Over the course of his more than 30 years at the Firm, Daniel Slifkin has tried numerous cases in state and federal courts, as well as in domestic and international arbitrations. He has been inducted into Benchmark Litigation’s “Hall of Fame” and repeatedly been recognized as The American Lawyer’s “Litigator of the Week.”
“A real trial powerhouse,” Mr. Slifkin is among the few litigators to have taken a securities fraud class action through jury verdict, having tried two closely watched securities cases on behalf of Vivendi (Benchmark Litigation). And he has extensive additional experience litigating securities and derivative matters, including for Alcoa, Anadarko Petroleum, First Solar, JPMorgan Chase, Lucent Technologies, Morgan Stanley, Occidental Petroleum, Robinhood and the Board of Directors of Tesla.
Mr. Slifkin also has substantial experience in antitrust matters, arbitrations and bankruptcy proceedings, as well as general commercial litigation. He has represented clients in regulatory investigations by the DOJ, SEC and European Union. In particular, Mr. Slifkin has considerable knowledge of the financial services industry, having represented many of the world’s leading financial institutions in a wide range of matters.
Mr. Slifkin recently secured a complete trial victory for Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a $13 billion derivative action related to Tesla’s acquisition of SolarCity. He tried the action over 11 days in the Delaware Court of Chancery and handled numerous direct examinations at trial, including Tesla director Kimbal Musk and SolarCity’s former CEO, and cross-examined plaintiffs’ valuation expert; he also handled post-trial arguments in January 2022. Citing “the clarity provided by compelling trial evidence,” the court granted judgment in favor of Mr. Musk on all counts in April 2022—one of the only post-trial defense verdicts ever decided under the entire fairness standard.
Mr. Slifkin also represented Forward Air Corporation in connection with an action filed by Omni Logistics in the Delaware Court of Chancery, which sought to compel Forward Air to close its proposed acquisition of Omni. On the day trial was scheduled to begin, the parties announced a settlement, agreeing to amend the merger agreement on terms favorable to Forward Air and dismiss their claims. He also secured a favorable settlement on the eve of a four-week jury trial for First Solar in a securities class action alleging defendants misrepresented the company’s financial state, concealed material facts regarding defective solar modules and committed accounting violations. Mr. Slifkin additionally argued and won the dismissal of putative securities class action litigation filed against Occidental Petroleum relating to Occidental’s $57 billion acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum—the largest U.S. oil and gas merger in more than 20 years.
Updated Oct 2024
