Nicholas S.
Medling

Mr. Medling’s representative litigation matters include:

• Representation of PG&E in connection with mass tort litigation related to the California wildfires between 2019 and 2021. He previously represented the company in hundreds of lawsuits, including numerous putative class actions, arising out of the unprecedented 2017 and 2018 California wildfires—one of the largest and most complex sets of mass tort litigation in recent years—and helped to steer the company through the largest utility bankruptcy in U.S. history.
• Representation of Xcel Energy, a major U.S. electricity and natural gas company with operations in eight states, in the numerous lawsuits filed against Xcel arising from the December 2021 Marshall Wildfire, and in more than two dozen actions concerning the February 2024 Texas Panhandle wildfires, which included the Smokehouse Creek Fire.
• Representation of Costamare Shipping and related entities in connection with litigation filed in California federal court, including a consolidated putative class action, alleging various theories of liability concerning the October 2021 San Pedro Bay pipeline leak off the coast of California, ultimately securing a series of settlements to resolve the actions.
• Representation of Root and certain of its officers and directors on appeal after winning the complete dismissal of putative securities class action litigation concerning the company’s October 2020 IPO.
• Representation of Light & Wonder (formerly Scientific Games Corporation) in putative class action and individual antitrust litigation filed in Illinois federal court, and in an arbitration before the American Arbitration Association, involving Walker Process antitrust monopolization claims that concern automatic card shufflers used in casinos.
• Representation of Starz Entertainment in helping to secure a precedential Ninth Circuit decision in a copyright infringement and breach of contract action against MGM Domestic Television. The decision affirmed a California district court’s holding that the Copyright Act did not impose a time-based bar on damages for copyright infringement claims separate from the three-year statute of limitations.
• Representation of Minerals Technologies in an action brought by the bankruptcy estate of Novinda Corporation, alleging fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract. A favorable decision was secured following a three week arbitration.
• Representation of Brightwood Capital Advisors and its appointed representative on the V Global Holdings LLC (“Vertellus”) board of managers as defendants in direct and derivative litigation asserting claims for breaches of fiduciary duty and tortious interference with contract for alleged self dealing by certain Vertellus managers and related creditors.
• Representation of First Solar in a securities class action and related opt-out litigation alleging that First Solar and several of its officers and executives concealed manufacturing issues with its solar modules.
• Representation of Morgan Stanley in antitrust class action litigation alleging collusion among banks to block exchange trading of interest rate swaps.
• Representation of Qualcomm in several matters relating to the company’s patent licensing and chipset businesses, including an action filed by Apple in California federal court. Following opening statements at trial, the parties reached a global settlement that includes a payment from Apple to Qualcomm; the companies also reached a six year license agreement and a multi-year chipset supply agreement.
• Representation of Juno Therapeutics and certain of its executives in a securities class action in Washington federal court alleging that defendants failed to disclose side effects associated with an immunotherapy drug, resulting in a stock price drop when the clinical trial was halted.

Mr. Medling was born in Laguna Hills, California. He received a B.A. summa cum laude in Economics-Accounting and Government from Claremont McKenna College in 2012 and a J.D. from Stanford Law School in 2016. At Stanford, he was a managing editor of the Law Review, an editor-in-chief of the Journal of Law, Business & Finance and the Secretary of the Law Association.

Mr. Medling joined Cravath as a summer associate in 2015. Following his graduation, he served as a law clerk to Hon. Jay S. Bybee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and a habeas staff attorney for the U.S. District Court of Nevada. Mr. Medling returned to Cravath as an associate in 2017 and was named of counsel in 2023.