Krysta Pachman represents plaintiffs and defendants in high-stakes commercial litigation, including class actions, patent cases, trademark & copyright matters, and other disputes. Ms. Pachman has a track record of obtaining trial wins, favorable settlements and arbitration victories for her clients, who range from small businesses and individuals to Fortune 500 companies.
In 2021 Ms. Pachman was appointed to serve as co-lead counsel in the Blackbaud Data Breach Class Action. She will lead a class action brought over a data breach involving cloud management software firm Blackbaud. Ms. Pachman represents a class of plaintiffs who are suing Blackbaud for negligence, as well as violations of California’s Consumer Privacy Act and other state law statutes. The leadership team is being hailed as ‘most diverse leadership team ever’ in data breach class action.
In the landmark copyright action, Ferrick, et al. v. Spotify USA, Ms. Pachman was an integral part of a trial team that secured a settlement valued at more than $100 million dollars, including a $43.45 million cash settlement fund and an agreement to pay future royalties to settle a class-action lawsuit with Spotify brought on behalf of music copyright owners.
Ms. Pachman was also part of a team that secured a $40 million settlement for a class of derivatives traders in Timber Hill v. Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P., et al. Timber Hill alleged Defendants violated federal securities laws through their illicit insider trading and front-running scheme that damaged Timber Hill and other investors by artificially deflating the value of options and equity forwards traded by Timber Hill and Class Members. This is the largest ever stand-alone options settlement and the largest ever Section 20A options settlement.
Ms. Pachman played a key role in Schulein, et al. v. Petroleum Development Corp., representing a class of more than 7,000 limited partners who invested in 12 oil and gas limited partnerships, who alleged the defendants made false and misleading statements and omitted material information regarding the value of the assets held by the partnerships in proxy statements used to solicit votes in favor of mergers that caused the investors to be cashed out of their investments. The case was settled for $37.5 million.
Ms. Pachman represented Kansas City Power & Light Company (KCPL) in a high-stakes renewable energy arbitration. During arbitration she delivered the opening statement, cross-examined the other side’s expert, presented fact and expert witnesses, handled depositions, managed expert reports, and wrote the pre-and post-hearing briefs. The panel unanimously ruled in KCPL’s favor.
Prior to joining Susman Godfrey, Ms. Pachman served as a Law Clerk to the Honorable Philip S. Gutierrez in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. She also serves on the Board of Governors for the Women Lawyers’ Association of Los Angeles and serves on the Board of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers.
