Ruth Borenstein is engaged in a complex litigation practice at both the trial and appellate levels in courts throughout the country. She has successfully defended companies against tort, statutory, and contract claims in a variety of contexts, ranging from consumer class actions alleging overcharges to franchisees' complaints about profitability and franchisor support.
Ms. Borenstein is one of the country's leading experts on federal preemption of state statutes and common law that affect the pricing and service practices of airlines and motor and air cargo carriers. She has represented carriers and carrier associations in successful challenges to state laws that affect deliveries, including representing carrier associations in victories in the federal district court, First Circuit Court of Appeals, and U.S. Supreme Court in a case establishing that states may not restrict carriers' deliveries of regulated products. In addition, she regularly represents carriers in defending state law claims related to their pricing or service practices, including class actions.
Ms. Borenstein also has defended companies in several cases brought by groups of franchisees who object to changes in a franchise network and against claims of misrepresentations and violations of state unfair competition law and franchise law. Ms. Borenstein has won summary judgment for clients in those cases, and a wide range of other cases. She also has expertise in jurisdiction under the Class Action Fairness Act, including the mass action component of the Act.
Ms. Borenstein has been a member of the ACLU of Northern California Lawyers Council since 1987, serving for several years on the Executive Committee and for three years as Co-Chair.
Ms. Borenstein's work on the case, Rowe v. New Hampshire Motor Transport Association, earned her notice as a key practitioner by the National Law Journal, which also named the firm to its annual Appellate Hot List in 2009. At Harvard Law School, Ms. Borenstein served as Editor-in-Chief and Articles Editor, Harvard Women's Law Journal.