Delaware

Firm overview

Abrams & Bayliss LLP is a business litigation and advisory boutique that focuses on high stakes controversies and transactions carrying a high risk of litigation.

The firm’s Litigation Practice primarily involves actions in the Delaware Court of Chancery, the nation’s preeminent corporate and commercial law court, and the Delaware Supreme Court. The firm’s litigators have extensive experience representing public and private companies, stockholders, directors and executives in a wide range of business, corporate and alternative entity litigation matters at the trial and appellate level. The firm regularly litigates actions involving corporate control disputes, rights of equity holders, large public and private company controversies, complex transactions, and significant valuation and appraisal proceedings. Unlike many other firms, Abrams & Bayliss represents plaintiffs and defendants, giving their attorneys an added measure of insight on strategic and tactical issues in transactions and litigation. The firm has a proven track record of offensive and defensive litigation, including successfully pursuing and defeating injunction applications, conducting expedited trials and prosecuting and defending claims for significant monetary, declaratory or equitable relief. In addition to their Delaware practice, Abrams & Bayliss frequently represents clients in other jurisdictions on matters involving Delaware law, corporate or business organization issues or other commercial disputes.

The firm’s Transactional Practice primarily involves matters where there is a high risk of litigation or which raise complex or novel issues of Delaware law, such as contests for corporate control, private equity and portfolio company matters, going-private transactions, recapitalizations, refinancings and stockholder or board level disputes. Abrams & Bayliss also advises business entities and their constituents on Delaware issues relating to all phases of their life cycle, ranging from formation questions to continuing issues involving the payment of dividends and asset sales to end-of-life matters such as dissolution and receiverships. The firm regularly provides advice on the preparation and interpretation of certificates of incorporation and bylaws, whether for newly formed entities, initial public offerings, operating companies with internal disputes, reincorporations, restructurings or corporations seeking to amend their existing governance documents.

Abrams & Bayliss similarly advises business entities, directors, officers and stockholders on contracts relating to their governance structure and commercial relationships, including stockholder rights plans, stockholder agreements, and indemnification or advancement rights.

As a result of the firm’s expertise on fiduciary duty matters, Abrams & Bayliss regularly represents trust beneficiaries in claims against corporate and individual trustees for significant damages, the replacement of trustees and the amendment of trust instruments.

Abrams & Bayliss represents a broad array of clients including national and international corporations, limited partnerships, limited liability companies, joint ventures, stockholders, directors, equity investors and executives.

All of the firm’s lawyers have distinguished academic records and the firm’s attorneys are regular authors and speakers at national programs regarding Delaware business law matters.

Last Updated Sep 2020

Firm overview

With more than 50 years of experience, Labaton Sucharow is a tenacious advocate for investors and consumers. The Firm offers complex litigation services in the areas of securities, antitrust, consumer protection, and corporate governance and shareholder rights law, as well as whistleblower representation. Labaton Sucharow represents many of the largest institutional investors worldwide and has secured billions of dollars in landmark recoveries. The Firm’s successful reputation is built not only on its team of more than 90 attorneys, but also on its industry-leading in-house investigators, financial analysts, and forensic accountants. 

Main Areas of Practice:

Securities Litigation: The Firm continues to secure precedent-setting decisions and significant monetary recoveries on behalf of investors. After achieving historic settlements from cases stemming from the financial crisis, the Firm has maintained its momentum in prosecuting high-profile and cutting-edge actions against corporate behemoths like PG&E, BP, and Goldman Sachs. In addition, the team played an authoritative role in shaping securities litigation laws through a landmark victory in the Supreme Court with Amgen Inc. v. Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds.  The Firm also evaluates the viability of claims that may be pursued through opt-out or direct actions.

• American International Group Securities Litigation – More than $1 billion total recovery, one of the top 15 securities settlements of all time
• Countrywide Financial Corp. Securities Litigation – Achieved a $624 million settlement
• HealthSouth Corp. Securities Litigation – Recovered $671 million
• Schering-Plough/Enhance Securities Litigation – Secured a $473 million settlement
• Massey Energy Co. Securities Litigation – Obtained a $265 million all  cash settlement
• SCANA Corporation Securities Litigation - Secured a $192 million settlement
  
  

Antitrust and Competition Litigation: The Firm is equally active in the antitrust arena on behalf of clients damaged by anticompetitive conduct. The mission of the Firm’s Antitrust and Competition Litigation Practice is to promote the private enforcement of antitrust laws in order to preserve free competition in the marketplace. The Firm has recovered billions of dollars on behalf of its clients in major antitrust class actions around the country.

• Air Cargo Shipping Services Antitrust Litigation – More than $1.2 billion in settlements from several international airlines
• Aftermarket Automotive Lighting Products Antitrust Litigation – Aggregate settlement of more than $50 million with major manufacturer of automotive lights
  
  

Corporate Governance and Shareholder Rights Litigation: As corporate leaders continue to engage in fraudulent conduct and other mechanisms to unjustly enrich themselves, the Firm initiates numerous derivative and M&A-related suits to protect shareholders.

• Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. Derivative Litigation – Achieved the second largest derivative settlement in the Delaware Court of Chancery history, a combined $153.75 million recovery with an unprecedented provision of direct payments to stockholders by means of a special dividend
• El Paso Corporation Shareholder Litigation – $110 million recovery for shareholders; a stipulation in the settlement also prevented Goldman Sachs from collecting a $20 million fee for its work on the merger, a condition pursued adamantly by the Firm to encourage banks in future deals to take proper steps to reduce conflicts of interest
  
  

Whistleblower Representation: The Firm established the first national practice focused exclusively on protecting and advocating for SEC whistleblowers.  The practice plays a critical role in exposing securities fraud and creating necessary corporate reforms.

• Secured $83 million, the largest award ever granted under the SEC’s Whistleblower Program, for the whistleblowers who tipped the SEC off to long-running misconduct at Merrill Lynch. 
• Represented the first officer of a public company to win an SEC whistleblower award, the first SEC whistleblower to receive criminal immunity, and the first SEC whistleblower to receive an award because his company retaliated against him
  
  

Non-U.S. Securities Litigation: The Firm’s Non-U.S. Securities Litigation Practice is dedicated to working with non-U.S. counsel to analyze potential claims in all international jurisdictions in which it is possible to seek a recovery.  The Firm’s attorneys have almost three decades of experience advising institutional investor clients on the risks and benefits of pursuing claims in non-U.S. forums.  The Firm serves or has served as liaison counsel for numerous clients in more than 40 non-U.S. actions, several of which have achieved significant recoveries. 

Last updated Sep 2020