Overview
Raymond A. Garcia practices in all areas of complex commercial litigation, with an emphasis on class actions, mass arbitrations, and financial services litigation. He has represented an array of businesses in federal and state courts throughout the country, at both the trial and appellate levels, and in arbitration. In addition, Raymond advises clients on regulatory matters and government investigations, including assisting clients in responding to inquiries from state and federal regulators and enforcement authorities.
Raymond has defended clients in connection with commercial business disputes and retail banking operations, including claims for breach of contract, tortious interference, and disclosure of proprietary information as well as violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Fair Credit Billing Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and state unfair and deceptive acts and practices statutes.
Over the course of his career, Raymond has settled numerous individual, class action, and mass arbitration cases as well as government investigations, involving the development of sophisticated settlement structures to address the legal and business concerns of his clients.
- New York
- California
- Oregon
- US District Court, Northern District of New York
- US District Court, Southern District of New York
- US District Court, Eastern District of New York
- US District Court, Western District of New York
- US District Court, Central District of California
- US District Court, Eastern District of California
- US District Court, Northern District of California
- US District Court, Southern District of California
- US District Court, District of Oregon
- US Court of Appeals, First Circuit
- US Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
- US Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
- US Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
- J.D., University of Chicago Law School, 2011
- B.A., University of Florida, 2007, cum laude
Areas of Work
Representative Matters
- Prevailed on summary judgment to defeat a putative class action seeking more than $40 million in statutory damages under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The order provides valuable support to defendants’ efforts to defeat claims based on the unauthorized conduct of third-party vendors.
- Developed and executed a mass arbitration defense strategy after a plaintiffs’ firm attempted to leverage aggregated costs and fees into a multi-million dollar settlement of meritless claims for violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. This hard-fought effort resulted in the dismissal of all claims with prejudice and without any payment or other relief to claimants.
- Supported client’s acquisition of a new business by defeating third-party claims for tortious interference and breach of a purchase option agreement between the acquired business and a “business aggregator,” which had no intention of performing or yielding any benefit whatsoever under the agreement at issue.
- Represented a nationwide mortgage lender in an investigation by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau into alleged violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. Efforts included successfully limiting the broad scope of civil investigative demands to minimize the burden of compliance as well as preparing and defending the business through a formal investigational hearing, bringing proceedings to a close without any action by the CFPB.
- Secured dismissal of a putative class action alleging that a credit card issuer violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act by misrepresenting the nature of consumer debts in collection-related correspondence. In the resulting order, the court agreed that plaintiff’s claim required an “unsupportable and idiosyncratic” construction of the communications at issue that could not support a claim.
- Counseled lender in responding to, and favorably settling, an investigation by the Department of Housing and Urban Development into allegations of discriminatory housing practices.
- Vindicated credit card issuer’s refusal to credit or otherwise reimburse card holders for transactions that consumers knowingly authorized as part of a “swipe for points” scheme to defraud the bank.
- Defeated a putative class action alleging that a mortgage lender, as an alleged agent of the Federal National Mortgage Association, violated the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment by conducting nonjudicial foreclosure hearings without adequate notice or a meaningful hearing. In the resulting order, the court rejected all of plaintiffs’ theories and agreed that Fannie Mae (and, by extension, the client) was not a governmental actor subject to the Fifth Amendment.