John Hooper

Partner at King & Spalding

John’s advises companies to create and execute litigation and strategic resolution options in some of the largest, most complex class actions, commercial litigations and mass torts in federal and state courts. Hooper’s experience ranges from trials and arbitrations to mediations and settlements, and all stages of a case, from prelitigation to appeal.

He has been appointed by the federal and state courts as a Special Master, Special Settlement Master and Special Arbitration Master. He has also been appointed as the Lead Defense Settlement Liaison Counsel in MDL and other federal and state class and mass actions. He is a member of the Academy of Court Appointed Special Masters. John is a frequent speaker in the United States and Canada on topics related to class and mass actions.

Experience

• On June 12 ,2017, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida preliminarily approved a class action settlement with Toyota and the class involving over 9 million class members in In re: Takata Airbag Products Liability Litigation, 15-02599-MD-MORENO (S.D. Fla.). The Court also preliminarily approved class action settlements with three other defendant automobile manufacturers.  The settlements include a novel outreach program, out-of-pocket claims process, rental car/loaner program and a residual distribution.
• Was National Coordinating Counsel to C. R. Bard, Inc., a Fortune 100 medical device manufacturer, in a complex product liability litigation arising out of an FDA recall with the cases filed in an MDL, a consolidated Rhode Island state court action and individual state courts across the country. Successfully designed and implemented a strategy that tried two cases and resolved the great majority of the cases pending in the litigation.  We also implemented a Target Budget Fixed Fee arrangement that was narrowly tailored to meet the client’s needs and goals, and aimed at controlling costs across the board in this nationwide litigation.  In re Kugel Mesh Hernia Patch Products Liability Litigation, MDL Docket No. 07 1842-ML (D.R.I.), In re: All Individual Kugel Mesh Cases, Master Docket No.: PC-2008-9999 (Superior Court, Providence County, State of Rhode Island).
• Resolved In re New Orleans Tank Car Leakage Fire Litigation, No. 87-16374 and All Related Cases on Exhibit “A,” Civil District Court, Ad Hoc Division, Parish of Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, class action, which had been pending for over 10 years and involved the second largest punitive damages awards of $3.3 billion, prior to his involvement.  As the Court-Appointed Defense Settlement Liaison Counsel, they resolved the claims for five of the nine defendants.  There was a subsequent settlement of a sixth defendant that used a substantially similar settlement agreement.