California

Firm overview

Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP (“Robbins Geller” or the “Firm”) is a limited liability partnership with nine offices in San Diego, San Francisco, Washington, DC, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Nashville and Boca Raton.


The firm has obtained the largest securities class action recovery in six of the nation’s federal circuits and has shaped the law in the area of securities litigation and shareholder rights. The firm has tried more shareholder class actions and served as sole lead counsel in more major securities class actions than any other firm. Robbins Geller has been ranked as one of the top law firms in the world in both amount recovered for shareholders and total number of class action settlements in every annual ISS Securities Class Action Services Top 50 Report published since 2010. ISS reports that Robbins Geller has settled over 250 federal securities class action cases during that time (more than any other law firm in any jurisdiction) and has overseen the distribution of settlement proceeds of nearly $14 billion to class members (more than any other law firm in the world). On March 23, 2021, the latest SCAS Top 50 Report ranked Robbins Geller first for recovering $1.6 billion for investors in 2020 – more than double the amount recovered by any other firm – noting that Robbins Geller was “the only plaintiff law firm to surpass the $1 billion threshold.”


Robbins Geller’s record of success includes some of the largest recoveries in history: the largest securities class action recovery (Enron – over $7.2 billion); the largest securities class action recovery following a trial (HSBC Finance Corp.– $1.575 billion); the largest pharmaceutical securities class action settlement (Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Inc.– $1.21 billion); largest personal contributions by individual defendants in a securities class action recovery (American Realty Capital Properties, Inc.– $237.5 million of $1.025 billion total recovery); the largest stock option backdating recovery (UnitedHealth Group– $925 million); the largest securities fraud class action recovery in the last 20 years in the Ninth Circuit and the second-largest ever in that Circuit (Twitter, Inc. – $809.5 million pending approval); the largest opt-out (non-class) securities action recovery (WorldCom – $657 million); the largest privacy class action settlement (Facebook, Inc. – $650 million); the largest RMBS purchaser class action recovery (Countrywide – $500 million); and the largest merger and acquisition class action recovery (Kinder Morgan– $200 million).


Robbins Geller developed the first-of-its-kind portfolio monitoring service for institutional investors. The firm’s Portfolio Monitoring Program® is built upon a sophisticated, proprietary software platform that enables the firm to promptly alert its clients when losses have been suffered as a result of fraud or other securities law violations and ensure clients timely submit claims for shareholder recoveries. Robbins Geller’s Portfolio Monitoring Program® is performed entirely in-house by a team of two dozen highly trained and experienced attorneys, forensic accountants, economists, damages experts, paralegals, and e-discovery specialists, who monitor worldwide financial markets.

Updated Sep 2022

Firm overview

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.

Updated Aug 2022

Firm overview

Freshfields is a leading global law firm with over 275 years’ experience advising the world’s most prestigious corporations and financial institutions. We pride ourselves on being a top-tier litigation department with a unique combination of subject-matter knowledge, local presence and strategic foresight.

The Freshfields litigation team represents a diverse set of US and global clients, across numerous industries and sectors, who face billions of dollars in potential exposure. Our clients include many of the world’s most recognizable brands and our roster continues to grow as clients increasingly find themselves in need of sophisticated counsel.

Our team of attorneys brings efficient and innovative solutions to our clients’ most pressing legal challenges. As a critical component of the world’s premier international litigation practice, our US litigators routinely handle complex multijurisdictional and cross-border matters and are alert to the specific concerns and collateral consequences of disputes in non-US regions as well as with global regulators.

We have unrivalled experience defending businesses across a range of industries, and by leveraging our 600-strong global litigation team we excel in complex cases that span multiple jurisdictions within and outside the United States. Our team includes seven former senior litigators from the Department of Justice and United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, who together have decades of experience taking dozens of federal and state trials to verdict—an invaluable weapon in securing the best outcomes for our clients.

Practice areas & sector specializations:

• Anti-Corruption and FCPA
• Antitrust Litigation
• Bankruptcy Litigation
• Commercial Litigation
• Crisis Management
• Cybersecurity and Data Privacy
• Economic Sanctions
• International Arbitration
• Internal Investigations
• Regulatory Enforcement and Investigations
• Securities and Shareholder Litigation
• White Collar Criminal Defense

Updated August 2022

Firm overview

Founded in 2019 by former BigLaw attorneys with decades of experience tackling thorny, complex legal issues, DTO Law handles matters on behalf of a variety of clients ranging from startups to Fortune 50 companies. Filled with a burning obsession for superior results, DTO lawyers are strategically aggressive in the pursuit of their clients’ goals. Rather than focusing only on the matter in front of them, they focus on their clients’ larger business goals—what matters and what doesn’t—so they can tailor their litigation strategies to their client’s business objectives. 

