Partner

1 Penn Plaza, Suite 4015
New York, New York, 10119
United States

+1 212 597 2604

Future Star

English


Jurisdiction:

New York

Practice area:

Dispute resolution


Silpa Maruri is a founding partner of Elsberg Baker & Maruri.

Silpa is widely recognized as a skilled advocate and litigator, which has earned her a broad array of accolades. Chambers awarded Silpa in its competitive General Commercial Litigation rankings. She is one of only two lawyers in America to be recognized by The American Lawyer as a“ Litigator of the Week” twice in 2022. In 2021, Law360 named Silpa a “Rising Star” in the Private Equity field. She has also been named a Leading Plaintiff’s Lawyer two years in a row by Lawdragon 500 in the area of financial litigation, and a Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigator in America. Silpa has been ranked by The Legal 500 as a Recommended Lawyer for Dispute Resolution, and awarded in the practice area of M&A/Corporate and Commercial - Delaware counsel. She has also been named as a “Future Star” by Benchmark Litigation, and a “Rising Star” by the NY Law Journal. Crain’s selected Silpa as one of its Notable Litigators and Trial Attorneys and as one of its Notable Leaders in Law. Litigation Counsel of America named Silpa as a Fellow in its Trial Law Honor Society comprised of less than one-half of one percent of American lawyers selected for effectiveness and accomplishment in litigation and trial work, along with ethical reputation.

Silpa is an experienced litigator and trial lawyer who has led several teams to victory in a wide variety of disputes and trials. Most recently, Silpa obtained a significant arbitration victory in a bet-the-company dispute over an energy agreement following a nine-day hearing, garnering recognition as a “Litigator of the Week” by The American Lawyer for her performance. Although experienced in a wide array of forums, Silpa has specialized experience in the Delaware Court of Chancery, where she has litigated some of the most widely publicized disputes of the last decade, including Twitter v. Musk and In re Dell Technologies Class V Stockholders Litigation. In Dell, Silpa served as lead counsel in a class action on behalf of Dell stockholders relating to a 2018 stock-for-stock exchange, resulting in a historic settlement of $1 billion—the largest class action settlement in any state court. This record-setting win, which the Delaware Court of Chancery described as “real and unprecedented,” garnered widespread praise. Silpa has also played a key role in many of the recent COVID-19 related busted deal cases filed in the wake of the pandemic, including Snow Phipps v. KCAKE Acquisition Corp. Silpa’s recent representative matters also include several deal-related disputes regarding corporate acquisitions, several derivative lawsuits relating to shareholder claims of self-dealing, commercial contract disputes relating to investor rights, and matters involving financial fraud.

In addition to her active trial practice, Silpa regularly publishes, speaks and appears on matters of corporate governance and Delaware law. Silpa recently appeared on a panel regarding Mergers & Acquisitions Litigation for the Practicing Law Institute, alongside the Honorable Collins J. Seitz, a Justice on the Delaware Supreme Court. In 2021, Silpa was a panelist at the prestigious Tulane Corporate Law Institute, where she appeared alongside Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery.

Silpa received her B.A. with honors from the University of Chicago and her J.D., magna cum laude, from Cornell Law School. Prior to joining the firm, Silpa was a partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, where she served as a co-chair of the firm’s Delaware Practice. Following law school, Silpa also served as a judicial law clerk in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

  • Won a landmark $1 billion settlement—the largest cash settlement in Delaware history—on behalf of a class of former minority shareholders of Dell Technologies Inc. whose shares were repurchased in a December 2018 transaction for a combination of cash and Class C Dell shares while the company was controlled by Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners. The Complaint alleged that the transaction, as orchestrated by the company’s controller, was fair in neither dealing nor price. On the eve of trial in the Delaware Court of Chancery, we obtained the settlement, which Vice Chancellor Laster described as a “real and unprecedented result for the class.”
  • Obtained historic bench trial victory for private-equity firm Snow Phipps Group in a first-of-its kind busted deal case concerning the sale of one of its portfolio companies, KCAKE, a $600 million cake-decoration company. Following a nine-day trial, the Delaware Court of Chancery ordered Kohlberg & Co. to close the acquisition, notwithstanding Kohlberg’s claims that COVID-19 excused its performance. The victory represented a precedent-setting development in M&A litigation, in which the court compelled KCAKE to complete the acquisition despite the lapse of its financing to do so.
  • Represented Elon Musk in Twitter v. Musk, the headline-dominating $44 billion dispute between Musk and Twitter Inc. concerning the termination of his agreement to buy Twitter, based on claims of breach of contract and fraud. The case represented the largest busted-deal matter in recent history.
  • Representing a class of minority shareholders in a multibillion-dollar class action challenging a take-private merger orchestrated by Agiliti, Inc. and its controller, Thomas H. Lee Partners. The case alleges that shareholders were forced to sell their shares at an unfairly low price to enrich the controller by hundreds of millions of dollars. It raises cutting-edge questions about the standard governing controller-led squeeze-out mergers and take-private transactions.
  • Representing Soroc Technology in a $115 million fraud action concerning its acquisition of DecisionOne Corporation. The case alleges that the seller and its private equity sponsor orchestrated an outrageous scheme to inflate DecisionOne’s revenues before the sale, causing Soroc to vastly overpay by creating fake invoices for fake customers. The dispute may set important precedent on the enforceability of contractual limitations on liability for intentional fraud in M&A transactions.

  • Appellate
  • Arbitration
  • Class action
  • Commercial
  • Commercial disputes
  • Dispute resolution
  • Labor and employment
  • Plaintiff

  • Financial services
  • Investment management
  • Pharmaceutical and life sciences
  • Real estate

  • J.D., Cornell Law School, 2011
  • B.A., English, University of Chicago, 2006

  • State Bar of New York, 2012
  • United States District Court: Southern District of New York, 2015