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Craig D. Mills
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Craig D. Mills

Executive Shareholder

Philadelphia, PA
Charlotte, NC
 
 

Craig D. Mills' litigation practice emphasizes intellectual property, business torts, corporate control issues, the enforcement of contracts and construction.

Craig's courtroom experience ranges from rural county courts in North Carolina to the United States Supreme Court and every level of litigation in between, reflecting a broad spectrum of complex intellectual property claims, fraud, trade secret and unfair trade practices actions, restrictive covenants, construction disputes, and all manner of contract actions.  Craig has a truly national practice.

Since 2006, Craig has been consistently selected to the Pennsylvania Super Lawyers® list. He has also been selected to the Corporate Counsel Super Lawyers® list and awarded Martindale-Hubble’s “AV/Preeminent” rating (Judicial Edition), the highest possible rating for both legal ability and ethical standards as judged by a confidential survey of other members of the bar and of the judiciary. In 2018, the Philadelphia Business Journal named Craig “Best of the Bar” for commercial litigation. Most recently, Craig was recognized in The Best Lawyers in America© 2023 and 2024 editions in the Commercial Litigation category.

Representative cases include:

  • United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania:  In a dispute between the owners of a large regional vending company, obtained an order finding the opposing party in contempt and directing him to pay our client $1.25 million in sanctions for failing to comply with the award in an underlying arbitration.

  • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:  Won the dismissal with prejudice of a proposed class action accusing a national grocery chain of violating state law by incorrectly charging sales tax on tax-exempt protective face coverings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Montgomery County, Pennsylvania: Won a complete defense verdict for our client, an accountant who left a firm in which he was a minority shareholder to found a competing accounting firm, and was then sued by his former firm in a 12-count Complaint seeking injunctive relief and over $2 million in damages. No such injunction was entered, and after a 7-day bench trial the court entered judgment in our client’s favor on all counts, awarding the plaintiff nothing.
  • United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida: In a case that received national media attention, obtained the dismissal (with prejudice) of a putative nationwide class action asserting claims for Sherman Act violations and unfair trade practices against our client, a national quick-service restaurant, based upon its alleged unfair pricing practices for quarter-pound hamburgers as sold with and without cheese.
  • Chicago, Illinois:  In two separate actions concluded over the span of 45 days, forced two different non-practicing entities (“NPEs,” often referred to as “patent trolls”) to withdraw claims for patent infringement filed against our clients, a sporting goods manufacturer and a running shoe company, shortly after suit was filed and without payment of any settlement amount by filing or threatening to file counterclaims against the NPEs for violating state anti-trolling or other unfair trade practice statutes.
  • St. Louis, Missouri: Won dismissal of all claims in a consumer class action lawsuit filed against our client, a pharmaceutical company.
  • Bucks County, Pennsylvania: Successfully resolved three construction disputes between the County and the architect, general contractor, and elevator and roofing contractors arising from the construction of the Bucks County Justice Center and the renovation of the Bucks County Administration building.
  • Raleigh, North Carolina: Launched and executed nationwide campaign to enforce a newly-issued patent relating to sporting goods through demand letters and sixteen federal patent infringement actions that caused more than 150 competitors to cease all sales of infringing products, while recovering significant royalties for our client.
  • San Francisco: Less than four business days after service of the complaint, forced the dismissal with prejudice of all claims in a consumer class action filed against a manufacturer of personal fitness products in the Northern District of California.
  • Philadelphia: Won a complete defense verdict for two utility companies in a five-day jury trial arising out of an automobile accident that resulted in a $5.25 million verdict against the co-defendants in the case.
  • Philadelphia: Won $2.4 million jury verdict in a breach of contract action tried in the Commerce Court division of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.
  • Manhattan: Obtained the expedited dismissal with prejudice of claims for breach of contract and deceptive business practices against our clients, an international bank and a loan servicing corporation, in an action arising out of a series of loan agreements originally filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York.
  • Muskogee, Oklahoma: After taking discovery and filing counterclaims against the plaintiff in a breach of contract action, settled all claims against our client for less than 3 percent of the plaintiff’s claimed damages.
  • Pike County, Mississippi: Obtained dismissal of a $600 million “mass action” claim involving the allegedly negligent supervision and monitoring of pharmaceutical product distribution.
  • New York City: Overcame a $15 million indemnification demand and recovered unpaid severance fees in an international contract dispute between the buyer and sellers of a weight loss company in the Southern District of New York.
  • Greensboro, North Carolina: Forced a competitor of our client to change the name, design and packaging of a consumer product that infringed upon two of our client’s trademarks, and to pay our client’s attorney fees and a royalty on all infringing products sold.
  • Media, Pennsylvania: Defeated a request for injunction in a dispute between former business partners that, if granted, would have forced the liquidation of one of the best-performing long-term capital investment funds in the United States.
  • Jackson County, Missouri: Won jury verdicts rejecting over $8 million in claims for breach of contract and tortious interference and awarding $130,000 on counterclaim for misuse of confidential information after a two-week trial in Jackson County Circuit Court.
  • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Successfully resolved claims for $4.5 million in breach of contract and promissory estoppel action during the fourth day of a jury trial held in the Court of Common Pleas.
  • Brooklyn, New York: Won verdicts rejecting $62 million in claims for breach of contract and tortious interference and awarding $2.8 million in damages on a counterclaim for breach of contract after a two-week jury trial in the Eastern District of New York. The court also fined the opposing party and its CEO $100,000 for presenting falsified evidence at trial, awarding $50,000 of that sanction to our client.
  • Kansas City, Missouri: After a two-day hearing, defeated a request for a preliminary injunction that, if granted, would have jeopardized millions of dollars of revenues per week for our client.
  • Houston, Texas: Obtained complete dismissal of $10 million claim for tortious interference less than 90 days after suit was filed.
  • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Won a $2.1 million verdict while defeating $700,000 in counterclaims in a breach of contract action tried in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.
  • Los Angeles, California: Obtained the complete dismissal of all claims and recovered attorney's fees for our client in an action for malicious prosecution and unfair trade practices heard in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
  • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Recovered $13.2 million in damages for our client on claims for breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets heard in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
  • Chester County, Pennsylvania: Won the largest annual verdict handed down in Chester County on claims for conversion and tortious interference arising from a corporate control dispute.
  • Harris County, Texas: Won a $6 million jury verdict in a construction dispute after a two-week trial in Houston.
  • Broward County, Florida:  Obtained the dismissal with prejudice of a class action claim filed against a well-known national restaurant chain, alleging that the company had improperly charged customers sales tax on sales of bottled water, which are not subject to sales tax under Florida law.  After the claim was initially dismissed as barred by Florida statutes, successfully defended and obtained the dismissal with prejudice of the plaintiffs’ constitutional challenge to those statutes.

Craig began his legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Terrence W. Boyle of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Before attending law school, Craig served in the Marine Corps as an infantry reconnaissance officer in various postings to the Mediterranean, Far East and Persian Gulf.