Pravin Patel, ’12, Featured as Law360 Rising Star
Rising Star: Weil's Pravin Patel
Pravin Patel of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP successfully defended refrigerator maker Dometic Corp. against multiple class actions asserting billions in damages filed in Florida and California, defeating allegations its refrigerators for RVs leaked coolant and had design defects, earning him a spot among the class action practitioners under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.
His biggest case:
Patel said representing Dometic was the biggest case of his career.
"It was one of those cases, I was involved early on in my career, and it went through so many iterations and machinations," Patel said. "I feel like anything you can experience in a class action, I experienced it all in a series of class action, which made it one of the coolest as well as the most challenging cases."
The firm secured summary judgment in the Florida case in 2017. The following year, the firm stamped out the plaintiffs' bid to create a multidistrict litigation outside of Florida and persuaded a court to consolidate the cases in Florida.
In 2019, Dometic defeated class certification, although the Eleventh Circuit reversed that decision. On remand, Dometic won its bid to exclude the plaintiff consumers' expert, which led to the action being withdrawn with prejudice, Patel said.
Dometic didn't pay or admit wrongdoing and was released from the claims in March 2023.
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