Source: https://poynerspruill.com/People/Andrew-H.-Erteschik
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 13:11:19+00:00

Document:
Drew Erteschik focuses his practice on high-stakes litigation, complex business disputes, and appeals. He co-chairs the firm's Government and Constitutional Litigation Practice Group, and he also co-chairs the firm's Appellate Practice Group.
Clients trust him to take the lead on their most significant matters, especially those with challenging or novel legal issues. Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business has profiled Drew's "highly acclaimed practice," and Benchmark Litigation has named him a "state litigation star." He has also been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America, North Carolina Super Lawyers, and Business North Carolina's Legal Elite.
In recent months, he has represented a coalition of craft breweries in a constitutional challenge to North Carolina's beer-distribution laws, represented the North Carolina Department of Revenue in a case with hundreds of millions of tax dollars at stake, brought a federal antitrust lawsuit to protect patient access to a popular physical-therapy treatment, persuaded a government agency to repeal its own tax rules as "untenable," and brought a whistleblower lawsuit that resulted in two elected district attorneys being convicted. On multiple occasions over the past several years, he has persuaded courts to strike down state laws as unconstitutional.
In his defense of corporate and government defendants, Drew has a track record of winning dismissals of high-exposure lawsuits soon after they are filed. He also has significant trial experience, and he has tried cases to successful verdicts in federal court, state court, arbitration, administrative tribunals, and the North Carolina Business Court.
Drew is a board-certified specialist in appellate practice. He frequently appears before North Carolina's appellate courts and the Fourth Circuit. He has also taught appellate advocacy as an adjunct professor at the UNC School of Law. Drew began his career clerking for Justice (now Chief Justice) Mark D. Martin of the North Carolina Supreme Court.
Drew is active in the appellate bar. He currently co-chairs the American Bar Association's Judicial Division Amicus Committee, which evaluates the potential for amicus participation by the ABA in cases involving the judiciary. He is also the vice chair of the North Carolina Bar Association's Appellate Rules Committee, which makes recommendations to the North Carolina Supreme Court on issues of appellate procedure.
Drew serves on a number of boards and commissions focused on improving the quality of justice in North Carolina. He was recently appointed to the Commission on the Administration of Law and Justice, a state commission responsible for evaluating court reform. He also currently serves on the Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism.
Drew is lead plaintiffs' counsel for a coalition of craft breweries in Craft Freedom v. North Carolina, a closely watched constitutional challenge to the state's beer-distribution laws.
The North Carolina Department of Revenue recently engaged Drew to petition the U.S. Supreme Court for certiorari in a case with nationwide implications. The case asks whether the Due Process Clause prohibits states from taxing trusts based on trust beneficiaries' in-state residency - a question on which nine state courts have split.
Drew is lead plaintiffs' counsel in Henry v. North Carolina Acupuncture Licensing Board, a federal antitrust lawsuit brought by North Carolina physical therapists and their patients over access to dry needling, a type of physical therapy.
Drew is lead counsel for a large corporate plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking millions of dollars in royalty payments owed by Garden & Gun Magazine.
Drew is defending the City of High Point against a billboard company's constitutional challenge to the city's sign ordinance.
Drew is lead plaintiff's counsel in a whistleblower lawsuit against two elected district attorneys. The lawsuit details how the plaintiff, a 20-year judicial branch employee, was fired in retaliation for reporting the district attorneys to the State Bureau of Investigation. In the wake of the lawsuit both district attorneys were convicted.
Drew is currently lead counsel for a whistleblower plaintiff in a major qui tam lawsuit involving a large corporate defendant's government fraud.
As lead defense counsel for a nationwide lender, Drew persuaded a federal court to dismiss a class-action lawsuit alleging thousands of violations of the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.
As lead appellate counsel in Laws v. Priority Trustee Services, Drew obtained a decision from the Fourth Circuit affirming the dismissal of a multi-million-dollar class action against a company on the grounds that the lawsuit impermissibly relied on lawyer ethics rules.
In North Carolina Association of Educators v. State of North Carolina, Drew won a First Amendment challenge to a state law that would have prohibited payroll dues deductions for approximately 50,000 current and retired public school employees. The Court struck down the law as unconstitutional.
In City of Charlotte v. State of North Carolina, Drew represented the City of Charlotte in a constitutional challenge to a state law that would have taken away the City's airport and given it to a regional authority. The Court struck down the law as unconstitutional.
Drew was lead defense counsel for the Catholic Diocese of Raleigh in significant litigation that raised important First Amendment issues. The case settled for a fraction of the plaintiff's initial demand after the Superior Court and Court of Appeals dismissed all but one of the plaintiff's claims.
Drew represented Avery County in Appeal of Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation, a leading property tax case. The North Carolina Court of Appeals held that the County was entitled to assess property taxes against one of North Carolina's most well-known scenic attractions.
In Dean v. United States, Drew represented a taxpayer in a case over whether a $720,000 check to the IRS was an ordinary tax "payment" or, instead, a tax "deposit" that could be refunded beyond the statute of limitations. In what is believed to be the first payment-vs.-deposit jury trial, a federal jury awarded his client the full refund.
In Terreco Properties v. Avahoula Resources, Drew represented a North Carolina business in an arbitration that ended with a defense verdict for his client—one of North Carolina's largest defense verdicts that year.

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