 
DTO’s mantra is straightforward: great success is not born of half-measures. Rather, success requires unparalleled, unflinching, compulsive commitment to both the mission and the principle of excellence.

 
Companies facing the threat of a class action often turn to DTO to navigate those waters and secure the best result. DTO’s attorneys have handled over 125 threatened or filed class actions and are recognized by their peers as leaders in the field. DTO has had success in all phases of class actions: resolving threatened class actions, obtaining dismissals at the pleading stage, compelling a case to arbitration, defeating class certification, winning motions for summary judgment, and negotiating favorable settlements in tough cases.

 
Having represented plaintiffs and defendants in the intellectual property arena, DTO is adept at both protecting intellectual property and protecting businesses from accusations of infringement. Its substantive experience includes patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, and domain name disputes. DTO litigators have handled over 100 IP disputes in federal court. 

 
In addition to its deep class action and intellectual property litigation experience, DTO has handled litigation relating to breaches of contracts, partnership and founder disputes, fraud claims, employment disputes, mass torts, and products liability claims. DTO’s extensive mediation experience serves it well in that department: it has handled over 300 mediations, and one of its attorneys is a certified mediator.

 
DTO also has extensive appellate experience. It has had great success defending clients’ successful trial court victories on appeal, including issues of first impression. Its litigation team includes four former federal clerks, and its lawyers have bar admissions to the U.S. Supreme Court and numerous circuits of the U.S. Court of Appeals.

 
On the deal making side, the firm’s lawyers help clients develop strategic plans compatible with overall business strategy. In its capacity as real estate counsel, DTO has assisted a variety of clients, including investors, property owners, tenants, developers, and lenders with the purchase, sale, development, and financing of real property transactions.

DTO also has deep experience managing challenging issues in the areas of technology, commercial solutions, and sourcing to achieve critical business objectives. The firm’s attorneys work hard to understand business needs and bring their business acumen to guide transactions and offer creative solutions.

The firm has significant experience handling complex business and commercial finance transactions. Trusted by large financial institutions, DTO’s attorneys keep abreast of changing business environments that affect their clients’ needs and tirelessly work to become trusted advisors.

In 2020, DTO was profiled by leading legal publication the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal, which also named the firm a “Top Boutique” law firm in the state of California.

Awards and Recognition: DTO’s lawyers have been recognized time and again for the results they have achieved on behalf of their clients and their reputation in the legal industry. A sampling of the recognition its attorneys have received over the years includes:

• “2022 Best Lawyers” (The Best Lawyers in America)
• “2021 Visionaries” (L.A. Times B2B Publishing Business of Law Magazine)
• “2021 Outstanding Firm for Diversity & Inclusion (USA)” (Chambers and Partners)
• "Top Intellectual Property Lawyers” (Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal)
• "Top Women Lawyers” (Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal)
• “Super Lawyers” (Super Lawyers Magazine - Southern California)
• “Super Lawyers Rising Stars” (Super Lawyers Magazine - Southern and Northern California)
• “Minority Leader of Influence” (Los Angeles Business Journal)
• "Leaders in the Law” (Los Angeles Business Journal)
• "2020 Top Boutiques” (Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal)
• "2020 Law Firm MVP" (National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms - NAMWOLF)
• "Top Latino Lawyer” (Latino Leaders Magazine)

Diversity: DTO does not pay lip service to diversity. It embodies it.

The firm is 100% owned by women and people of color, and the firm is a member of the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms (NAMWOLF). In 2020, DTO was honored by NAMWOLF as its “Law Firm MVP.” Each year, the award recognizes a law firm member for its outstanding achievement in advancing NAMWOLF’s mission of promoting diversity and inclusion by fostering the relationship between preeminent minority and women-owned law firms and corporations and public entities. Additionally, the firm and/or its lawyers are members and/or leaders of various organizations that promote diversity and inclusion in the legal field, such as the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD), the Cuban American Bar Association (CABA), the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association and Foundation, the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA), ChIPs, the South Asian Bar Association (SABA), and the Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA). One of the founding partners serves as Vice Chair of NAMWOLF and another is on the Executive Council of LCLD.  All of its partners were LCLD Fellows. The firm’s attorneys also speak and publish regularly about diversity and inclusion-related topics.

Updated Sep 2022