dallas by D Magazine. Mr. Lynn, who was selected for his expertise in Business Litigation, was also named to the Best Lawyers list in
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