Jeffrey Lane Karlin

Jeff Karlin is a principal at Gray Plant Mooty and member of the Franchise & Distribution and Business & General Litigation practice groups. Prior to entering private practice, he served for nine years as a trial attorney for the Torts Branch, Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice.  Jeff has litigated a wide variety of commercial cases in the franchise context involving issues of financial fraud, underreporting of sales, wrongful discharge, conversion, and market withdrawal. He has also defended a number of tort and product liability actions involving hot beverage spills, premises liability, wrongful death, invasion of privacy, and defamation.   He was selected as the overall winner of 2013’s Lexology Client Choice Award in the Franchising category for the United States as well as the exclusive winner for Franchising in the District of Columbia.

Representative Cases

Published opinions include:

·    Progressive Foods, LLC v., Dunkin’ Donuts, Inc., 2012 WL 3241696 (6th Cir. Aug. 9, 2012), cert. denied, 2013 WL 598542, 81 USLW 3370 (Feb. 19, 2013).

·    H & R Block Tax Servs. LLC v. Franklin, 691 F.3d 941 (8th Cir. 2012).

·    Dunkin' Donuts Franchised Restaurants, LLC v. Agawam Donuts, Inc., 2008 WL 619399 (D. Mass. 2008)

·     Moghaddam v. Dunkin' Donuts, Inc., 332 F. 44 (D. Mass 2004)

·    Baskin-Robbins, Inc., v. Taj California, Inc., 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19943 and 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19946 (D.C. Cal. 2003)

·    Brock v. Baskin-Robbins, USA Co., 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3840 (E.D. Tex. 2003), aff’d 155 . 792 (2005)

·    Wu v. Dunkin’ Donuts, 2001 U.S. LEXIS 2544 (2nd Cir. 2001)

·    Doe v. United States, 83 F. Supp. 2d 833 (S.D. Tex. 2000)

·    Kaplan v. United States, 1998 U.S. App. LEXIS 26209 (9th Cir. 1998)

·    Schneider v. United States, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20139 (D. Minn. 1993)

·    Fahl v. United States Dep’t of the Interior, 792 F. Supp. 80 (D. Ariz. 1992)

Education:

Washington College of Law at American University, J.D., 1989

University of Maryland, M.A., 1986

University of California, Santa Barbara, cum laude, 1984

Bar Admissions:

District of Columbia

California

U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

U.S. District Court, District of Columbia

U.S. District Court, Central District of California

U.S. District Court, District of Colorado

U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas

U.S. Court of Federal Claims