James M. Barton

Senior Counsel

James is an experienced litigator and trial lawyer who focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation and insurance coverage disputes throughout the United States.

James has personal experience in all phases of litigation from pre-suit investigation through trial. His work has included a wide variety of high value lawsuits, including corporate acquisition disputes, shareholder actions and valuation proceedings, bad faith litigation, restrictive covenant enforcement suits, and mortgage-backed securities claims.

James joined Esbrook P.C. in November 2024 after 8 years at Ruberry, Stalmack & Garvey LLC and 4 years at Greenberg Traurig LLP.

Selected Contract and Fraud Based Litigation
  • DGI-BNSF Corp. v. TRT LeaseCo, LLC. Defended acquirer of railyard holding company and facilities in three interrelated lawsuits involving breach of contract, fraud, and corporate governance claims over a $50m+ difference of opinion on the interpretation of interlocking contracts and tax allocation agreements.
  • Confidential Proceeding. Recovered the full value of a multi-million dollar bad-faith lawsuit settlement on behalf of an insurer from the third-party administrator whose failures led to the bad faith lawsuit.
  • Gem Holdco, LLC v. Changing World Techs., L.P. Represented one of three competing corporate groups in expedited injunctive proceedings in a three-way lawsuit over the management and negotiated sale of a failing biofuel company.
Selected Corporate Governance Litigation
  • Sean Murray v. Joseph Moglia et al. Represented SPAC directors and officers against a Delaware class action lawsuit seeking $50m+ based on alleged conflicts of interest and disclosure failures in connection with a deSPAC transaction.
  • Appaloosa Investment Limited Partnership I et al. v. SunEdison, Inc. et al. Represented outside directors in expedited injunctive proceedings in which plaintiffs sought (and failed) to block a related-party transaction as unfair to a captive subsidiary and its stockholders.
Selected Coverage Experience
  • 2017 Railroad Fire Coverage Analysis. Analyzed and advised on competing principles of California law as applied to a multiple-insured, multiple-claim exposure in excess of policy limits arising from the 2017 California Railroad Fire.
  • In re Toll Roads Litigation. Represented an insurer in declaratory judgment proceedings to determine coverage for a class action lawsuit seeking more than $2 billion in damages for violation of California privacy laws regarding the operation of toll roads.
  • NIBCO vs. Starr Indemnity and Liability Co., et al. Represented a manufacturer / policy holder in development of a declaratory judgment action against more than 20 insurers to determine coverage under policies spanning more than a decade for two class action lawsuits seeking hundreds of millions for allegedly defective tubing.
Selected Restrictive Covenants Experience
  • Confidential Proceeding. Obtained a multi-million dollar recovery on behalf of individual brokers whose prior firm was seeking to deny them compensation and enforce onerous restrictive covenants following their departure to a competitor firm.
  • Halo Investing, Inc. v. Adam Black et al. Represented FinTech company in litigation to enforce confidentiality and non-competition obligations on departing employees who jointly switched to a competitor, including litigation of preliminary relief and close analysis of digital forensic data for signs of theft of trade secrets.
Selected Investigations Experience
  • Confidential Internal Investigation. Represented publicly held construction firm in internal investigation of whistleblower hotline report concerning potential violation of company accounting guidelines; responsibilities included analyzing accounting records and procedures, liaising with accounting experts, assisting on internal interviews, and drafting ultimate report to audit committee.