John D. Rue is an Associate in White & Case's litigation practice, and his practice is focused on complex commercial litigation and counseling. He has extensive experience defending companies in complex, multi-jurisdictional class actions, especially those involving claims under the antitrust laws. He also handles matters in the areas of bankruptcy, securities, environmental, consumer protection and product liability. He has represented clients in the petroleum, agricultural, financial services, and pharmaceutical industries.

Mr. Rue has substantial experience with e-discovery issues, both practical and legal, advising clients on the preservation, collection, processing, review and production of electronic information, with an emphasis on early case assessment and other cost-effective and defensible strategies. He has developed several comprehensive document retention policies, and counsels attorneys and clients on effective discovery strategies and advocacy, focusing on emerging developments in this rapidly-evolving field. Mr. Rue frequently speaks and writes on electronic discovery and legal technology topics. He is co-chair of the e-discovery subcommittee within the Litigation Section of the American Bar Association, and serves on the planning committee for the ABA National Institute on E-discovery.

Representative cases include the following:

• Currently defending the Belarusian Potash Company in In Re: Potash Antitrust Litigation (No. II), a pending consolidated antitrust class action in the Northern District of Illinois;
• Currently lead counsel for a putative class of kindergarten students in J.T. o/b/o A.T. v. Dumont Public Schools, a special education action in the District of New Jersey;
• Lead the White & Case team, in conjunction with the Education Law Center, representing the class of children in Abbott v. Burke (Abbott XXI), in the New Jersey Supreme Court, obtaining $500 million dollars in additional funding from the state for New Jersey's neediest public schools;
• Successfully defended Saudi Refining Inc. and others in In Re: Refined Petroleum Products Antitrust Litigation, a multi-district antitrust class action which was dismissed by the Southern District of Texas on the basis of the act of state and political question doctrines in 2009, which dismissal was affirmed by the Fifth Circuit in 2011;
• Successfully defended Saudi Refining Inc. in Madani v. Shell, et al., a putative antitrust class action which was dismissed on various grounds by the Central District of California in July 2008, which dismissal was affirmed by the Ninth Circuit in December 2009;
• Successfully defended Deutsche Bank in Enron-related securities fraud litigation, in which we obtained a complete dismissal of all claims in June 2006; and
• Counseling numerous foreign clients on US product liability law.

Mr. Rue graduated magna cum laude from Fordham Law School in 2004, where he was Notes and Articles Editor of the Fordham Law Review, which published his student Note: "Returning to the Roots of the Bramble Bush: The 'But For' Test Regains Primacy in Causal Analysis in the American Law Institute's Proposed Restatement (Third) Of Torts," 71 Fordham L. Rev. 2679 (2003), available here. Upon graduation, he was awarded the Benjamin Finkle Prize for the Study of Bankruptcy Law. Prior to law school, he worked as a theatrical director, and was awarded a Master of Fine Arts from Sarah Lawrence College in 1993. Mr. Rue is an Associate Member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.

Mr. Rue is active in the Firm's pro bono litigation practice, especially in the area of education advocacy. He lead the White & Case effort to support the Education Law Center in Abbott v. Burke (Abbott XXI) in the New Jersey Supreme Court, obtaining $500 million dollars in additional funding from the state for New Jersey's neediest public schools. Mr. Rue is currently lead counsel for the putative plaintiff class in a special education class action currently pending in the Federal District of New Jersey. He regularly mentors and supervises the Firm's pro bono special education cases, representing indigent disabled children and their families in educational disputes with their local school districts over the appropriate educational placement and services to be provided to the child under federal and state law. In the summer of 2008, he initiated and supervised a special education pro bono project for White & Case's summer program, in collaboration with Volunteer Lawyers for Justice, whereby summer associates, supervised by and alongside admitted White & Case lawyers, represented indigent families in such disputes. Mr. Rue is a member of the Board of Trustees of Volunteer Lawyers for Justice, a non-profit organization located in Newark, NJ, which recruits and trains volunteers to provide free civil legal assistance to low income clients throughout New Jersey. He also serves as a Trustee on the Board of the Education Law Center, a non-profit widely recognized for groundbreaking court rulings on behalf of at-risk students in New Jersey, especially in the Abbott v. Burke school funding cases.

Bars and Courts
New York State Bar
New Jersey State Bar
US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
US District Court for the District of New Jersey
US District Court for the Southern District of New York
US District Court for the Eastern District of New York

Education
JD, Fordham University School of Law, magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, 2004
MFA, Theatre, Sarah Lawrence College, 1993
BA (Hons), Creative Arts, Nottingham Trent University, UK, 1990

Professional Associations and Memberships
American Bar Association, Litigation Section:
  - Co-chair E-Discovery Subcommittee, Pretrial Practice & Discovery Committee
  - Planning Committee, ABA National Institute on E-Discovery
Volunteer Lawyers for Justice, Trustee
Education Law Center, Trustee
New Jersey Special Education Practitioners Group, Member
Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Associate

Awards and Recognition
June 2011 Volunteer Lawyers for Justice Pro Bono Attorney of the Month
2010 White & Case Pro Bono Award
2008 NJSBA Young Lawyers Division Service to the Community Award
2007 Pro Bono Attorney of the Year, Volunteer Lawyers for Justice, Newark, NJ
2004 Benjamin Finkle Prize for the Study of Bankruptcy Law

Publications

• "Measure Twice, Cut Once: The Texting and Tweeting Checklist" (forthcoming in Pretrial Practice & Discovery) (with Matthew Hagarty, America Online)
• "Well, I Sure Don't "Like" That! Litigation Holds, Social Media, and Employees' Online Data," 20 Pretrial Practice & Discovery 1 (Fall 2011) (with Patricia Eastwood, Caterpillar Financial Services)
• "Bell v. Office Depot: An Alarming California Trend Seeking Aggregate Statutory Damages in Disability Access Litigation?" Client Alert (May 26, 2011) (with Dan Woods, et al., White & Case)
• "E-discovery 'Worst Practices': Ten Sure-Fire Ways to Mismanage Document Review and Production," 14 N.Y. Bus. L.J. 2, 62 (Winter 2010) (with Jack E. Pace III and Jason A. Bartlett)
• "Special Education Mediation not Always the Best Option," Trenton Times, March 21, 2010, at A9 (Op-Ed with Gerard Uzzi, White & Case)
• "E-discovery "'Worst Practices"': Ten Sure-Fire Ways to Mismanage a Litigation Hold, 13 N.Y. Bus. L.J. 2, 48 (Fall 2009) (with Jack E. Pace III)
• "The United States Supreme Court Rejects 'Price-Squeezing' Theory of Liability In Unanimous Decision," White & Case Client Alert (March 2, 2009) (with Joseph Angland, White & Case)
• "Early Reflections on e-Discovery in Antitrust Litigation: Ten Months into the New Regime," Antitrust Magazine, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Fall 2007) (with Jack E. Pace III)
• "Note, Returning to the Roots of the Bramble Bush: The 'But For' Test Regains Primacy in Causal Analysis in the American Law Institute's Proposed Restatement (Third) of Torts," 71 Fordham L. Rev. 2679 (2003) (cited by American Law Institute, Restatement (Third) of Torts: Basic Principles of Liability § 26)

Languages
English

Citizenship
United States