The Firm has extensive experience representing both plaintiffs and defendants in securities litigation filed in federal and state court, and in arbitral forums. We also represent large institutional investors that “opt out” of class action litigation and seek to pursue their own separate recovery against the defendant(s). The Firm also represents clients involved in corporate governance disputes, including breach of fiduciary duty and waste claims, actions for injunctive relief, appraisal actions, and actions for corporate dissolution.

Representative matters for the Securities Litigation Group include:

• Touchstone Strategic Trust et al. v. Gen. Elec. Co. et al., No. 19-cv-1876 (JMF). The Firm represents investment funds and other institutional investors in an “opt out” action, separate from the class action, against GE and its former CEO and CFO. In addition to asserting fraud claims arising under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 stemming from the historic stock price collapse of GE, the plaintiffs are pursuing claims under the Ohio Securities Act, seeking recission of approximately $100 million of GE common shares. Because state law claims are infrequently pursued on a class-wide basis, plaintiffs who rely on class actions often lose the benefit of state law claims providing for recission - a powerful remedy because it compensates the investor for all of its stock losses, not just those caused by the alleged securities fraud.

• Western and Southern Life Ins. Co. v. Tesco PLC, No. 1:15-cv-00658 (SSB) (S.D. Ohio). The Firm represented a group of life insurers and investment funds that purchase American Depositary Receipts sponsored by Tesco, a supermarket chain based in the U.K. The Firm successfully defeated Tesco’s effort to create a multi-district litigation and have the action transferred to the S.D.N.Y, and away from plaintiffs’ home state of Ohio. The case settled thereafter.

• RMBS fraud actions. The Firm represented The Western & Southern Life Insurance Company and its affiliates in 10 cases against the sponsors, underwriters of Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (“RMBS”). Western & Southern asserted claims under the Ohio Securities Act, and for common law fraud, arising out of its purchase of RMBS. With the exception two actions filed in federal court, these actions were filed in the Ohio Court of Common Pleas. All the cases were resolved through settlement, prior to trial.

• Alpha Capital Anstalt v. Intellipharmaceutics Int’l Inc. et al, No. 19-cv-09270-DLC (S.D.N.Y.). The Firm represented Defendant Intellipharameceutics and its CEO, COO, and former CFO against claims by plaintiff under Section 11 and Section 12(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933. The plaintiff investment fund (domiciled in Lichtenstein) alleged that that our clients failed to disclose in a securities offering in October 2018 certain facts relating to the CFO’s departure from the company. The Court granted summary judgment in our clients’ favor, holding that Defendants demonstrated that any alleged misrepresentations or omissions were not the cause of the Plaintiffs’ losses.

• Barron v. Helbiz, Inc., 1:20-cv-04703-LLS (S.D.N.Y.). The Firm represented an individual defendant in an action brought by investors in a cryptocurrency. The Firm prevailed on a motion to dismiss the action for lack of jurisdiction because the transactions at issue did not constitute domestic transactions regulated by federal securities laws.

• Enron LJM2 Matters. The Firm represented AIG and a large group of about 30 institutions and individual investors in their capacities as limited partners of LJM2 Co-Investment LP (“LJM2”), Enron’s notorious off-balance sheet entity. The Firm represented its clients in two separate disputes: (i) defending our clients against efforts by a group of banks seeking to enforce the limited partners’ remaining capital commitments for LJM2, and (ii) an affirmative action commenced by our clients against the financial entities that induced their purchase of their limited partnership interests. The matters involved nine-figure exposure and both matters settled prior to trial.