Arne D. Wagner

Arne D. Wagner

Arne D. Wagner specializes in business and commercial litigation, with special emphases on financial services, consumer class actions, unfair trade practices and lender liability. He has served as lead trial counsel in major cases involving retail and consumer loan fees, commercial lender liability, merchant credit card chargebacks and claims of unfair business practices.

Mr. Wagner was formerly a partner at Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco. Prior to that, he was Director of Litigation worldwide for Bank of America, where he was responsible for directing the defense of the Bank in its entire portfolio of litigation, managing practice groups handling all consumer and retail cases, class actions and unfair practice cases, fiduciary, securities and lender liability litigation.

Mr. Wagner is a frequent speaker and panelist on topics such as consumer class actions, mediation and arbitration, lender liability and financial services litigation. He has served as a member of the Bar Association of San Francisco Judiciary Committee and director of the Association for California Tort Reform.

Mr. Wagner received his B.Sc. degree (with honors) in statistics from the University of Manitoba in 1971 and his Ph. D. in statistics from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was a National Research Council Scholar, in 1974. In 1977 he graduated from Boalt Hall (University of California at Berkeley) School of Law, after serving on the California Law Review and being elected to the Order of the Coif, the law honorary society.

Representative Matters

  • Lead counsel for bank at trial and on appeal of $50 million lender liability case. California Court of Appeal vacated jury award and directed entry of final judgment for bank on grounds that no wrongdoing was shown.
  • Lead counsel for bank at trial and on appeal of $20 million unfair practice suit in California state court alleging deposit account fees unfair and illegal. Court of Appeal held that fees were reasonable and directed entry of judgment for bank.
  • Lead counsel for bank in $75 million CERCLA litigation seeking costs to remediate Superfund site. U.S. District Court awarded summary judgment in favor of bank on basis of CERCLA's secured lender exemption.
  • Lead counsel for Japanese companies in fifteen class actions seeking billions of dollars in World War II reparations. Dismissals by federal and state courts on grounds that claims barred by treaty and Supremacy Clause of U.S. Constitution.