Patrick T. Lewis

Partner

Cleveland
T +1.216.861.7096
F +1.216.696.0740

Overview

Patrick Lewis represents clients in high-stakes litigation, with emphases on class-action defense, commercial litigation and election law matters. Patrick defines the issues facing clients early on and helps them craft a winning litigation strategy and navigate complex legal and discovery challenges. He has experience trying difficult cases in both federal and state court and frequently represents clients on appeal.

Patrick has in-depth experience with matters affecting the financial services industry, having represented clients in this space for most of his career. He recently completed a four-year secondment to a super-regional bank, where he managed portfolios of consumer and commercial litigation across the bank’s multistate footprint, successfully resolving over a hundred matters. Patrick also leverages his financial services expertise to assist banks and other secured parties in restructuring work, with experience in loan workouts, foreclosure/receivership litigation and bankruptcy proceedings.

Finally, Patrick maintains a national election-law practice, recently trying high-impact redistricting cases in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia. He has represented members of Congress, legislative bodies, candidates, political parties and other stakeholders in litigation involving redistricting, challenges to electoral procedures, and recounts and election contests. He has also represented clients in state and FEC campaign-finance enforcement proceedings under state and federal campaign finance law.

Select Experience

Class Action & Commercial

  • Successfully defended on appeal the dismissal of a multistate class action checking overdraft lawsuit challenging a bank client’s policy of electronically sequencing debits and credits from the largest to the smallest amounts. The plaintiffs’ claims, brought under Ohio common law and the Expedited Funds Availability Act, were dismissed with prejudice.
  • Defended a prominent Ohio bank in litigation involving several tort and equitable claims brought by another lender in the aftermath of a nearly $10 million commercial loan refinance gone sour, all predicated on the plaintiff’s allegation that a loan officer orally agreed to release a multimillion-dollar mortgage on land as part of a refinance of other debt. Matter settled after nearly every claim was dismissed.
  • After securing a partial dismissal of the plaintiffs’ claims, negotiated an early settlement for a financial institution in a statewide class-action brought by Minnesota consumers alleging their automobiles had been improperly repossessed.
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Experience

Class Action & Commercial

  • Successfully defended on appeal the dismissal of a multistate class action checking overdraft lawsuit challenging a bank client’s policy of electronically sequencing debits and credits from the largest to the smallest amounts. The plaintiffs’ claims, brought under Ohio common law and the Expedited Funds Availability Act, were dismissed with prejudice.
  • Defended a prominent Ohio bank in litigation involving several tort and equitable claims brought by another lender in the aftermath of a nearly $10 million commercial loan refinance gone sour, all predicated on the plaintiff’s allegation that a loan officer orally agreed to release a multimillion-dollar mortgage on land as part of a refinance of other debt. Matter settled after nearly every claim was dismissed.
  • After securing a partial dismissal of the plaintiffs’ claims, negotiated an early settlement for a financial institution in a statewide class-action brought by Minnesota consumers alleging their automobiles had been improperly repossessed.
  • Representing super-regional financial institution in connection with multiple national putative class actions challenging certain of the bank’s alleged checking and card-related fees practices.
  • Represented a credit life insurance company in putative multistate class action litigation arising out of challenges to the carrier’s claims handling practices.
  • Defended Ohio’s three largest banks in a putative class action brought by county prosecutors challenging the use of the MERS System and seeking to require lenders to publicly record all residential mortgage assignments in the state of Ohio.
  • Defended clients from claims arising under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the Expedited Funds Availability Act (EFAA), and other consumer-protection statutes.
  • Represented a secured creditor with a $12 million claim in a complex Chapter 11 proceeding to include defending the client’s lien position and securing favorable cash collateral orders and plan treatment; also prosecuted related-party state court foreclosure proceedings in two states. The creditor was repaid nearly in full.
  • Served as lead counsel to a real estate investor and borrower in high-profile litigation with a lender arising out of a nonrecourse $135 million commercial mortgage-backed security loan used to acquire a multibuilding office portfolio in suburban Cleveland. The lender claimed that the borrower and investor were personally liable for the loan under controversial nonrecourse “carve out” provisions.
  • Represented a special servicer in complex foreclosure and receivership litigation to liquidate defaulted portfolio of hospitality properties, including securing the dismissal of multiple Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings.

Election Law.

  • Represented eight members of Congress from Ohio in successfully defending the 2011 Congressional redistricting plan in the case brought before a three-judge panel in the Southern District of Ohio alleging a partisan-gerrymandering claim. (Ohio A. Philip Randolph Inst. v. Householder).
  • Represented the North Carolina Senate and House of Representatives and their leadership in defending state redistricting plans in state court-litigation (Common Cause v. Lewis; Harper v. Lewis).
  • Served as trial and appellate counsel to the Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in a political gerrymandering challenge against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Congressional districting plan. (League of Women Voters of Pa. v. Cmwlth.).
  • Represented candidates in recount and election-contest proceedings in Ohio, Virginia, and North Carolina. In Virginia, defended the client’s House of Delegates victory against three different lawsuits, in both federal and state court, seeking to overturn the outcome of that race—including helping to defeat an emergency stay application in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that would have prevented the candidate from being seated in the House of Delegates.
  • Represented the Ohio General Assembly in a 2014 challenge to legislation that reconfigured Ohio’s election calendar to end so-called “Golden Week.”

Recognitions and Memberships

Recognitions

  • Ohio Super Lawyers "Rising Star" (2014 to 2019)

Memberships

  • American Bar Association
  • Ohio State Bar Association
  • Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association
  • American Bankruptcy Institute
  • William K. Thomas Inn of Court
  • Eighth District Judicial Conference (Life Member)

Community

  • Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy Studies: President, Cleveland Lawyers Chapter

Admissions

  • U.S. District Court, District of Colorado, 2023
  • U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan, 2023
  • U.S. District Court, Western District of Michigan, 2022
  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio, 2004
  • U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio, 2010
  • U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas, 2023
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit, 2016
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit, 2018
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, 2019
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, 2004
  • Ohio, 2004

Education

  • J.D., Harvard Law School, 2004, cum laude
  • A.B., Economics and Government, College of William and Mary, 2000; summa cum laude

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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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