Plaintiff shop Labaton Sucharow continues to stick to its historic roots as a securities boutique, although in recent years, the firm has broadened its scope to take on antitrust and privacy issues with the same formidable resolve. Corroborating the firm’s expansion, a peer advises, “Look closer – Labaton is getting more into the consumer class-actions space as well, particularly with privacy and data breach work.” The firm 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.”
Elevated to Litigation Star status this year and recognized as a National Practice Area Star in securities as well,
Carol Villegas is lauded for her “grit and talent” and denoted by a market peer as “the one who’s very prominent [at Labaton].” 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 currently serving as co-lead counsel in a securities lawsuit filed against payment platform giant PayPal after it revealed that its “net new active” accounts were artificially inflated and illegitimately created by employees and “bot farms,” leading to a drop in stock prices. Villegas recently filed an Amended Complaint. In a case that was recently resolved, she defeated the defendant Uniti’s motion to dismiss and prevailed also on its motion for reconsideration. After filing a motion for class certification during discovery, Uniti settled for $38,875,000. Villegas and fellow star of the New York office Michael Canty are lead counsel to the Public Employees Retirement Association of New Mexico in a securities action against California’s utility provider, PG&E. The leading partners had to adjust their strategy when the company filed for bankruptcy in the Northern District of California. Pivoting to bankruptcy proceedings, Villegas and Canty objected to and resolved unfavorable terms on behalf of the lead plaintiff and the putative class in the Plan of Reorganization. Their efforts preserved the claims of the putative class and at one point, extended the deadline for claimants after the defendants failed to provide proper notice to file a claim. Canty leads the trial representing Caprenters 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.
James Johnson, a more senior partner in the New York office, lays claim to several key victories of his own. He serves as co-lead counsel in a closely watched battle with Goldman Sachs arising from its concealment of misconduct involving multiple collateralized debt obligations shorting the mortgage market ahead of the 2008 financial crisis. The long-running case dates back to June 2012 when the district court denied Goldman’s motion to dismiss, leading to the class certification in 2015. After interlocutory appeal, a remand order from the Second Circuit, and another class certification granted in 2018, the Second Circuit published an opinion affirming the class certification in 2020. In June 2021, the Supreme Court further affirmed the class certification, but clarified the legal standards involved in deciding price impact at the class certification stage. The case was remanded to the Second Circuit, which remanded the case to the district court. The class was certified for a third time, and the case went before the Second Circuit again. Oral arguments took place in September 2022.
One of Labaton’s biggest accomplishments as of late has been the rising profile of the firm’s 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 is one of the leaders,” confirms one Wilmington peer. “There are no shortcuts in Delaware – you have to earn your way up through the peers and judiciary. Ned has gotten appointed lead counsel on several cases, important cases,
over people from several other plaintiff firms that are more established in Delaware!” Another peer adds, “Courts love him, he’s an aggressive litigator who gets results.” His status has succeeded against the established names, as one remarks, “These days, he has very quickly risen up to the position of being my first or second call if I needed to refer a case to a plaintiff. I would choose him over more established plaintiffs in Delaware, who are older and fading.” In a high-profile case watched closely by the Delaware market, 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. He prevailed on the defendants’ motion to dismiss the second amended complaint. In the fourth amended consolidated complaint filed, Weinberger and the great plaintiffs’ team added Goldman Sachs as a defendant, alleging aiding and abetting claims. Weinberger engaged in fact and expert discovery, and three weeks before the trial, the defendants settled, and the proposed settlement hearing was scheduled for April 2023. Weinberger has been at trial representing minority shareholders of Straight Paith in a lawsuit arising from the company’s merger with Verizon. The plaintiffs allege that the controlling shareholder, Howard Jonas, breached his fiduciary duty after his actions caused shareholders to lose hundreds of millions of dollars. Delaware Court of Chancery Vice Chancellor Glasscock denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss, which was affirmed by the Delaware Supreme Court in 2019. The defendants IDT and Jonas filed motions for summary judgment involving the indemnification agreement between IDT and Straight path; their motions however were denied. The trial was set in two phases, and the parties have been engaged in post-trial briefings.
