Joseph A. Farside Jr.

Joe Farside has a multi-jurisdictional litigation and counseling practice, and he routinely appears in state and federal courts throughout the northeast in addition to proceedings involving the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Department of Justice (DOJ), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Occupational Health and Safety ‎Administration (OHSA)‎. He has deep experience in areas of antitrust, environmental, and litigation.

Antitrust Experience

• Advises clients on compliance with the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 ahead of mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and other transactions, whether strategic or financial in nature in numerous industries
• Advises clients on substantive strategic merger analyses and investigations (federal and state level), including those involving a "second request" from the FTC or DOJ, and has worked on numerous high-profile and cross-border transactions, including an $8 billion merger of pharmaceutical companies, numerous telecommunications transactions, and several transactions in other industries, including cosmetics, gaming, biomedical, healthcare, pharmaceutical services, construction and mining equipment, and industrial and construction materials, with several transactions valued in excess of $1 billion
• Has developed a focus on and significant experience in health care merger reviews conducted by both the FTC and state Attorneys General, including combinations of hospitals, physician groups, and combinations of health care insurers in the commercial and Medicare spaces, insurtech and Insurer-provider joint ventures
• Advises clients in connection with non-transaction related antitrust investigations by the FTC and DOJ
• Advises clients on compliance with substantive antitrust law concerning issues such as product distribution, discounts, bundling, tying arrangements, and "gun jumping"
• Represents clients in antitrust litigation and represented a major bank in In re Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation

Environmental and Energy Experience

• Represents numerous international companies across diverse industries against civil claims under CERCLA and state equivalent cleanup statutes, whether direct claims brought by the government or contribution claims by private third parties arising from allegations concerning the institution’s historical waste disposal practices, and has served on PRP group steering committees and led negotiations
• Counsel to performing municipal PRP in connection with closure and remediation of the Town’s historic landfill
• Represents clients in the defense of allegations of Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act violations brought by EPA and private parties, and assists clients with compliance under those statutes
• Counsels clients on numerous permit application issues
• Works with energy clients on state and federal issues relating to development and expansion of plant capacity, including but not limited to state-specific energy siting compliance and management of various project phases, including large- and small-scale natural gas and combined fuel projects, utility regulatory compliance, etc.‎
• Counsels energy and financial clients on renewable development and environmental compliance, including in connection with the Block Island Wind Farm, the nation’s first operational offshore windfarm
• Assisted a major Boston-based generation facility with all energy and construction issues in connection with its capacity expansion project, which included the addition of a new 15 MW gas-powered turbine generator
• Counsels clients on R.I. Public Utilities Commission (PUC) rules and regulations, and appears with clients in PUC proceedings when needed to advance the interests of generators or energy retailers
• Served as lead outside counsel to one of the largest international energy retailers on its nationwide COVID-19 crisis management initiative

Financial Services Litigation Experience

• Ongoing representation of several top national lending and servicing institutions in defense of various types of mortgage foreclosure and other consumer finance lawsuits brought by borrowers in state and federal trial and appeals courts in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island
• Ongoing multi-jurisdiction defense of multiple so-called "face-to-face" meeting cases arising under HUD regulations
• Ongoing multi-jurisdiction defense of multiple so-called "paragraph 22" compliance cases involving impact of default notice language on borrower's awareness of ability to seek court intervention prior to a foreclosure
• Defense of purported class action relating to servicer's obligation to automatically cancel mortgage insurance premiums for FHA-insured loans in certain circumstances
• Defense of purported class action relating to compliance with state-specific pre-foreclosure mediation requirements
• Defense of purported class action arising from alleged accounting errors, resulting in alleged violations of FDCPA, RESPA, TILA, and state corrollaries
• Defense of purported class action arising from alleged servicer failure to pay recording fees in the tens of millions of dollars state-wide
• Litigated and tried multiple loan-level cases involving common law allegations, such as breach of contract, promissory estoppel, negligent misrepresentation, and fraud allegations relating to or arising from alleged loan modification agreements, forbearance agreements, or other loss mitigation alternatives

Other Commercial Litigation Experience

• Assisted for a number of years in the Firm's defense of an international accounting and audit firm against investor suits seeking hundreds of millions of dollars arising out of funds that invested with Bernard Madoff, involving both federal securities and state common law issues in state and federal trial and appeals courts
• Represented clients in major construction-related cases involving breach of contract, breach of warranty, and negligent construction claims, including one that involved the construction of an articulated tug-barge at a Rhode Island shipyard and another involving claims of a Condominium Association brought against the condominium developer