We frequently are retained to conduct internal investigations relating to allegations of insider trading or other misconduct. We are regularly called upon by boards of directors, audit committees and special committees to handle their most sensitive assignments.

We have represented a variety of clients in the most well-known investigations and litigations in recent years, including those relating to Enron, Global Crossing, and subprime mortgages, among many others.

• We represent a leading prime broker, and play a lead coordinating role for an industry-wide defense group, in five actions brought against the leading prime brokerage firms by certain issuers and their shareholders who claim that the value of their securities has been depressed by manipulative short-selling practices. Three of the actions are pending in state court in San Francisco and Los Angeles, one is in state court in Atlanta, and one was filed in federal court in New York.
• We have also represented JPMorgan in all of its U.S. litigation relating to its role as financial advisor to Bre-X, including taking the lead role in arguments that resulted in no class being certified in the U.S. class action securities fraud case brought on behalf of Bre-X shareholders.
• We won dismissal of all claims against JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Bank of America in the AOL Time Warner multidistrict securities litigation arising from an earnings restatement following a $10 billion bond offering.
• We successfully represented Banco Santander, S.A. in purported class action lawsuits relating to its proposed $1.9 billion acquisition of the remaining publicly held shares of Sovereign Bancorp. After a five-day evidentiary hearing, we settled the class actions on favorable terms that included no change to the share price and allowed the transaction to proceed as scheduled. Following the court’s preliminary approval of the settlement, both companies’ shareholders voted overwhelmingly to approve the transaction, allowing it to close.
• We represent E*TRADE in a variety of litigations and investigations in connection with its announcements regarding losses stemming from exposure to second-lien mortgages and mortgage-backed securities.
• We won dismissal of a securities fraud class action against AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals in the Southern District of New York. Plaintiffs alleged that the company defrauded investors by failing to disclose certain information regarding a drug for which AstraZeneca was seeking FDA approval.
• We won summary judgment on ’34 Act claims and dismissal of ’33 Act claims against TD Securities in a federal securities fraud class action brought in federal court in South Carolina in connection with Safety Kleen Corp.’s restatement and bankruptcy, and the indictment of its top officers.
• We have won a long line of victories for Deloitte in connection with claims brought by purchasers of notes issued by the now bankrupt supermarket chain Bruno’s, beginning with multiple victories in Alabama, including a win in the Alabama Supreme Court. Most recently, the New Jersey Appellate Division affirmed the Superior Court’s dismissal of these claims, holding in agreement with Deloitte’s argument that the case was governed by Alabama law and time-barred under Alabama’s statute of limitations.
• We represent Deloitte in connection with several Parmalat litigation matters, including a shareholder action in the federal court of New York, and actions brought by trustees acting on behalf of creditors of two Parmalat subsidiaries. We won dismissal of the claims brought by non-U.S. purchasers of Parmalat stock in the shareholder action, which substantially reduced any recoverable damages in the case; and a settlement has been agreed upon in the case. In addition, we won dismissal of two lawsuits by the trustees alleging fraud and other common law claims, decisions that were affirmed on appeal by the Second Circuit.
• We represent Deloitte in connection with a shareholder litigation, as well as criminal and regulatory proceedings, arising from a massive restatement by Royal Ahold, N.V. – the Dutch grocer and former owner of U.S. Foodservice – that was prompted by the discovery of two large-scale frauds. In 2008, we won dismissal of the civil suit against Deloitte and in 2009 we prevailed on appeal before the Fourth Circuit.
• We represented Deloitte in obtaining, and successfully defending on appeal, a dismissal of a 10b-5 complaint against the firm alleging misconduct in connection with Deloitte’s audits of the financial statements of Warnaco.
• We represent PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in a consolidated securities class action litigation in the Western District of Texas related to alleged accounting fraud at Dell, Inc. We won a motion to dismiss all claims against PwC.
• We represent PwC in connection with litigation arising from alleged options backdating at a number of companies nationwide.
• We represent PwC in multidistrict litigation (MDL) proceedings in the District of New Hampshire in connection with cases filed by state pension funds arising out alleged fraud by Tyco’s former management.
• We represent PwC in litigation arising out of losses allegedly suffered by one of Charles Schwab’s large investment funds on account of, among other things, the fund’s alleged investments in subprime-related assets. We won a motion to dismiss all claims against PwC.
• We successfully represented Comcast in a putative securities class action in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania brought by plaintiffs alleging that Comcast’s forecast for fiscal year 2007 was false and misleading. The Court granted Comcast’s motion to dismiss and denied plaintiffs’ motion for leave to amend, and plaintiffs did not file an appeal.
• We represented W.P. Carey & Co. LLC (WPC), a manager of real estate investment trusts (REITs), in an SEC investigation of WPC’s arrangements with broker-dealers distributing shares of the REITs. We won dismissal of related New York state court shareholder derivative litigation against WPC.
• We represented the American Italian Pasta Company (AIPC) in an SEC investigation into AIPC’s past accounting practices and financial disclosure issues. We successfully negotiated a settlement with the SEC that lacked any civil monetary penalty. We also represented AIPC in parallel shareholder class action and derivative litigations, which have now been successfully resolved.
• We represent leading luxury home builder Toll Brothers, in a putative securities class action in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, in which the plaintiffs allege that Toll Brothers made misleading statements in connection with the company’s financial forecasts.
• We represent Hitachi in a consolidated securities class action in the District of New Jersey. The litigation arises from the initial public offering of Opnext, a former majority-owned subsidiary of Hitachi. A class of purchasers of Opnext stock allege that a group of defendants (including Hitachi) caused Opnext to file offering materials that contained material misstatements, or omitted material information, in violation of certain securities laws.
• We won a victory on behalf of Credit Suisse in a case alleging that a research analyst issued false and misleading reports regarding Lantronix. Largely adopting Credit Suisse’s arguments, the U.S. District Court for Southern District of New York held that the plaintiff failed to show that the relevant research reports had any impact on Lantronix’s stock price, and, even if they had, such effect had dissipated long before the close of the proposed class action period. As a result, the court decertified the class.
• We represent Aetna and several of its current and former executives in a securities fraud class action in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The purported shareholder class has alleged that Aetna and its executives misled the market concerning the pricing of various of its policies and the alleged impact of that pricing in the rising medical cost environment.
• We represent Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Wachovia and RBC in a putative securities class action in the Eastern District of Virginia. The litigation arises out of allegedly material misstatements made by The Mills Corporation, a real estate investment trust, including in connection with a preferred stock offering underwritten by our clients.
• We represent Bank of America in an action brought by a private bank customer who entered into a “cashless collar” transaction with the bank. After a two-week bench trial, the court dismissed the customer’s claims in full.