Jim Fosler is an attorney and business advisor with more than 30 years of experience delivering legal and business solutions to government entities, institutional investors, corporations, closely held businesses, and individuals. He is recognized for aligning legal strategy with business and policy objectives, managing high-stakes risks, and winning complex cases in state and federal courts. His firm has the flexibility to draw from whatever resources are necessary for any given matter, allowing him to build and lead multidisciplinary teams to successfully face the largest, most powerful law firms, corporations, and industries in the world through the thorniest business and legal matters. Jim is dedicated to client-focused solutions that get results.
Practice Areas
Business Advice and Consulting
Jim represents and advises businesses in a broad range of capacities, including business formation and reorganization, contract negotiation, injury and decision-making risk management, board advice, and internal investigations. He has also served as outside general counsel to businesses, usually on a flat monthly fee basis, providing his clients’ management and employees easy access to legal advice.
Business Litigation
Jim represents businesses in the prosecution and defense of claims in both state and federal courts. Throughout his career, he has handled a broad range of complex business matters in areas of the law that include business negligence, products liability, environmental, contract, insurance, intellectual property, antitrust, securities, and consumer protection law, to name a few.
Personal Injury Litigation
Jim represents seriously injured individuals and financially injured businesses. He has handled everything from automobile negligence to the most complicated products liability and medical malpractice claims. Representing individuals in personal injury cases is perhaps his most personally rewarding practice area because of the direct impact he has on his clients’ and their families’ lives.
Securities Litigation
Government Litigation
Jim was instrumental in establishing the State of Alaska’s practice of retaining outside counsel on a contingency fee basis to pursue claims against some of the most powerful companies and industries in the world. In this capacity, he assembles national litigation teams and works closely with the Attorney General’s office to investigate and prosecute those claims. Over the course of his career, he has brought claims on behalf of Alaska against over 90 of the largest and most powerful corporations in the world. These cases have resulted in Alaska recovering over $100 million.
Appeals
Milestone Cases
British Petroleum
Jim brought the landmark shareholder derivative case against British Petroleum arising from a series of safety, environmental, and operational disasters, including the Texas City, TX, refinery blast that killed 15 workers, a partial shutdown of the Prudhoe Bay oil field after a spill from a corroded pipeline, and a federal investigation into alleged propane price manipulation. The case resulted in BP agreeing to substantial corporate governance reforms and paying $373 million in penalties.
Time Warner/AOL
Jim represented five Alaska-based institutional funds in an opt out action over the disastrous AOL/Time Warner merger. The case was filed in Alaska federal court under the Securities Exchange Act. When the case resolved, his clients received approximately 10x the amount they would have received had they stayed in the class action.
Alaska v. Merck (Vioxx)
The State of Alaska retained Jim to prosecute claims against Merck for consumer protection violations in the marketing and sale of Merck’s blockbuster drug Vioxx. The case was initially transferred into federal Multidistrict Litigation (MDL), where Jim was appointed to the Government Actions Plaintiffs’ Case Management Committee. After successfully getting the case remanded back to Alaska state court, the case settled for $29 million.
Average Wholesale Price Litigation
The State of Alaska retained Jim to bring claims against 41 of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world for artificially inflating the average wholesale price (AWP) of their drugs so that, when this price was used in the State’s reimbursement formula, it resulted in providers being reimbursed by Medicaid at inflated prices. The companies “marketed the spread” between the actual and artificial price, convincing providers that they would make a higher profit from Medicaid prescribing their drug over a competitor’s drug. At one point, there were 276 defense lawyers representing the various defendant companies. The case ultimately settled for $41 million.
Exxon Valdez (Governors’ Appeal)
Jim had the privilege of representing four former Alaska State Governors before the United States Supreme Court in the Exxon Valdez case. The former governors were Walter Hickel (governor from 1966-1969 and US Secretary of Interior from 1969-1970 and 1990-1994), William Sheffield (Governor from 1982-1986), Steve Cowper (Governor from 1986-1990), and Anthony Knowles (Governor from 1994-2002). The Exxon Valdez oil spill was one of the most serious environmental disasters in American history and gave rise to one of the longest-running civil lawsuits ever litigated. Jim was honored to be chosen by the governors to serve as their counsel in this matter, entrusting him with the responsibility of representing their interests in this historic litigation.
In re Broiler Chicken and Pork Antitrust Litigation
Jim was hired by the State of Alaska to file antitrust and consumer protection claims against 31 of largest chicken producers and 7 of the largest pork producers in the country. The defendants conspired to inflate the price of broiler chicken and pork in Alaska and nationally. The cases were settled for a population-based loadstar higher than any other state received.
James E. Fosler, ESQ
Jim Fosler graduated with honors from Gonzaga University with degrees in History and Economics and went on to earn his Juris Doctor, also with honors, from Gonzaga University School of Law.
After clerking for a trial court judge in Anchorage, Alaska, Jim gained early experience in complex litigation under the mentorship of some of the state’s most respected attorneys. He later joined a midsized Pacific Rim–based law firm, where he helped expand the firm’s Alaska presence while contributing to its core maritime and securities practices, representing broker-dealers and handling raiding cases.
In 2002, Jim founded Fosler Law to create a practice that reflects his core values of flexibility, integrity, and client partnership. His goals remain to:
- Build teams on a case-by-case basis to successfully litigate against the world’s most powerful corporations and industries;
- Provide clients with direct, personal representation; and
- Structure fee agreements that align his success with his clients’, fostering integration, partnership, and trust.
This approach has been highly successful. Jim has represented the State of Alaska, the Alaska State Legislature, former Governors, Judges, Corporations, and Alaska Native Corporations, and individuals in some of Alaska’s most notable and complex cases, including many with national significance. He also represents individuals in high value personal injury claims, a part of his practice he finds especially meaningful for its direct impact on his clients’ lives.
Jim has advised businesses and governments on a broad range of issues, including business formation, organization and reorganization, board conduct, employment issues, and board, management, and injury risk management. He has conducted internal and casualty investigations and served as outside general counsel.
Outside of his legal practice, Jim has founded and owned several successful businesses, including a restaurant, medical practice, and his most recent venture, All In Academy, LLC (allinacademyla.com), a jiu-jitsu gym that he structured to support expansion and franchising.
Jim enjoys being on, in, and under the ocean, boating, skiing, mountain biking, and traveling.
Focused advocacy. Strategic counsel.
Los Angeles Office
1524 Cloverfield Ave.,
Santa Monica, CA 90403
Alaska Office
1227 West 9th Ave., Suite 200,
Anchorage, AK, 90501
James Fosler
(907) 360-7555
fosler@me.com
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