Overview

Dennis J. Lynch practices in the Firm’s Business and Commercial Litigation Group and as a member of the group’s Antitrust Team. The majority of his practice is devoted to complex civil and antitrust litigation.

His antitrust litigation experience includes both defending against and prosecuting nationwide and regional antitrust claims, both in the private and class action context.  Dennis has represented clients in antitrust matters involving a diverse array of businesses, including ocean shipping, textiles, herbicides, air cargo, timber, food products, transportation and transportation logistics, polyurethane foam, and bedding. The primary focus of Dennis’s practice is on representing, as plaintiffs, companies that seek to recover damages because they were significant purchasers of products or services impacted by price-fixing, bid-rigging, customer allocation, and/or other violations of federal and state antitrust laws. His clients range from major Fortune 50 companies to small privately held businesses.

In addition to his complex business and antitrust work, Dennis’ practice also includes trucking and transportation litigation, as well as representing the governmental litigation interests of corporate clients.  He also serves as co-chair of the firm’s trucking and transportation practice group.  

Dennis received his B.A. in English from Villanova University in 1986, where he was a member of the Honors Program and the Dean's List. He worked as a book editor for Texas A&M University Press before attending South Texas College of Law, where he received his J.D. in 2000. While in law school, Dennis was the recipient of the C.J.S. Awards for Torts and Property and served as a Langdell Scholar Property Instructor. He spent his last semester of law school as a visiting student at the University of South Carolina School of Law, where he argued before the South Carolina Supreme Court as a Finalist in the J. Woodrow Lewis Moot Court Competition.  

 

Community & Professional

  • American Bar Association
  • South Carolina Bar
  • Richland County Bar Association
  • South Carolina Defense Trial Attorneys Association (SCDTAA); Vice Chair, SCDTAA Trucking Substantive Law Committee
  • South Carolina Trucking Association
  • Wood Inn, South Texas Honors Chapter of Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity

Outside Maynard Nexsen

Dennis and his wife, Sara, have two children. When not in the office, he enjoys spending time with his family, whether golfing with his son, fly fishing and hiking in the North Carolina mountains, or lazing at the beach.

Experience

  • Prosecution and settlement of claims in MDL 1516, In re Polyester Staple Fiber Antitrust Litigation, on behalf of more than twenty textile, non-woven, and carpet companies located in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina for alleged price-fixing and customer allocation.
  • Prosecution and settlement of claims of fifteen major companies (including Fortune 500 consumer products, food and retail companies, and diverse non-vessel operating common carriers) in their lawsuit seeking to recover damages caused by an alleged six-year conspiracy to fix rates and surcharges on ocean shipping between the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

  • Prosecution and settlement of claims of four plaintiff bedding companies which were impacted by an alleged ten-year conspiracy to fix the prices of polyurethane foam in connection with MDL 2196, In re Polyurethane Foam Antitrust Litigation.

  • Representation of companies which were injured by an alleged conspiracy of the four major class 1 railroads in the U.S. to raise rail freight rates through the adoption of stand-alone revenue-based fuel surcharges in connection with MDL 1869, In re Rail Freight Surcharge Antitrust Litigation.

  • Class counsel for a certified class of timber owners in four states in the Southeast U.S. in a case alleging price suppression of pulpwood timber purchased by the world’s largest paper and wood products company.  After a litigation class was certified, the Court approved a class settlement of $12.4 million.

  • Part of defense team for two lawsuits filed by a major multi-national chemical company seeking in excess of a billion dollars in damages for alleged anticompetitive practices against our client, a major producer of herbicides and herbicide-resistant seeds.

  • Lead counsel in constitutional challenge to and settlement of local government amendment to a business license fee ordinance, on behalf of a large international manufacturer.

  • Represented incumbent mayor in primary election dispute.

Recognitions

  Columbia Business Monthly's Legal Elite of the Midlands, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023

Media

Led and sat on various S.C. Defense Trial Association panels on transportation law;

Conducted Antitrust Compliance seminars for firm corporate clients. 

Co-Authored "Should Major Customers Opt-out of or Exclude Themselves from Antitrust Class Actions?" for the March 2017 ACC Newsletter.

News

Admissions

  • State Bar: South Carolina
  • U.S. Court of Appeals: Fourth Circuit
  • U.S. District Court: South Carolina
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