The Firm has been appointed by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York as co-lead Class Counsel with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and Susman Godfrey LLP in this certified class action. On September 21, 2023, the District Court (Judge Jesse Furman) granted Plaintiffs’ motion for class certification and denied Defendants’ motion to exclude Plaintiffs’ supporting experts. Defendants appealed Judge Furman’s class certification decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on an interlocutory basis and oral argument was held on April 7, 2025.

On August 1, 2025, the Second Circuit affirmed Judge Furman’s September 21, 2023 decision. The Defendants argued on appeal that the District Court erred in granting class certification by applying the wrong legal standard to the “predominance” requirement for a class action. Defendants also argued the District Court improperly discounted their individualized defenses to injury and causation in assessing predominance and wrongly flipped the Plaintiffs’ burden of proving that common questions predominate to the Defendants.

The Second Circuit rejected both of Defendants’ arguments. The Second Circuit opined that the District Court properly proceeded in two stages: first determining that Plaintiffs’ expert testimony was admissible under Daubert and second examining both sets of expert reports to conclude that common issues of law and fact indeed predominated. It also disagreed with the Defendants that the District Court misapplied the burden of proof regarding predominance. The Second Circuit reasoned that Plaintiffs had overcome their burden of proof by providing evidence demonstrating that virtually all VRDOs rates were inflated at least once during the conspiracy period.

This case is captioned City of Philadelphia et al. v. Bank of America Corporation, et al., No. 19-cv-1608 (JMF), and is pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.