Eric P. Magnuson
- T 617.439.2324
- F 617.310.9324
- E emagnuson@nutter.com
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Overview
Eric P. Magnuson co-chairs Nutter’s Business Litigation practice group. Blending practicality with tenacity and strategic thinking, Eric helps clients solve legal challenges so that his clients can focus on what they do best: pursue their business goals. His 20-plus years of experience in state and federal courts spans all stages of the litigation lifecycle—pretrial, trial, and appeal. Eric represents clients in class actions, multi-district litigations, and arbitral disputes. A diverse range of clients, including banks, Fortune 500 companies, law firms, governmental entities, trustees, directors, and officers, select Eric as their trusted legal advisor.
Complexity is the common denominator of Eric’s practice. He has litigated cases involving an array of allegations, including (among many others) bank fraud, unfair competition, tortious conduct, contractual breach, unfair insurance practices, infringement of constitutional rights, negligent product design, violations of export-import laws, infringement of intellectual property, and breaches of data privacy laws. Eric has also litigated bankruptcy matters. He has served as a Special Assistant Attorney General.
Eric’s skillset goes beyond the direct sphere of litigation. Clients regularly rely on Eric’s expertise when negotiating the “front end” of business deals, including mergers and acquisitions. Eric also spearheads internal investigations on behalf of financial institutions and other clients. As a member of Nutter’s Privacy and Data Security practice group, Eric helps clients respond to data breaches and network intrusions.
Reading Co-operative Bank v. Suffolk Construction Company, Inc., 464 Mass. 543 (2013), serves as an illustrative matter. Eric served as trial and appellate counsel to a bank pursuing claims against a construction company arising under Article 9 of the UCC. Prevailing at trial and on appeal, the bank was awarded a nearly $8 million judgment. Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly named the decision one of the most important commercial decisions of the year.
Another representative matter is Formulatrix, Inc. v. Rigaku Automation, Inc., No. CV 15-12725-JGD, 2018 WL 5723149 (D. Mass. Nov. 1, 2018). The litigation arose out of a customer support agreement between the parties and involved complex contractual (and other) claims. Eric successfully represented the defendants/counterclaimants at the motion-to-dismiss stage (decided by Judge Wolf) and summary-judgment stage (decided by Judge Dein).
In OpenRisk, LLC v. Roston, 90 Mass. App. Ct. 1107 (2016), Eric represented defendants that were sued in Massachusetts for alleged misappropriation of trade secrets. Although the defendants had forum-related contacts, the defendants sought dismissal of the case based on lack of personal jurisdiction. The Superior Court (Kaplan, J.) dismissed the case, rejecting the theory that a defendant can be subject to personal jurisdiction based on the forum contacts of alleged co-conspirators. The Massachusetts Appeals Court affirmed.
Other representative matters include:
- Representing a financial institution in connection with internal investigation into matters relating to a portfolio of hundreds of millions of dollars in international loans.
- Defending one of the nation’s largest defense contractors against claims for alleged breaches of fiduciary duty and receipt of fraudulent transfers totaling tens of millions of dollars.
- Representing insurance companies pursuing claims for hundreds of millions of dollars of premium underreporting in connection with workers’ compensation risk pools.
- Defending a bank against claims for alleged breaches of a data contract.
- Defending a company sued for hundreds of millions of dollars arising from the alleged failure to disclose patent litigation to another party.
- Defending insurer in putative class action from claims that the insurer failed to pay sales tax in connection with total-loss vehicles.
- Defending a company in federal litigation product-liability claims arising from the use of a SWAT vehicle.
- Defending a company facing class-action litigation for alleged violations of state statutes and regulations.
- Representing a developer seeking to recover millions of dollars in damages arising from an architectural firm’s errors and omissions in the design process.
- Representing a company seeking to recover millions of dollars in damages arising from construction defects in a modular building.
- Defending high-tech company in trademark matters, including actions pending before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
- Defending companies in bankruptcy-preference litigations across the country.
- Representing directors and officers of defense contractor seeking coverage under D&O insurance.
- Representing a financial institution pursuing coverage claims under export-import insurance.
- Representing a company pursuing claims arising from a guarantor’s failure to pay millions of dollars on defaulted loans.
Eric is involved in numerous professional organizations, including the Boston of Inn of Court, the Boston Bar Association, the Federalist Society, the International Association of Privacy Professionals, and the Defense Research Institute.
Eric serves as the Senior Editor of the BLS Blog. Besides his posts published there, Eric’s published articles include “ATM Nuisance Suits Should Be Thrown Out of Court,” American Banker (link here); “Apple v. Samsung Electronics: The Perils of Email Auto Deletion,” Nutter Advisory (link here); and “Supreme Court Avoids Deciding Consumer Standing Issue,” Nutter Advisory (link here).
During law school, Eric served as Executive Note Editor of the Arizona Law Review.
Outside the office, you may find Eric lining up at a cycling event somewhere in the woods or on the roads of New England.
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Experience
Experience
News & Insights
News
Speaking Engagements
Publications
Blog Posts
Honors
Honors
- Massachusetts Super Lawyers, 2014-2020
- Massachusetts Super Lawyers Rising Stars, 2005-2007
Education & Admissions
Education
University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, J.D., cum laude
Calvin College, B.A.
Admissions
- U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts
- Massachusetts
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circut
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circut
Practices
Industries
Notable Experience
Eric served as trial and appellate counsel to a bank pursuing claims arising under Article 9 of the UCC. Prevailing at trial and on appeal, the bank was awarded a nearly $8 million judgment. Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly named the decision—Reading Co-operative Bank v. Suffolk Construction Company, Inc., 464 Mass. 543 (2013)—one of the most important commercial decisions of the year.
In the Community
Eric is involved in numerous professional organizations, including the Boston of Inn of Court, the Boston Bar Association, the Federalist Society, the International Association of Privacy Professionals, and the Defense Research Institute.