Mr. Conti’s primary practice areas are in the fields of products liability and consumer protection defense, insurance defense and labor and employment.
Mr. Conti has represented nearly every automotive manufacturer at one time during his career in the defense of state and federal breach of warranty claims and consumer protection act claims. These claims are typically brought by consumers or insurance companies as subrogation claims. Mr. Conti's practice spans all state and federal venues in Maryland, Virginia and Washington D.C. Over the years, Mr. Conti has defended automotive defect claims asserted against Audi, BMW, Chrysler, General Motors, Honda, Isuzu, Jaguar, Kia, Land Rover, Maserati, Mazda, Saab, Saturn, Subaru, Toyota and Volkswagen.
Outside of his defense work for automotive manufacturers, Mr. Conti handles matters for Tokio Marine America Insurance Company, defending a wide variety of automotive, products liability, and general liability claims. Mr. Conti has served as counsel for a number of companies both through direct representation or insurance defense in the areas of premises liability, products liability, automotive torts claims, fire subrogation claims and in a variety of general liability contexts involving catastrophic losses. Representative clients in these areas include Snap On, Value City Furniture, Stanley Martin Homes, Rheem, Cooper Industries, KONE Elevators and Escalators, Manheim Auctions, Monumental Paving, Orange Theory Fitness, Dell and Panasonic.
Mr. Conti has served as defense counsel for an oil company in a toxic tort case involving alleged property contamination. Mr. Conti served as counsel for Motorola, Inc., in the defense of toxic tort cases alleging personal injuries cause by radio-frequency admissions from hand-held cellular telephones. The representation of Motorola included the defense of several non-personal injury, multi-district class action litigation, as well as personal injury claims involving allegations of brain cancer. Mr. Conti also worked as counsel for an auto-manufacturer in defeating a warranty-based class action complaint pending in the Circuit Court of Maryland for Baltimore City. Mr. Conti represented a major heavy truck manufacturer providing advice on NHTSA regulatory compliance matters. Mr. Conti served as lead counsel for an elevator and escalator manufacturer, representing the company in product liability cases throughout the State of Maryland, including the successful trial of a personal injury case involving the escalator at the Baltimore Ravens’ Stadium. Mr. Conti has also represented a manufacturer of barrier protection systems installed to protect government and private institutions.
Outside of the products liability and insurance defense arena, Mr. Conti serves as General Counsel for the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department’s Fraternal Order of Police as well as Montgomery County's Fraternal Order of Police. These organizations serve as the representatives of thousands of police officers in each jurisdiction. Mr. Conti regularly provides these organizations with advice in the areas of Labor and Employment law, as well as guiding the organizations in a variety of different legal and legislative contexts. Mr. Conti also handles a variety of civil litigation and administrative matters on behalf of his F.O.P. clients. These matters include labor disputes, wage disputes, statutory and constitutional claims and tort-related matters handled by these organizations on behalf of their members. Mr. Conti defends police officers in a wide variety of civil and administrative claims, including police trial boards and disciplinary proceedings. Recently, Mr. Conti successfully challenged the District of Columbia's COVID-19 vaccine mandate obtaining a successful ruling in D.C. Superior Court that ended the mandate and all threatened disciplinary proceedings against the impacted officers. Currently, Mr. Conti is serving as lead counsel to the the D.C. and Montgomery County F.O.P.s in several civil lawsuits pending in the District of Columbia Superior Court and Montgomery County Circuit Court. Mr. Conti is regularly involved in private arbitrations, as well as matters before the D.C. Public Employee Relations Board and designated Montgomery County Umpire for these clients.
Prior to forming Conti Fenn LLC, Mr. Conti worked for Piper & Marbury LLP (now DLA Piper) from 1999 to 2002 in the firm’s products liability and toxic torts practice group.
Published Decisions:
Hawkins v. District of Columbia, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, 923 F.Supp.2d 128 (D.C. 2013) (1st Amendment claim of police officer).
Baumann v. District of Columbia, United Stated District Court for the District of Columbia, 933 F.Supp.2d 19 (2013) (1st Amendment and Whistleblower claim of police officer).
Adgerson v. Police & Firefighters’ Retirement and Relief Board, District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 73 A.3d 985 (2013) (Police Officer Retirement Board Appeal).
