HarrisMartin’s Hernia Mesh Litigation Conference Speaker Profiles

Motley Rice co-founder Joe Rice is recognized as a skillful and innovative negotiator of complex litigation settlements, having served as the lead negotiator in some of the largest civil actions our courts have seen in the last 20 years.
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Corporate Legal Times reported that national defense counsel and legal scholars described Joe as one of the nation's “five most feared and respected plaintiffs’ lawyers in corporate America.” As the article notes, "For all his talents as a shrewd negotiator ... Rice has earned most of his respect from playing fair and remaining humble.”

Joe was recognized by some of the nation’s best-regarded defense lawyers as being “the smartest dealmaker they ever sat across the table from,” Thomson Reuters has reported. Professor Samuel Issacharoff of the New York University School of Law, a well-known professor and expert in class actions and complex litigation, has commented that he is “the best strategic thinker on the end stages of litigation that I’ve ever seen.”

Since beginning to practice law in 1979, Joe has continued to reinforce his reputation as a skillful negotiator, including through his involvement structuring some of the most significant resolutions of asbestos liabilities on behalf of those injured by asbestos‐related products. He negotiates for the firm's clients at all levels, including securities and consumer fraud, anti-terrorism, human rights, environmental, medical drugs and devices, as well as catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases.

Most recently, Joe served as one of the lead negotiators in the $15 billion Volkswagen Diesel Emissions Fraud class action settlement for 2.0-liter vehicles, the largest auto-related consumer class action settlement in U.S. history, as well as the 3.0-liter settlement. He also has led negotiations on behalf of thousands of women in the transvaginal mesh litigation that has five MDLs pending in the state of West Virginia. Joe is a member of the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee for the Lipitor® multidistrict litigation and the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee for In re General Motors LLC Ignition Switch Litigation.

Henry was born in Washington, Georgia on April 3, 1946. He was admitted to the bar in Georgia in 1971.

Education:  University of Georgia (B.B.A., cum laude, 1968; J.D., cum laude, 1970). Phi Delta Phi; Phi Kappa Phi; Omicron Delta Kappa; Blue Key Member, Editorial Board, Georgia Law Review, 1969-1970.

Member: 
Western Circuit Bar Association
State Bar of Georgia
American Association for Justice
Georgia Trial Lawyers Association
Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers
Judge Advocate, USAF, 1971-1975  
Practice  Areas: 
Plaintiffs Personal Injury
Medical Malpractice
Products Liability
Qui Tam Litigation
Tort Liability
Class Actions