With steadfast focus on the big picture and ultimate goal, Lisa Marie Kaas defends corporate clients in complex, high-value civil litigation and commercial disputes. Her clients have included U.S. and multinational businesses spanning a broad range of industries including pharmaceuticals and healthcare products, industrial and consumer products, transportation, aviation, energy, and government contracts. Lisa’s diverse practice includes, but is not limited to:
- Defense of antitrust and unfair competition claims
- Construction and engineering litigation, claims, and disputes
- Commercial contract and lease disputes and litigation
- Common carrier liability
- Defense of personal injury claims
- Insurance coverage litigation
- Intellectual property and trade secret matters
Lisa has extensive experience in antitrust litigation and counseling on competition issues including price fixing, bid rigging, market allocation, information exchange, boycotts, resale price maintenance, monopolization, tying, and price discrimination. Her practice includes defending federal and state antitrust and unfair competition claims in individual and class actions alleging billions of dollars in damages, negotiating civil regulatory investigations, and counseling companies on compliance with antitrust laws and minimizing risk associated with sales, marketing, and distribution practices and agreements. She has been recognized by her peers as a “Rising Star” of the Washington, D.C. antitrust bar in Super Lawyers.
Currently, Lisa is a principal member of trial teams litigating construction and engineering disputes involving petrochemical and industrial plastics plants in the Southern and Midwestern United States, respectively.
Lisa’s clients benefit from her substantial courtroom experience, which includes successfully arguing major dispositive and non-dispositive motions in trial courts and successfully arguing an appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in which class plaintiffs’ failure to adduce evidence supporting their expert’s theory of injury and damages was affirmed. Lisa has taken and defended numerous corporate representative, fact, and expert witness depositions. Her broad litigation management experience includes working closely with clients on litigation strategy and internal investigations, coordinating large-scale discovery efforts with an eye toward efficiency and cost management, working with industry and economic experts on highly complex issues, and organizing all aspects of trial preparation. Some of the more notable successes that Lisa has personally achieved or contributed to include:
- Securing dismissals at pleadings and summary judgment stages for a major international air carrier in actions alleging personal injuries and other claims
- Obtaining denials of class certification in multidistrict antitrust litigation
- Narrowing of litigation through dismissals of unsupported antitrust claims
- Securing dismissals of corporate parent entities
- Obtaining summary judgment, affirmed on appeal, in multidistrict antitrust class action litigation for lack of proof of injury and damages
- Negotiating favorable settlements after successfully defeating particular claims or, in some instances, prior to the expense of discovery
Before graduating law school, Lisa served as a contract project manager for the U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, Investigative & Forensic Sciences Division. There, she facilitated multidisciplinary technical working groups tasked with consensus development of recommended practices for law enforcement investigations and evidence collection, focusing her work primarily on eyewitness evidence. This experience solidified her interest in the law and provided a platform to develop the consensus building skills she effectively employs in her practice today.
Pro bono work has long been a priority for Lisa, who has donated her time to community legal advice clinics, a local advocacy group for the intellectually disabled, and animal welfare societies, among many others. Lisa also assisted in administration of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund through two iterations of the Fund. In recognition of her pro bono commitment, she has been named a “Pro Bono Hero” by the Virginia State Bar Special Committee on Access to Legal Services beginning in 2018, and repeatedly appears on the Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll.
When not practicing law or donating her time to meaningful causes, Lisa enjoys recharging her soul through all things outdoors, from hiking and trail running to paddle boarding and kayaking. She is an avid gardener and cook and, when she can find time for a creative outlet, an accomplished artist working in paint and pencil.
