Aaron D. Van Oort

Appellate

When cases are important, challenging or both, clients hire Aaron on appeal. Aaron has represented clients in 12 of the 13 U.S. Courts of Appeal, as well as in the U.S. Supreme Court and in many state appellate courts. He has argued more than 50 appeals and has won victories for clients as both appellee and appellant, including winning reversals of adverse jury verdicts in both federal and state courts. His recent representations include: 

• Smits v. Park Nicollet Health Services, 979 N.W.2d 436 (Minn. 2022). Representing Park Nicollet, successfully obtained Minnesota Supreme Court review and won ruling reversing court of appeals and affirming summary judgment against claims seeking to hold mental health care provider vicariously liable for murders committed by outpatient.
• Thornton v. Tyson Foods, Inc., et al., 28 F.4th 1016 (10th Cir. 2022). Representing the nation’s four largest beef processors, won a 2-1 decision affirming the dismissal of two putative class actions on the grounds that federal law preempted plaintiffs’ state-law deceptive-advertising claims.
• State ex rel. Knudsen v. AT&T Mobility Nat’l Accounts, LLC, 2021 WL 6109577 (Minn. App. 2021). Representing AT&T Mobility, successfully won decision affirming the dismissal of Minnesota False Claims Act claims for lack of any knowingly false representation.
• Mujo v. Jani-King International, Inc., 13 F.4th 204 (2d Cir. 2021). Representing Jani-King, won 2-1 decision affirming summary judgment against putative class action asserting employee misclassification, minimum wage and anti-kickback claims.
• Micheel v. American Family Mut. Ins. Co., 1 F.4th 614 (8th Cir. 2021). Representing American Family, won reversal of order granting summary judgment to plaintiff and direction to grant summary judgment for American Family, with court agreeing that summary of insurance policy did not create ambiguity in the policy itself.
• LSP Transmission Holdings, LLC v. Sieben, 954 F.3d 1018 (8th Cir. 2020). Representing Xcel Energy, successfully intervened in suit bringing dormant Commerce Clause constitutional challenge against Minnesota’s right-of-first-refusal statute, won dismissal of claim, defended dismissal on appeal and got plaintiff’s petition for writ of certiorari denied.
• Anderson v. American Family Ins. Co., 800 Fed. Appx. 814 (11th Cir. 2020). Representing American Family, won affirmance of summary judgment against putative class action alleging property damage due to stigma, with court agreeing that none had been proven and a failure to assess for stigma was not an independent claim when no stigma was proven.

Litigation Strategy

When clients face class actions, mass actions or individual cases with high exposure, they hire Aaron to team up with litigators and trial lawyers to create and implement the legal strategy to win the case. Clients often have Aaron direct and argue motions to dismiss and for summary judgment, negotiate jury instructions, and handle motion practice at and after trials. Aaron has also defended more than 150 putative class actions and is an editor of the Bolch Judicial Institute’s Guidelines and Best Practices: Implementing 2018 Amendments to Rule 23 Class Action Settlement Provisions (Duke Law School 2018). With Aaron’s representation, clients have compelled arbitration, won dismissal and summary judgment, defeated class certification, and negotiated favorable class and individual settlements.

Personal Interests

Aaron is an avid NFL football fan. He enjoys traveling the U.S. looking for great barbecue with his wife and four sons, and training and taking walks with his Great Dane, Huckleberry.