History: Pomerantz LLP is the oldest securities litigation firm in the United States and one of the most highly respected. The Firm was founded in 1936 by legal pioneer and “dean” of the class action bar, Abraham L. Pomerantz, who helped secure the rights of investors to bring class and derivative actions.
Practice: Pomerantz protects and vindicates shareholder rights through its securities litigation practice and proprietary PomTrack® portfolio monitoring service. The Firm’s global clients include more than 100 of the largest and most influential public pension funds, asset managers and private institutions, with combined assets of over $8 trillion. Pomerantz’s practice also includes corporate governance, antitrust and strategic consumer litigation.
Global Expertise:Jennifer Pafiti, Partner and Head of Client Services, is dually qualified to practice in the United States and United Kingdom. The Firm’s Paris office is headed by lawyer Nicolas Tatin, the Director-Business Development Consultant for France, Benelux, Monaco and Switzerland. Attorneys Orly Guy and Eitan Lavie head the Firm’s Tel Aviv office. In addition to the Firm’s team in the United States, France and Israel, Pomerantz utilizes an extensive network of prominent law firms in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and the Middle East, to assist clients, wherever they are situated, in recovering monies lost due to corporate misconduct and securities fraud.
Cutting-Edge Legal Strategies: Pomerantz’s position at the cutting edge of 21st century legal concerns is evidenced in the cases it pursues and the law it makes. For example, the Firm’s $80 million settlement in In re Yahoo! Inc. Sec. Litig. was the first ever significant settlement of a securities fraud class action filed in response to a data breach. Pomerantz is lead counsel in a securities class action against Wynn Resorts Ltd. concerning the company’s cover-up of sexual misconduct towards the company’s female employees by its founder and former CEO, Steve Wynn. The Firm also leads a case against Deutsche Bank AG for misrepresenting its anti-money-laundering and know-your-customer practices while repeatedly exempting high-net-worth individuals—including convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and persons sponsoring terrorism—from any meaningful due diligence, enabling their criminal activities through the Bank’s facilities.
Results: In early 2018, Pomerantz, as sole lead counsel, achieved a landmark $3 billion settlement for investors in the securities class action against Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras. The allegations arose from a decades-long, multi-billion-dollar corruption scheme—a scandal that ensnared not only Petrobras’ former executives, but also Brazilian politicians, including every former and current living Brazilian president and at least one third of the Brazilian Congress. This historic settlement represents:
- the largest securities class action settlement in a decade;
- the largest settlement ever in a securities class action involving a foreign issuer;
- the fifth-largest class action settlement ever achieved in the United States;
- the largest class action settlement ever achieved by a foreign lead plaintiff; and
- the largest class action settlement ever not involving a restatement of financial reports.
Throughout the Petrobras litigation, Pomerantz achieved important precedents at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals that will form the bedrock of securities class action jurisprudence and help protect investors for decades to come.
In August 2019, Pomerantz achieved a $110 million settlement in a securities class action against Fiat Chrysler N.V., one of the world’s largest car manufacturers, alleging that the company misled investors about its compliance with regulations for safety recalls and emissions.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Morrison v. Nat’l Australia Bank Ltd. barred use of U.S. federal securities laws to recover losses from investments in foreign-traded securities. To overcome the barriers set by Morrison, Pomerantz developed novel legal strategies that have expanded global investor rights in litigations against, among others, BP plc, Perrigo Co. plc, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and Ormat Technologies, Inc.
Recognition: Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York stated at the February 2018 hearing for preliminary approval of the $3 billion settlement achieved by Pomerantz in In re Petrobras Securities Litigation:
...the lawyers in this case [are] some of the best lawyers in the United States, if not in the world.
In approving the Petrobras settlement in June 2018, Judge Rakoff wrote:
[T]he Court finds that Class Counsel’s performance was in many respects exceptional, with the result that, as noted,
the class is poised to enjoy a substantially larger per share recovery [65%] than the recovery enjoyed by numerous
large and sophisticated plaintiffs who separately settled their claims.
In approving the settlement in Thorpe v. Walter Investment Management Corp. in October 2016, Judge Ursula Ungaro wrote:
Class Counsel has developed a reputation for zealous advocacy in securities class actions. ... The settlement …
is an outstanding result.
