Anthony J. Majestro is the Managing Member of Powell & Majestro, PLLC. West Virginia. Mr. Majestro is a summa cum laude graduate of West Virginia University (1986) and a cum laude graduate of Georgetown University Law Center (1989). Mr. Majestro is licensed to practice law in West Virginia and various federal district and appellate courts. Mr. Majestro was selected as a Harry S. Truman Scholar in 1984 and served from 1989-1990 as a law clerk to the Honorable Thomas A. Clark of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Majestro concentrates his practice in prosecuting complex litigation, focusing on consumer fraud and defective products, including defective drugs and medical devices.

In the course of his practice, Mr. Majestro has served as class counsel, lead counsel, liaison counsel and in leadership roles in a number of state and national class actions, mass torts, and other complex cases. Mr. Majestro has developed an extensive appellate practice and has numerous appellate victories in state and federal appellate courts across the country, including a unanimous decision on the merits from Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Majestro regularly serves as appellate counsel and also represents state and local officials and agencies in trial and appellate litigation.

Powell & Majestro, along with its partners in the National Consortium, brought the opioid distributor litigation from a single action in West Virginia to the national spotlight, with the team now serving as counsel in over 700 city/county cases and 9 attorney general cases. Mr. Majestro has been involved in leadership roles in the opioid litigation nationwide serving as Co-Chair of the Law and Briefing Committee of MDL 2804, In re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation, which the Washington Post has called “the largest and most complex case in the history of jurisprudence.” Mr. Majestro was part of the opioid legal team that developed the legal theories (including nuisance, standing, causation, duty and abatement) against the distributors which served as an impetus to the nationwide settlement with the 3 biggest distributors of opioids for $21 billion over 17 years. Many of these legal theories were novel and complex and survived attempts at pretrial dismissal which served as an impetus to settlement. The development of these theories and the successful defense of those claims reverberated across the country and served as precedent in state court litigation across the country.

As Co-Lead of the Opioid MDL Law & Briefing Committee, Mr. Majestro drafted responses to numerous discovery and dispositive motions in the bellwether cases. He also led the effort to Amend the Complaints in over 700 city/county cases to include newly added Defendants and legal theories. Mr. Majestro served as part of the “on-call” law and briefing team, monitoring discovery issues and providing rapid responses to trial and discovery teams.

Mr. Majestro has been a member of five trial teams in the opioid litigation, including three MDL bellwethers and cases brought by the New Mexico and Nevada Attorneys General. As part of the trial team on behalf of the Attorney General of New Mexico against Kroger, Walmart and Walgreens, Mr. Majestro was key in working with experts to develop the $24 billion Abatement Plan and presenting such evidence at trial. He performed similar work on behalf of the Nevada Attorney General. Ultimately, the New Mexico AG reached substantive settlement agreements with the Defendants – Walgreens ($500 million); Kroger ($58.5 million); and Walmart, CVS, and Albertsons ($132 million).

In West Virginia, Mr. Majestro has represented many constitutional officers serving as an appointed Special Assistant Attorney General in two consumer fraud actions (representing the Attorney General), three securities fraud investigations (representing the State Auditor as Commissioner of Securities and the State Investment Management Board), and an action to recover unclaimed property (representing the State Treasurer as Administrator of the State Unclaimed Property Fund).

Mr. Majestro has been retained by the West Virginia State Auditor and West Virginia PEIA to pursue claims against the insulin manufacturers and PBMs for artificially inflating the price of insulin at the expense of self-funded health plans and the members and beneficiaries. The suit seeks monetary damages and disgorgement for the excessive insulin prices resulting from violations of deceptive and unfair trade practices, unjust enrichment and breach of contract, among other potential claims.

He has served in leadership roles in a number of class actions and other complex cases. Examples include: State ex rel. Bell Atlantic-West Virginia, Inc. v. Ranson, 497 S.E.2d 755 (W. Va. 1997); Ysbrand v. DaimerChrysler Corp., 81 P.3d 618, (Okla. 2003); Wilson v. DirectBuy, Inc., 2011 WL 2050537 (D. Conn. 2011); In re Water Contaminate Litigation (W.Va. Mass Litig. Panel); Good v. American Water (S.D. W.Va.).

Mr. Majestro has extensive experience practicing before the West Virginia Mass Litigation Panel, having been chosen to serve as lead counsel or liaison counsel in three consolidations before the Panel.

