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 30 years. 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.” His alma mater, the University of South Carolina School of Law, rebranded in his honor in November 2023, and is now known as the Joseph F. Rice School of Law. 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 in securities and consumer fraud, anti-terrorism, human rights, environmental, and medical drug and device cases, as well as catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases. He is recognized as an AV Preeminent® rated attorney in Martindale-Hubbell®.
