James P. Tuite's practice focuses on complex civil and regulatory litigation, with a particular emphasis on issues affecting the energy industry.
Mr. Tuite has represented energy, natural resource, transportation, telecommunications and health care companies in federal district court trials and before federal and state agencies. He has handled cases involving administrative law, antitrust, constitutional law, federal preemption, energy and transportation regulation, royalties and natural resource valuation, the False Claims Act, patent infringement, Medicare contracts, and federal and state taxation. Many of Mr. Tuite’s cases have had substantial economic issues at their core; as a result, he has worked with some of the nation's foremost economists in the development and presentation of expert testimony. A seasoned appellate advocate, Mr. Tuite has argued more than a dozen cases before the U.S. courts of appeals and prepared numerous briefs before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Over the years, Mr. Tuite has handled many cases for energy companies. He thus has extensive experience with legal issues associated with the exploration, production, refining, transportation and marketing of crude oil and petroleum products and with the production and transportation of natural gas. His representations include:
- four major refiners in the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust action alleging that Unocal used deception to gain monopoly power over the market for producing reformulated gasoline in California; the representation included preparation of the petition initially sparking the FTC’s interest in the case and involvement in the investigation, pre-trial proceedings and a three-and-one-half-month trial
- the three major North Slope producers on legislative and regulatory issues related to their potential construction of a system to transport natural gas from the North Slope of Alaska to the continental United States
- an affiliate of a major integrated oil company in an action by the commonwealth of Puerto Rico alleging that the three largest gasoline marketers on the island had overcharged consumers by hundreds of millions of dollars
- a major North Slope producer in an action by the state of Alaska seeking approximately $1 billion in production and severance taxes; had front-line responsibility for an issue involving more than $300 million in potential liability.
Mr. Tuite received his A.B. in economics from Duke University in 1970 and his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1973. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the majority of the federal courts of appeals, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and the U.S. Tax Court. He is a board member of the Council for Court Excellence, a nonprofit civic organization that works to improve the administration of justice in the local and federal courts in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Tuite has spoken and authored articles on civil litigation. Most recently, he spoke in March 2005 at the annual Petroleum Marketing Attorneys meeting on the FTC’s Antitrust Challenge to Unocal’s Reformulated Gasoline Patents. He is the author of "Evidence, Jurisdiction, and the Internet: New Issues, Traditional Principles," Corporate Legal Times (March 2000); "A Primer on Multidistrict Court Litigation," Corporate Legal Times (August 1999); "Business Methods Can Be Patented," Corporate Legal Times (October 1998); and "False Claims Act Liability – Not for Government Contractors Only," Corporate Legal Times (February 1998).