Kyle J. McGee

Kyle McGee is a principal at Grant & Eisenhofer. Mr. McGee is the head of G&E’s Environmental Litigation Group, focusing on sovereign and public entity representation. Mr. McGee also regularly represents state and municipal clients in consumer protection matters, as well as relators or whistleblowers in qui tam litigation. In addition to environmental litigation, Mr. McGee partners with state Attorneys General and municipalities pursuing consumer protection actions against manufacturers of dangerous products, including pharmaceuticals.

Mr. McGee currently serves as special counsel to several state Attorneys General and municipalities in actions against Monsanto Co. arising out of that company’s production, marketing, and sale of toxic PCBs, which now contaminate natural resources throughout the nation, and against 3M Co., DuPont, Chemours, and other manufacturers of toxic PFAS chemicals and products containing PFAS, which now contaminate groundwater, drinking water, and other public resources. Mr. McGee also represents state agencies in hazardous site litigation arising out of historic disposal practices and emissions of contaminants such as lead and arsenic. Mr. McGee was named to the Environmental Trial Lawyers Association Top 10 for Delaware, and serves on the Executive Committee for the ETLA.

Mr. McGee also represents numerous relators in confidential whistleblower actions under the federal and various state False Claims Acts, pursuing misconduct in diverse fields including medical and mental healthcare, residential mortgage lending, defense contracting, retail, and finance, as well as the whistleblower programs managed by the Securities & Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Representative actions in which Mr. McGee played a principal role include:

• State of New Mexico v. Monsanto Co. (1st Jud. Dist.), an environmental protection action on behalf of New Mexico against Monsanto for damages resulting from PCB contamination of state waters and other natural resources, resulting in a $23.6 million recovery.
• District of Columbia v. Monsanto Co., et al. (D.C. Super.), an environmental protection action on behalf of the D.C. government against Monsanto for damages resulting from PCB contamination of major waterways and other natural resources, resulting in a $52 million recovery.
• State of Mississippi ex rel. Jim Hood, Attorney General v. GlaxoSmithKline LLC (Miss. Ch.), a consumer protection action on behalf of Mississippi against pharmaceutical company GSK for allegedly unfair and deceptive marketing practices, resulting in a $25 million recovery.
• In re Merck & Co., Inc. Vytorin/Zetia Securities Litigation (D.N.J.), a major securities fraud action against pharmaceutical industry titan Merck & Co., Inc. that settled for $215 million, jointly prosecuted with a related action, In re Schering-Plough Corp. ENHANCE Securities Litigation (D.N.J.), resulting in a $688 million total recovery—together, the largest securities class action recovery against a pharmaceutical company at the time, and among the top securities settlements with any issuer.
• In re JP Morgan Chase & Co. Securities Litigation (S.D.N.Y.), a securities fraud action against investment bank JP Morgan and its leadership arising out of the “London Whale” scandal, resulting in a $150 million settlement.
• Champs Sports Bar & Grill Co. v. Mercury Payment Systems, LLC, et al. (N.D. Ga.), a class action on behalf of small merchants against card processing companies Mercury Payment Systems and Global Payments Direct, which resulted in a settlement worth over $70 million.
• In re MyFord Touch Consumer Litigation (N.D. Cal.), a consumer class action on behalf of owners of Ford vehicles equipped with allegedly defective infotainment units, which resulted in monetary and other relief valued at over $33 million.
• T.S. Kao, Inc. v. North American Bancard, LLC, et al. (N.D. Ga.), a class action on behalf of small merchants against card processing companies North American Bancard and Global Payments Direct, which resulted in a settlement worth $15 million.
• Des Roches, et al. v. Blue Shield of California, Inc., et al. (N.D. Cal.), an ERISA class action brought by three parents of minors denied coverage for mental health and/or substance use disorder treatment by Blue Shield of California and its mental health services administrator, Human Affairs International of California (a subsidiary of Magellan Health, Inc.), based on allegedly faulty criteria, which resulted in the defendants’ inability to resume use of the challenged criteria and other significant injunctive relief, as well as a $7 million fund for payment of allegedly improperly denied claims.
• In re New Oriental Education & Technology Group Securities Litigation (S.D.N.Y.), a securities fraud action against China-based New Oriental Education & Technology Group relating to alleged accounting manipulations, which settled for $4.5 million.
• In re Miller Energy Resources, Inc. Securities Litigation (E.D. Tenn.), a securities fraud action against oil and gas firm Miller Energy regarding alleged accounting manipulations, which settled for approximately $3 million.
• In re Volkswagen “Clean Diesel” Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation (N.D. Cal.), a consumer class action against Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, and Robert Bosch LLC, arising out of the “Dieselgate” scandal, which resulted in an unprecedented vehicle buyback program and other relief valued at approximately $15 billion.
• British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme, et al. v. American International Group, Inc. (S.D.N.Y.), a securities fraud action brought by a number of public pension and retirement funds and other institutional investors against AIG in relation to its alleged concealment of toxic assets during the 2008 financial crisis, which resulted in a substantial investor recovery.
• Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, et al. v. Merck & Co., Inc., et al. (D.N.J.), a securities fraud action brought by a number of public pension and retirement funds and other institutional investors against Merck & Co., Inc., and its former leadership, in relation to the company’s allegedly false statements concerning Vioxx, which resulted in a substantial investor recovery.

Mr. McGee earned a postgraduate research degree, with honors, in the history and philosophy of law from the University of Edinburgh.  In 2009, he received his J.D., cum laude, from Villanova University, where he was a Dean’s Merit scholar.  In 2005, he received a B.A. in philosophy as well as media technologies from the University of Scranton.