Aaron D. Van Oort

Appellate Advocacy

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 state appellate courts. He is an editor of the Eighth Circuit Appellate Practice Manual (9th ed. 2020) and a contributing editor to ABA’s Appellate Practice Compendium (2013). He has successfully defended many favorable rulings on appeal and won reversal of many unfavorable ones, including winning reversals of adverse jury verdicts in both federal and state courts. Clients who have retained Aaron in appellate matters include 3M, Allianz, American Family Insurance, Bank of America, Boston Scientific, Capital One, Cargill, Cirrus Aircraft, General Mills, the NFL, Polaris, Seagate, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo and Xcel Energy.

Class Action Defense

In trial courts and on appeal, Aaron develops and implements the strategies to defeat class actions. He has 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. Client who have retained Aaron to defend class actions include the NFL, NHL and MLB; 3M; American Family Insurance; Capital One; General Mills; Google; Jani-King International; Life Time; Post Consumer Brands; Wells Fargo; and U.S. Bank.