Represented a client in an action to recover enhanced attorneys’ fees to remedy the United States’ inappropriate attempt to enforce the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Munsch Hardt’s client was the target of a Department of Labor (DOL) investigation and eventual civil enforcement action, wherein the DOL alleged the client mischaracterized workers under the FLSA. The DOL initially sought civil penalties against the client, which were roughly equivalent to the client’s entire net worth. A team of Munsch Hardt attorneys obtained summary judgment dismissal of the DOL’s enforcement action, then sought to recover attorneys’ fees under provisions of the Equal Access to Justice Act. The district court awarded fees under a provision that caps recoverable fees, but declined to award fees under a provision reserved for situations in which the United States acts in “bad faith.” The United States appealed the fee award made against it, and Munsch Hardt cross-appealed on behalf of the client requesting the appellate court rule the more punitive bad faith provision had been triggered. The court agreed and ruled the United States indeed had conducted the investigation and enforcement action in bad faith, reversing the lower court. 

Obtained an appellate ruling in favor of a mobile phone manufacturer, against allegations the client’s technology led to the death of a 9-1-1 caller. A team of Munsch Hardt attorneys obtained a Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal of the underlying claims before a district court, because the plaintiffs could not establish a causal link between the operation of the mobile phone and the caller’s death. The litigation team established on the face of the pleadings, it was evident emergency responders could have reached the 9-1-1 caller in time to assist if they timely had used information relayed by a 9-1-1 dispatcher. Munsch Hardt briefed and presented oral argument in the subsequent appeal, where the court affirmed the lack of a causal relationship to the 9-1-1 caller’s death and further ruled mobile phone manufacturers, as well as data service providers, are beneficiaries of a Texas “immunity” statute that applies to equipment or services used for 9-1-1 calls.