Plaintiff shop Labaton Keller Sucharow (newly christened thus in 2024 from its former Labaton Sucharow name) is strategically placed in the financial district of New York as well as in Wilmington, Delaware and Washington, DC, where it is well poised to feed heartily on a steady diet of corporate disputes arising on Wall Street and in the Delaware Court of Chancery. As far as its prized securities practice, the firm remains at the top echelon, as a defense-side peer says, “Labaton is one of the few plaintiff firms that get the big, meaty securities cases and they litigate them.” The firm has also made inroads into the privacy space, with a number of partners delving into the practice. “It’s a whole new crew coming up there,” declares one peer.
One such partner is New York’s Michael Canty, who is making significant strides in profile as of late. “Michael is very good, [he has] really made a name for himself,” confirms one peer. Canty served as co-lead counsel representing Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho in a securities fraud case against Alexion Pharmaceuticals and certain of its executives. The suit alleged that Alexion, a pharmaceutical drug company that generated nearly all of its revenue from selling the Company’s flagship drug, Soliris, made materially false and misleading statements and omissions principally connected to Alexion’s sales practices in connection with the marketing of Soliris. After years of vigorous litigation that commenced in 2019, the parties reached a $125 million settlement, which was affirmed in December 2023. Jonathan Gardner, also based in New York, acted with Canty on this matter. “Jonathan is very good at running cases,” opines a peer, who goes on to address Gardner as “very poised, a great presence with the court.” Canty also leads the trial representing Carpenters Pension Trust for Northern California and the Carpenters Annuity Trust Fund for Northern California, among others, in a securities class action filed against Allstate, the company’s CEO and its former President of Allstate Protection. The case arises from the company’s alleged growth strategy that ultimately led to relaxed underwriting standards which caused claims to increase. Canty laid the ground before trial with several critical victories, including prevailing against the defendants’ motion to dismiss, class certification, and defeating the defendants’ motion to exclude the opinions of his experts. Finally, once again in December 2023, the parties received approval of a $90 million joint settlement. Carol Villegas is lauded for her “grit and talent” and denoted by a market peer as “the one who’s very prominent [at Labaton]. She has a lot of work now.” Villegas serves as the youngest team leader in the firm’s history, spearheading the burgeoning Consumer Protection and Data Privacy Practice. In the privacy space, she serves as co-lead class counsel in their case alleging violations of privacy rights and related statutes against Flo Health, a women's health app developer that allows users to track data such as fertility and menstruation. While Villegas is trailblazing through the privacy and consumer protection litigation, she continues to be a pillar of the plaintiff-side securities bar; she is part of a team leading an action against Boeing concerning misleading statements made regarding its (allegedly unfulfilled) changes to corporate policy in the wake of its well publicized 737 crashes. Christine Fox, another New York partner with a growing profile, also acts on this matter. “Christine is running point on the Boeing case on the securities side,” attests a peer.
Labaton has also been steadily building out its Delaware practice. This has largely been attributed to the efforts of Ned Weinberger, a partner who has made a splash in the Delaware market and has had the community talking. “Ned Weinberger has been killing it,” exclaims a peer, who goes on to elaborate, “Dell Class V was a milestone, a huge settlement. He’s gotten some pretty good wins. Just in terms of presence, aptitude and skills, I think he will keep the flag planted [in Wilmington.]” In the alluded-to Dell case, Weinberger served as co-lead counsel against controlling stockholders of Dell, alleging they had breached their fiduciary duties by expropriating billions of dollars in value from Dell’s Class V Stockholders. After hotly contested litigation, Dell agreed to pony up a $1 billion cash settlement in lieu of a trial. Weinberger was also appointed co-lead counsel in a class action against Advance/Newhouse, challenging the entity’s use of its equity stake and designees on the board of directors of Discovery to extort the board into transferring corporate value to Advance/Newhouse at the expense of other stockholders in connection with Discovery’s $43 billion acquisition by AT&T. The parties executed a term sheet to settle the action for $125 million, which was approved in July 2024.
