Aaron D. Van Oort

Aaron Van Oort is a legal strategist, class action litigator, and appellate lawyer who co-chairs the Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath appellate advocacy group. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and a former clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia at the United States Supreme Court and for Chief Judge Richard Posner at the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

 

Aaron has defended more than 100 class actions across the country. In recent cases, he achieved review and reversal of an order certifying a class on environmental claims, Ebert v. General Mills, Inc., 823 F.3d 472 (8th Cir. 2016), won summary judgment on behalf of the National Football League (NFL) against retired players' publicity-rights claims and defended the win on appeal, Dryer v. National Football League, 814 F.3d 938 (8th Cir. 2016), negotiated and secured final approval of a nationwide class settlement in MDL litigation involving the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, In re: Capital One Telephone Consumer Protection Act Litigation, 80 F. Supp. 3d 781 (N.D. Ill. 2015), defeated certification of a putative California class seeking to certify employment classification claims, Juarez v. Jani-King , 273 F.R.D. 571 (N.D. Cal. 2011), and won dismissal of a putative nationwide class alleging consumer fraud claims, Taradejna v. General Mills, Inc., 909 F.Supp.2d 1128 (D. Minn. 2012).

 

Aaron is a frequent writer and speaker on appellate and class action litigation. He is a contributing author to the Eighth Circuit Appellate Practice Manual (7th ed. 2016), the ABA Appellate Practice Compendium (2013), and the deskbook Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Trade Practice Regulation in Minnesota. In October 2016, he moderated the panel on evaluating proposed class-action settlements under the proposed amendments to Rule 23 at the Duke Class-Action Settlement Conference.

 

Aaron is listed in the field of appellate law by Best Lawyers in America, Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business, and Minnesota Super Lawyers, and he is the current chair of the Minnesota State Bar Association Appellate Section.