Mr. Majestro leads the firm’s successful appellate practice with lawyers from around the country retaining him and the firm to either preserve verdicts on appeal or overturn an adverse result in a lower court. He successfully defended $20 million in plaintiffs’ verdicts arising out of the vaginal mesh MDL. Campbell v. Boston Sci. Corp., 882 F.3d 70 (2018); Cisson v. C.R. Bard, Inc., 810 F.3d 913 (4th Cir. 2016). He successfully defended a multi-million-dollar verdict awarded for injuries sustained by a worker in a work-related incident. Richard Edwards, Jr. v. Cardinal Transport, Inc., 821 Fed. Appx. 167 (4th 2020). He has many other successes on appeal including a unanimous reversal on the merits of a three-judge panel by the United States Supreme Court. Tennant v. Jefferson County Com’n, 133 S.Ct. 3 (2012).

Mr. Majestro recently served as counsel of record before the United States Supreme Court in Tug Hill Operating, LLC v. Rogers, 144 S. Ct. 818 (2024), where the firm successfully defended a Fourth Circuit ruling that allowed plaintiffs to bring their Fair Labor Standards Act claims in federal court as opposed to being forced to arbitrate those claims.  In this employment class action, the Firm’s clients were denied overtime pay after they were purposefully and wrongly classified as independent contractors.  The U.S. Supreme Court denied Certiorari, allowing plaintiffs to continue to seek just compensation for their work.

In the course of his practice, Mr. Majestro has served in leadership roles in a number of class actions and other complex cases. Mr. Majestro was liaison counsel in In re Petition of B&H Towing, an admiralty case involving property damage along the banks of the Ohio River and its tributaries surrounding Parkersburg, West Virginia. Mr. Majestro’s analysis of the insurance policies at issue in that case led to the ultimate payment of the defendants’ $20 million in insurance coverage. In In re Human Tissue Products Liability Litigation (MDL 1763), Mr. Majestro served as a member of the plaintiffs’ committee.

Mr. Majestro currently serves as class counsel in other consumer fraud cases and counsel to the putative class in a number of other cases in state and federal court in which his clients are seeking or have received certification of the cases as class actions and his appointment as class counsel.

Mr. Majestro is currently representing residents of Charleston’s West Side in the ongoing litigation related to the November 2023 water and gas utility outages that left thousands of residents to endure freezing temperatures without heat, gas, or water over the Thanksgiving holiday.  Consistent with its dedication to representing consumers harmed by large corporations, Powell & Majestro is working to make sure the members of our community that suffered because of any potential corporate wrongdoing are made whole. Thomas Toliver and Bailes Glass Co. v. West Virginia-American Water Co. and Mountaineer Gas Co., Civil Action No. 23-C-1007.

Mr. Majestro also maintains an active election law practice. He successfully represented Delegate Cliff Moore in an action seeking to force the McDowell County Commission to place Delegate Moore’s name on the 2008 primary ballot after his candidate registration had arrived late and was not notarized. In the 2008 election, Mr. Majestro successfully represented the Democratic Party’s two nominees for the Supreme Court of Appeals in litigation filed by third-parties seeking to overturn provisions in the state election law requiring disclosure of third-party expenditures and electioneering communications. Mr. Majestro has represented various state officials in election matters on appeal in the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States.

Mr. Majestro is also involved in a number of state legislative issues. He regularly consults with the Chairs and staff of the House Judiciary Committee regarding legislation.

Mr. Majestro was the President of the West Virginia Association for Justice from 2013 – 2014. He has served as a member of the WVAJ Board of Governors for more than a decade and has been a member of the organization’s executive committee since 2007. He serves as the WVAJ’s Legislative Chair and a member of its amicus committee. He was named the West Virginia Association for Justice’s Member of the Year in 2007 and 2012. He also serves as member of the national board of governors for the Association of Justice.

Mr. Majestro is one of the founding co-chairs of the American Bar Association’s Committee on Attorney Generals. He was also a member of the West Virginia Bar Association’s ad hoc committee on Judicial Selection. He serves as a member of the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules created by West Virginia’s Chief Justice which recently proposed extensive updates to the West Virginia Rules of Civil Procedure.

Mr. Majestro is a member of the Executive Committee of the West Virginia Association for Justice, and a member of the Board of Governors for the American Association for Justice. In 2024, Mr. Majestro was the recipient of the West Virginia Association for Justice’s Caplan Award in recognition of his dedication and public service to the state, its residents, and the civil justice system.

Mr. Majestro regularly lectures at state and national seminars on topics related to law office automation, consumer protection, class actions, appellate litigation, and mass torts. He has been listed as a “Super Lawyer” for appellate and consumer litigation for eight years.