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Guenther Karl Fanter

Partner

Cleveland
T +1.216.861.7918
F +1.216.696.0740
kfanter@bakerlaw.com
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Overview

Karl Fanter serves as BakerHostetler’s Financial Services Industry team leader. He concentrates on complex commercial litigation, emphasizing class action defense and appeals, and crafting creative-yet-practical solutions for clients' most important cases. 

Karl also presents regularly on class action, ethics and appellate issues, as well as other litigation topics. He serves as co-chair of BakerHostetler's Pro Bono Committee.

Select Experience

  • Represented a senior government official in Iqbal v. Ashcroft, which involved challenges to detention policies after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The matter was litigated to the U.S. Supreme Court and resulted in a favorable defense ruling on pleading standards required to bring actions in federal court.
  • After seeing its market share decline over time, a nonprofit hospital in Northeast Ohio learned that a larger rival – which happened to be the biggest employer in the county – had converted hundreds of local employers to its captive insurance subsidiary by making secret payments to the independent insurance brokers that represented those employers. Karl was a member of the team that crafted a claim under Ohio's version of RICO based on a criminal statute outlawing improper payments to service providers of employee benefit plans. After a nine-week trial, the team won an unprecedented jury verdict under this theory. The case was argued on appeal, which resulted in the judgment being affirmed.
  • Successfully defended manufacturing companies against price-fixing claims in multiple jurisdictions, including related RICO actions.
  • Advised clients regarding antitrust compliance issues.
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Experience

  • Represented a senior government official in Iqbal v. Ashcroft, which involved challenges to detention policies after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The matter was litigated to the U.S. Supreme Court and resulted in a favorable defense ruling on pleading standards required to bring actions in federal court.
  • After seeing its market share decline over time, a nonprofit hospital in Northeast Ohio learned that a larger rival – which happened to be the biggest employer in the county – had converted hundreds of local employers to its captive insurance subsidiary by making secret payments to the independent insurance brokers that represented those employers. Karl was a member of the team that crafted a claim under Ohio's version of RICO based on a criminal statute outlawing improper payments to service providers of employee benefit plans. After a nine-week trial, the team won an unprecedented jury verdict under this theory. The case was argued on appeal, which resulted in the judgment being affirmed.
  • Successfully defended manufacturing companies against price-fixing claims in multiple jurisdictions, including related RICO actions.
  • Advised clients regarding antitrust compliance issues.
  • Defeated multiple class action lawsuits that challenged a bank's calculation of its variable interest rate loans. The plaintiffs sought to certify national and then state classes of commercial customers who received payment invoices that projected loan payments for a period during which the interest rate was unknown. The plaintiffs asserted claims under Ohio common law for breach of contract and breach of the implied duty of good faith and fair dealing.
  • Defeated a commercial class action involving alleged state tax payments on behalf of defendant petroleum jobber.
  • Successfully resolved nationwide class action lawsuits on behalf of defendant teleservices company.
  • Member of the team that successfully defeated a class action and related claims in connection with a train derailment involving the release of ethanol, propane and other chemicals.
  • Member of the team representing a federally insured bank in a matter involving a novel banking product being offered to consumers. Representing the bank in five parallel putative nationwide class action lawsuits initially filed in federal courts, now consolidated into a single action. The action challenges the product, compares the bank to a payday lender and seeks to shut down the bank's most profitable consumer line of business. The lawsuit is the first of its kind and raises complicated issues of first impression in a highly regulated area of law overseen by a number of agencies.
  • Defended companies -- including a telecommunications company, a teleservices company and a nonprofit organization -- in class actions alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

Recognitions and Memberships

Recognitions

  • Acritas Star (2016)

Memberships

  • American Bar Association
  • Ohio State Bar Association
  • Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association

News

News

Events

Services

Industries

Prior Positions

  • Cleveland Office Hiring Committee
  • Cleveland Office Pro Bono Coordinator

Admissions

  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, 2004
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio, 2003
  • U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Ohio
  • Ohio

Education

  • J.D., Harvard Law School, 2002, Member, Harvard International Law Journal
  • B.A., Bowling Green State University, 1999

Blog

In The Blogs

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Class Action Lawsuit Defense
BakerHostetler's 2023 Q1 Insurance Class Action Quarterly Report Released
By Mathew G. Drocton, Mark A. Johnson
May 9, 2023
BakerHostetler released its 2023 Q1 Insurance Class Action Quarterly Report, which summarizes a variety of insurance class action themes. Total loss class actions kept going around the country, and labor depreciation class actions...
Read More ->
Class Action Lawsuit Defense
The Advisory Committee on Civil Rules Proposes a New Rule to Address Early Case Management in Multidistrict Litigation
By Kyle T. Cutts
March 30, 2023
On March 28, 2023, the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules (Committee) convened in West Palm Beach, Florida, to discuss a variety of proposed amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, including a new rule that would provide...
Read More ->
Class Action Lawsuit Defense
New Challenges to Incentive Awards for Class Representatives Invite Supreme Court Review
By Nicholas A. Cordova, Julie Singer Brady
March 28, 2023
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a decision that highlights a growing disagreement among federal appellate courts as to whether class action settlements may include a cash incentive award to named...
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Class Action Lawsuit Defense
BakerHostetler Releases Insurance Class Action Quarterly Report – 2022 Q4
March 8, 2023
BakerHostetler released its Insurance Class Action Quarterly Report for 2022 Quarter 4, devolving trends in the insurance class action space from the past quarter. We witnessed further development of total loss, uninsured/underinsured...
Read More ->
Class Action Lawsuit Defense
BakerHostetler Files Amicus Brief on Behalf of Ohio Chamber of Commerce
January 19, 2023
As predicted back in March 2022, class litigation related to Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a group of man-made chemicals that have been widely used in various industrial and consumer products, have skyrocketed over the last...
Read More ->

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