Ronan Doherty represents both plaintiffs and defendants in all aspects of civil litigation and alternative dispute resolution, in the state of Georgia and nationwide. He has more than a decade’s worth of experience successfully representing clients in complex, high-stakes cases.

His areas of concentration include business torts, including antitrust, RICO, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and tortious interference with business relations. Ronan also has litigated a number of intellectual property cases, including trademark, copyright and trade secret disputes. And Ronan has significant experience in the areas of class actions, commercial contract litigation and appellate practice. 

In addition to representing several Fortune 100 companies, Ronan has represented much smaller clients in bet-the-company cases. And Ronan has done a significant amount of pro bono work, accepting appointments from both the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

Ronan serves as the Vice-chair of the Georgia Bar’s Appellate Practice Seminar. For several years, Ronan has chaired the Georgia Appellate Practice Seminar, an annual seminar that brings practitioners together with many of the Justices of the Georgia Supreme Court and Judges of the Georgia Court of Appeals.

Representative Work

Plaintiff cases

Certified as Class Counsel for a class of employees who used the federal and Georgia RICO statutes to sue their employer for hiring illegal workers. The case made numerous appearances in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and was argued in the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2009, Ronan successfully argued the case in the Eleventh Circuit, convincing the Court of Appeals to reverse the denial of class certification and achieving a settlement of $18 million.

Successfully represented a major home builder and mortgage lender, in court and in arbitration, on claims for breach of contract, tortious interference with contract and unfair competition against Bank of America Co. and one of its subsidiaries. 

Represented a major home builder in a bet-the-company case to pursue a declaratory judgment that the home builder had not defaulted on hundreds of millions of dollars in bonds. Successfully forestalled claims for default on the terms of the bonds or under the Trust Indenture Act.

Currently representing an institutional investor in a mortgage-backed securities fraud case against Bank of America, Countrywide, JP Morgan, and UBS. The case is pending in the State Court of Fulton County.

Defense cases

For more than seven years, Ronan has represented a Fortune 50 home improvement retailer in dozens of cases on claims ranging from $50,000 to $150 million in federal and state courts in Georgia, California, Texas and Illinois.

Successfully defended the Hospital Authority of Albany-Dougherty County in defeating antitrust violation claims brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Georgia State Attorney General’s office. The FTC sought to enjoin the $195 million acquisition of Palmyra Medical Center by the Hospital Authority of Albany-Dougherty County. A district court judge ruled that the Hospital Authority and other defendants were immune from antitrust claims, dismissed the FTC’s complaint with prejudice, and denied the FTC’s request for an injunction to prevent closing of the $195 million all-cash deal to acquire the 248-bed Palmyra hospital. The 11th Circuit Court affirmed the ruling and allowed the acquisition to move forward. Bondurant Mixson lawyers represented the Hospital Authority in Federal Court, the 11th Circuit Court, and during the FTC’s administrative process.

Currently defending a major international hotel company against a hotel owner’s claims for breach of a lease agreement. After the owner filed a claim for more than $35 million in damages and sought to have the hotel operator evicted, obtained summary judgment on all the owner’s claims and obtained a ruling that the hotel owner had wrongfully terminated the lease and owed damages to our client.

Co-counsel defending an international hotel company in a series of cases filed alleging breaches of fiduciary duty and violations of an operating agreement. The plaintiff attempted to obtain a temporary restraining order as well as a preliminary injunction that would have forced our client to surrender the hotel to a new operator. When those efforts were rebuffed in federal court, the hotel owner dismissed the claim and re-filed in Gwinnett Superior Court, where the claim was defeated as well.

Acted as Liaison Counsel for an internet advertising company in a multi-district litigation alleging that the company’s pop-up advertisements violated the copyrights and trademarks of a series of web site owners. Successfully defended multiple cases filed by Fortune 100 plaintiffs and prosecuted by several major national law firms.

Successfully defended a plastics manufacturing company and its owners against claims of trade secret misappropriation and breach of confidentiality agreements after a failed merger. The case was the first one to consider and apply the statute of limitations in a Georgia trade secret case. 

Pro Bono

Successfully represented a man wrongfully detained at the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by filing a complaint and petition for habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. After more than five years of detention, the Department of Defense approved his release in February 2007, when he was able to return to his wife and two young children.

Volunteered to help prosecute and help try a man charged with a scheme to defraud his 80 year-old godfather out of his home. After a several day trial, the jury convicted the defendant on several counts of theft-by-deception and elder abuse.

In a pro bono appointment from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, obtained reversal of an order denying an employee relief on a Title VII retaliation claim against the Federal Railroad Administration. The plaintiff ultimately obtained reinstatement and an award of nearly $1 million in back pay. 

Honors and Awards

Georgia Rising Star, Atlanta Magazine