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August J. Matteis, Jr.

Washington, DC
(202) 499-7910
amatteis@wmclaw.com
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August J. Matteis, Jr. represents corporate plaintiffs in trials and litigations across the country. Mr. Matteis typically represents companies that have suffered damages from theft of intellectual property, fraud, unfair business practices, and breach of contract. He frequently represents policyholders in complex insurance coverage disputes and bad faith litigation. Mr. Matteis also represents whistleblowers and other individual plaintiffs in cases involving fraud and discrimination.

Recent and current representative matters include:

• Serving as lead trial counsel in In re Outsidewall Tire Litigation, 09-cv-1217, and obtaining a $26 million jury verdict on behalf of Alpha Mining Systems, a Florida-based tire designer and distributor. In October 2009, Alpha filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Virginia against a tire distributor from Dubai and a tire manufacturer from China for stealing Alpha's intellectual property, including blueprints, related to specialized underground mining tires that were designed and developed by the plaintiff. Just eight months later, a jury found that the defendants were liable for copyright and trademark infringement, conversion and civil conspiracy. The verdict was the largest verdict of any kind in Virginia in 2010 and one of the top 100 verdicts in the country.
• Serving as lead counsel in an insurance coverage trial against the liability insurer of a defunct insulation installer with millions of dollars in asbestos liabilities. After a four-month trial, a New York trial court found that claims arising out of exposure to asbestos while it was being installed were not subject to aggregate limits under comprehensive general liability policies. The trial victory was described as one of the ten most significant insurance coverage decisions of 2007.
• Serving as lead trial counsel representing whistleblowers in a qui tam False Claims Act case against State Farm. The whistleblowers allege that the insurer committed fraud against the U.S. government in the wake of Hurricane Katrina by improperly shifting losses under its homeowner's policies onto government-issued flood policies by mischaracterizing damage caused by wind as flood damage. The whistleblowers prevailed at a summary judgment evidentiary hearing, and are awaiting trial in the Southern District of Mississippi.
• Representing a class of policyholders in a case that survived dismissal and was certified in 2010 in the Northern District of California against a life insurance company for breaching the terms of their so-called vanishing premium life insurance policies.
• Representing the former CEO of a major technology company in a dispute with insurers regarding alleged options backdating.
• Representing whistleblowers in a complex claim under the Internal Revenue Service whistleblower provisions.

Mr. Matteis also has an active pro bono practice. He recently represented disability rights groups and individuals with disabilities against a major hotel chain and a nationwide retailer seeking remedies for accessibility barriers that violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. Mr. Matteis received outstanding achievement awards from the Washington Lawyers Committee and the Equal Rights Commission for helping to achieve landmark settlements on those matters.

Mr. Matteis began his career as an associate at Skadden, Arps, and then was a partner at Gilbert LLP.