Ed Barnidge focuses on commercial and complex civil litigation in federal and state courts across the country, including trials, arbitrations, and regulatory matters. He has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in many high-dollar disputes.
Ed has particular experience in disputes involving commercial contracts, financial services and instruments, false claims acts, franchise matters, consumer advertising and disclosures, retail financing, and antitrust.
Ed co-chairs the firm’s Class Actions and Consumer Defense practice.
Ed graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1993. He received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif, before clerking for Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong of the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California. He joined Williams & Connolly in 2000.
Representative Experience
Though all cases vary and none is predictive, Ed’s experience includes:
- Successfully defending civil RICO claims in a three-week jury trial that resulted in exoneration for a leading financial services company and law firm
- Successfully defending Hong Kong company in a securities case tried in the New York Supreme Court (Commercial Part)
- Successfully obtaining acquittal of journalist tried for crimes in North Dakota
- Defending national restaurant chain against putative class claims of false advertising
- Obtaining summary judgment on all claims in trade secrets misappropriation matter brought by software vendor
- Resolving class and representative wage-and-hour claims against employer
- Defending national licensor against claims of age discrimination and unlawful termination of web of licensee stores
- Defeating on summary judgment a nine-figure claim by the Lehman estate under a derivatives contract
- Successfully prosecuting a high-stakes breach-of-contract claim on behalf of a leading financial institution
- Successfully defending client at trial against multimillion dollar claims involving commercial real estate project
- Defending client against claims by government and qui tam claimants under state and federal False Claims Acts
- Vindicating on appeal a franchisor’s right to terminate a long-time franchisee
- Representing clients with environmental, public fisc, and cannibalization claims in connection with a high-profile government licensure program
- Leading internal investigation of alleged product defect in computing industry
- Defeating a claim for class representation brought by retail consumers against a high-profile dealership in a national automotive dealership chain
- Obtaining a dismissal in a putative class action involving purported financial fraud
- Leading internal investigations of claims of alleged retail financing frauds
- Lead attorney in arbitration of consumer claim involving purported retail financing fraud