AMEX Assur. Co. v. Giordano, United States District Court for the District of Maryland, 925 F.Supp.2d 733 (2013).
Freeman v. District of Columbia, District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 60 A.3d 1131 (2012) (Appeal of Jury Verdict in Whistleblower Case).
Hawkins v. Boone, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, 786 F.Supp.2d 328 (2011). (1st Amendment and Whistleblower claim of police officer).
Roberts v. Attorney Grievance Commission, Court of Appeals of Maryland, 394 Md. 137, 904 A.2d 557 (2006).
Evans v. General Motors Corp., United States District Court for the District of Maryland, 459 F.Supp.2d 407 (D.Md. 2006).
Ford Motor Company v. General Accident Insurance Company, 365 Md. 321, 779 A.2d 362 (2001) (Seminal Breach of Warranty Decision in Maryland, Co-Drafted Amicus Brief on behalf of the Products Liability Advisory Counsel, Inc.).
Bacon & Associates, Inc. v. Rolly Tasker Sails (Thailand) Co., Ltd., 154 Md. App. 617, 841 A.2d 53 (2004) (Successful Jury Verdict Obtained on Behalf of Sail Manufacturer at Trial Affirmed on Appeal; Sole Counsel for Trial and Appeal).
In re Wireless Telephone Radio Frequency Emissions Products Liability Litigation, 216 F.Supp.2d 474 (D. Md. 2002) (Decision Denying Plaintiff’s Attempt to Remand Case to State Court on Preemption Grounds; Co-Counsel in Multi-District Litigation).
Bergmann v. Board of Regents of the University System of Maryland, 2006 WL 408195 (Md. App. 2006) (Successful appeal resulting in the reversal of the trial Court’s class certification decision ruling the University System’s tuition policy unconstitutional; sole counsel at trial and lead counsel on appeal).
Christopher Newman v. Motorola, Inc., 218 F.Supp.2d 769 (D. Md. 2002) (Daubert Decision Excluding Plaintiff’s Experts in Cellular Phone Brain Cancer Case; Co-Counsel for lead defendant, Motorola, Inc.).
Christopher Newman v. Motorola, Inc., 125 F.Supp.2d 717 (D. Md. 2000) (Decision denying Motion to Remand on Fraudulent Joinder Grounds and Dismissing Certain Consumer Protection Act Claims; Co-Counsel for lead defendant, Motorola, Inc.).
Chelsea House North Apartments LLC v. Isaac Blonder, 223 F.R.D. 388, 59 Fed.R.Serv.3d 1011 (D. Md. 2004) (Lead counsel in Commercial Real Estate Dispute).
Martin v. Chrysler Group, LLC, United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia 2013 WL 5308245 (W.D.Va.).
Unpublished Decisions:
Federal Insurance Co. v. Eemax, United States District Court for the District of Maryland, 2022 WL 4386190 (2022).
Mountford v. LTD., Inc., and FCA, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, 2020 WL 3261452 (2020).
Decohen v. Abbasi, LLC, United States District Court for the District of Maryland, 2011 WL 3438625 (2011).
Achumba v. American Honda Motor Co., United States District Court for the District of Maryland, 2009 WL 4730506 (2009).
Sharp v. American Honda Motor Co., Inc., United States District Court for the District of Maryland, 2009 WL 4061761 D.Md. (2009) (dismissing case for plaintiff’s delays in service of complaint on defendant).
Tarquini v. Superior Products, Inc., 2007 WL 763186 (2007) (sexual harassment case).
Berry v. PLC, Inc., United States District Court for the District of Maryland, 2006 WL 1042373 (D.Md. 2006).
McCready v. Standard Ins. Co., United States District Court for the District of Maryland, 417 F.Supp.2d 684 (D.Md. 2006).
Tom Hickey v. General Motors Corporation, Civil Case No. 04-3324 (D. Md. 2005) (Memorandum Opinion Granting Manufacturer Summary Judgment on Lemon Law, Consumer Protection Act and Magnuson Moss Claims).
Scott v. American Nat’l. Red Cross, United States District Court for District of Maryland, 2005 WL 2510456 (D.Md. 2005) (Claim of 58 Red Cross employees terminated in Reduction in Force).