Publisher’s Note - 100 lawyers you need to know in Securities Litigation By Katrina Dewey Sources had just confided in us that the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles had a grand jury investigating Milberg Weiss, the mother of all securities plaintiffs' firms, and that the probe was focused on Bill Lerach. In early 2002, we were a scrappy team of journalists at the Los Angeles Daily Journal, accustomed to breaking the biggest stories in the law. OJ, the U.S. Supreme Court, battles over federal judges and funding of the state judiciary. We did them all. This one got us breathless with the thrill of the hunt as Gina Keating, now of Reuters, and John Ryan called everyone they could. We could not get beat on this one. Still, we had misgivings. For so long, there had been a hefty bounty on Lerach's head – from Congress and the nation's biggest corporations, all resorting to take-down tactics to stop him from filing lawsuits on behalf of shareholders. He made himself an easy target, but in the age of Enron, it was hard to argue with the necessity of oversight. As Keating and Ryan's editor, I pitched in, helping track down sources and leads. That day, I had lunch at the Pacific Dining Car, one of L.A's power dining spots, and was told: "couldn't happen to a nicer guy, that son of a bitch." Turns out there wasn't a lawyer, defense or plaintiff, on the Western seaboard whom Lerach hadn't screwed over or angered. We broke the story, which was followed by the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Naturally, we sought comment from Lerach, underscoring our desire to not pile on to a witch hunt. Through the years, he had been featured on many of our "best of" lists for his Dirty Harry approach to representing shareholders against corporations who had yet to really embrace shareholder rights. Lerach wouldn't talk, not that day. Several months later, he was honored by the ACLU in Los Angeles for his efforts on behalf of consumers. He gave an impassioned speech about the need to stand up to those who abuse their power – and then cornered me, infuriated at our coverage. Why? Not that our story was wrong, although he elided that was the case. His real anger, however, was focused on the higher rent he would now have to pay in San Diego, where he was in the midst of renegotiating his lease and the landlord was now concerned. Lerach was a necessary lawyer of unnecessary means. The battle for the "little guy" can tempt any lawyer to believe outsized efforts are required to take on the Enrons, the Worldcoms, or even the Apples or Yahoos. But as the lawyers on this list know all too well, Herculean efforts are one thing, breaking the law is another. Lawdragon's list of 100 Lawyers You Need to Know in Securities Litigation turns the page on a Wild West era that laid the groundwork for today's robust securities litigation practice. While technically not a "best of" list, this guide focuses on those mostly private practitioners who bring and defend shareholder suits over alleged fraud. Those not selected generally were heavier on enforcement or white-collar representation, as many of the D.C.-based specialists do. A handful of SEC specialists, including Dewey LeBoeuf's Ralph Ferrara and Hogan & Hartson's Ty Cobb are included here because of the range of advice they give corporations and their mammoth footprint on corporate oversight. Others who did not make the list offered more broadly geared business litigation practices than those featured here. America's powerhouse trial lawyers – Evan Chesler of Cravath; Ron Olson of Munger Tolles, David Boies of Boies Schiller; Aaron Podhurst of Podhurst Orseck; Harry Reasoner of Vinson & Elkins – all know their way around a securities case and any other type of courtroom matter. Here, however, we were looking for those lawyers whose bread and butter is backdating and subprime. For that reason, Steve Shapiro of Mayer Brown, the appellate specialist who won the Stoneridge case, also failed to make the cut – despite the enormous impact of that victory. We excluded judges, although we'll later post a look at a dozen nationwide who are considered the arbiters of securities litigation. Similarly, we've included two non-practicing attorneys: Stanford's Joe Grundfest, who has tremendous reach because of his oversight of the Securities Class Action Clearinghouse, and Adam Savett, a former practitioner and blogger of "Lies, Damned Lies and Forward Looking Statements" who's now vice president of RiskManagement and its Institutional Shareholder Services in Bethesda, Md. Virtually all of the nation's biggest securities defenders are represented here: Cravath; Skadden; Wachtell; Sullivan & Cromwell; Davis Polk; Cadwalader; Milbank Tweed; Orrick Herrington. Similarly, most of the plaintiff firms also make an appearance in the bar that's now dominated by Bernstein Litowitz and Coughlin Stoia. We've also included a questionnaire that gives you some insight into what makes these guys tick (and yes, they are almost all guys; we always look for diversity, but first and foremost we look for excellence and that is not yet a particularly diverse picture in this bar). They throw off hundred million and even billion-dollar settlements as readily as rare trials. Success is generally defined by a winning motion to dismiss. Perhaps it's no surprise that their overwhelming team of choice is the New York Yankees. Page: 1 of 1 pages for this article
|
|
|---|
