Motley Rice co-founder Joe Rice is recognized as a skillful and innovative negotiator of complex litigation settlements, having served as the lead negotiator in some of the largest civil actions our courts have seen in the last 20 years.
Corporate Legal Times reported that national defense counsel and legal scholars described Joe as one of the nation's “five most feared and respected plaintiffs’ lawyers in corporate America.” As the article notes, “For all his talents as a shrewd negotiator … Rice has earned most of his respect from playing fair and remaining humble.”
Joe was recognized by some of the nation’s best-regarded defense lawyers as being “the smartest dealmaker they ever sat across the table from,” Thomson Reuters has reported. Professor Samuel Issacharoff of the New York University School of Law, a well-known professor and expert in class actions and complex litigation, has commented that he is “the best strategic thinker on the end stages of litigation that I’ve ever seen.”
Since beginning to practice law in 1979, Joe has continued to reinforce his reputation as a skillful negotiator, including through his involvement structuring some of the most significant resolutions of asbestos liabilities on behalf of those injured by asbestos‐related products. He negotiates for the firm's clients at all levels, including securities and consumer fraud, anti-terrorism, human rights, environmental, medical drugs and devices, as well as catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases.
Most recently, Joe was appointed co-lead counsel in the National Prescription Opiate MDL aimed at combatting the alleged over-distribution and deceptive marketing of prescription opioids. Motley Rice represents dozens of state Attorneys General and municipalities, including the first jurisdictions to file cases in the current wave of litigation. In addition, Joe was appointed to the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee for In re Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep Ecodiesel Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation. Previously, Joe served as one of the lead negotiators in the $15 billion Volkswagen Diesel Emissions Fraud class action settlement for 2.0-liter vehicles, the largest auto-related consumer class action settlement in U.S. history, as well as the 3.0-liter settlement. He also has led negotiations on behalf of thousands of women in the transvaginal mesh litigation that has five MDLs pending in the state of West Virginia. Joe is a member of the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee for the Lipitor® multidistrict litigation and the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee for In re General Motors LLC Ignition Switch Litigation.