JAMES R. HUBBARD joined Liddle & Robinson in January of 2004 as a partner after three decades of practice as a litigation partner at leading firms in Miami and West Palm Beach, Florida. He is nationally recognized for his representation of plaintiffs in employment and securities cases, having obtained numerous multi-million dollar jury verdicts and settlements for his clients in over thirty years of trial practice in federal and state courts throughout the United States.

His experience extends to a wide range of employment and securities law issues, including gender and age discrimination in employment, wrongful termination, breach of contract, unfair and deceptive trade practices, breach of fiduciary duty, and fraud. He has frequently represented, as lead counsel, large groups of employees, stockholders, insurance company general agents and managers, and insurance agents and brokers, in consolidated suits or class actions, in connection with the termination of employment or contracts as the result of merger-relation reductions in force, the loss of employment benefits in merger-related transactions, and cases of IPO or merger fraud. In addition to his trial and appellate experience in state and federal court, Mr. Hubbard has appeared in arbitration matters before the NASD, the New York Stock Exchange, and the American Arbitration Association, involving employment law, contract, and securities law issues.

In April of 2005, Mr. Hubbard served as lead trial counsel for Liddle & Robinson in Zubulake v. UBS, which resulted in a jury verdict in the United States District Court for the Sothern District of New York of $29.2 million dollars in compensatory and punitive damages arising from sex discrimination and retaliatory discharge of a UBS institutional equities saleswoman. It is believed to be the largest jury verdict in United States history for a single plaintiff in an employment law case. (Clink the link below for more detailed information about the Zubulake case).

In February of 2006, Mr. Hubbard served as lead trial counsel for Liddle & Robinson in Spartis v. Goldberg, which resulted in a jury verdict in Arizona Superior Court in Phoenix, Arizona of $1,000,000 in compensatory and punitive damages arising from an attorney’s publication of defamatory information regarding a former Smith Barney broker in Atlanta, Georgia. (Clink the link below for more information about the Spartis case).

In September of 2002, Mr. Hubbard, as lead class counsel, obtained a decision from the Massachusetts state court in Worcester awarding double damages and attorneys’ fees to a class of former Paul Revere Insurance Company brokers whose commissions had been cut, just prior to the company’s sale, on policies the brokers had already sold, and thus retroactively on in-force policies. The class of brokers was the first nationwide class ever certified by a Massachusetts state court. Following a lengthy trial, the Court there found that the defendant had violated the Massachusetts unfair and deceptive practices act by cutting the brokers’ commissions retroactively in the face of repeated promises to maintain the rate at first year commission levels, and has entered a multi-million dollar damages judgment on behalf of the class. The case is reported as Eldridge v. Provident Companies, Inc., 2002 WL 31097684 (Mass. Super.).  

In 2001, Mr. Hubbard was lead counsel in an IPO fraud case in Jackson, Mississippi, brought by his client against a subsidiary of AT&T Wireless, Inc., that went public in late 2000. The plaintiff was an executive of the company, was terminated, and sued to obtain shares of stock in the privately-held cellular company he was promised, but did not receive. Just before the company went public, it settled the stock claim with the plaintiff for $400,000, denying any plans to go public, and concealing extensive discussions with investment bankers, including valuations of the IPO, from the plaintiff. Less than two months after the settlement, the subsidiary went public, at which time the stock interest the plaintiff settled for $400,000 was worth some $40,000,000 in the public market. Mr. Hubbard filed suit for the plaintiff in state court, alleging settlement fraud in the concealment of the IPO during the settlement negotiations, and successfully negotiated a multi-million dollar settlement payment from the subsidiary to the plaintiff on the eve of trial.

In 1996, Mr. Liddle and Mr. Hubbard filed federal court suits in different jurisdictions on behalf of a number of other Provident General Managers whose commission similarly were withheld upon termination, and obtained a multi-million dollar settlement of that litigation for their clients. In addition to the Provident litigation, Mr. Hubbard has successfully represented scores of insurance company general agents and manager for many other companies, including Union Mutual, MassMutual, The New England, Hartford, John Hancock, Jefferson Pilot, Vermont Life, and Chubb Life, in contract and employment law disputes.

 In 1994, Mr. Hubbard obtained a $6.4 million dollar jury verdict in United States District Court in Miami on behalf of Michael J. Eskra, a former Provident Life & Accident Insurance Company General Manager, in a suit over vested commissions withheld from him when his employment was terminated. The verdict was affirmed on appeal by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and with interest ultimately totaled over $8 million dollars. It remains the largest single collected jury verdict by a general agent or manager against a domestic insurance company. The case is reported as Eskra v. Provident Life & Accident Inc. Co., 125 F.3d 1406 (11th Cir. 1997).

Mr. Hubbard also enjoys a national reputation in the field of products liability litigation, particularly in automobile design or crashworthiness cases. He had tried or settled numerous cases involving severe personal injury or death resulting from automotive design defects, against both foreign and domestic manufacturers, resulting in tens of millions of dollars of recovery for his client. He has served for many years as a Vice Chair of the Products Liability and Consumer Law Committee of the Trial, Torts, and Insurance Practice Section of the American Bar Association, and as a Vice Chair of the Products Liability Committee of the ABA Litigation Section.

Mr. Hubbard graduated cum laude from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1967, and received his J.D. degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1971, where he served as an Editor of the Georgetown Law Journal. He was law clerk to Judge David W. Dyer of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and is a former Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. He has served as a member of the faculty of the University of Miami School of Law Employment Law Trial Skills Program, and is a frequent lecturer before legal education and organized bar presentations. Before joining Liddle & Robinson, L.L.P., Mr. Hubbard was a founding partner of the West Palm Beach firm of Ricci, Hubbard, Leopold, Frankel & Farmer, P.A. He is a member of the bars of New York, Florida, North Carolina, and the District of Columbia, of the Trial Bar of the United States for the Southern District of Florida, and of the Supreme Court of the United States. He is Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by the Florida Bar Board of Legal Specialization and Education, and is profiled by Martindale-Hubbell’s Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. A sample of his reported cases can be accessed by the link below to the Martindale-Hubbell Bar Directory.

Mr. Hubbard and his wife Susan are residents of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and have three children, ages 27, 22, and 21.