EDITORIAL REVIEW
The master of mutual fund and securities class
actions is the man to see if you’re suffering a meltdown
– he won dismissals for Fidelity, Legg
Mason, Citigroup and Capital Research.
—2008 Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America
A go-to guy for securities litigation for the likes of American Century, Citigroup, Fidelity, ING, Merrill Lynch and Prudential Financial.
— Lawdragon,
January 2008
He helmed American Century to safe waters in a billion-dollar
dismissal expected to tsunami mutual-fund litigation.
— Lawdragon,
October 2006
The mutual-fund industry is under attack, and it is relying on litigator James Benedict to help fight its legal battles. Benedict is defending clients in a dozen major suits relating to the industry's recent scandals. His clients are some of the world's largest investment advisers, including Fidelity, Capital Research and Management, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, Dreyfus, ING and American Century. The suits allege misdeeds such as excessive management fees or wrongdoing in marketing and distribution practices. Benedict has an impressive track record. In 2005, he won dismissals in nine other mutual-fund cases. During the 1980s, he defended Merrill Lynch in a suit brought by shareholders alleging excessive management fees, and the case ultimately was dismissed. The Merrill Lynch case has become a leading precedent.
— Lawdragon,
October 2005
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James N. Benedict is the chairman of the Litigation Department of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP and head of its
Securities Litigation Practice Group. He is resident in the New York office.
Prior to joining Milbank, Mr. Benedict was a partner at Clifford Chance (formerly Rogers & Wells) since 1982 where he
served as head of the Global Litigation & Dispute Resolution Practice and, before that, as managing partner for the
Americas Region. Mr. Benedict was the recipient of the 2009 Chambers USA Award for Excellence in Securities
Litigation and has recently been selected by Lawdragon magazine as one of the 500 leading lawyers in America, one
of the nation’s 500 top litigators, and also as one of the 100 Lawyers You Need to Know in Securities Litigation.
He has also been recognized as a leading litigator by The Best Lawyers in America, The Legal 500,
Benchmark Litigation, the Guide to the World’s Leading Litigation Lawyers, and New York Super
Lawyers. Mr. Benedict specializes in complex commercial litigation, with emphasis on multiparty class and derivative
suits in state and federal courts throughout the nation. In his more than 35 years of practice, Mr. Benedict has handled
a wide variety of trial and appellate civil litigation, involving securities, antitrust and other issues for some of the
largest and best known corporations in America, including Citigroup, Inc., MasterCard International Incorporated, Merrill
Lynch & Co., Inc., Prudential Financial and The Coca-Cola Company.
Mr. Benedict has handled more than 150 major class and shareholder derivative actions alleging violations of state and
federal antitrust and securities laws. These include some of the largest class actions in the nation. For example, Mr.
Benedict has acted as the lead attorney defending clients in In re Initial Public Offering Securities Litigation
(S.D.N.Y.), In re Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. Research Reports Securities Litigation (S.D.N.Y.), In re Enron
Corporation Securities, Derivatives and ERISA Litigation (S.D. Tex.), In re Mutual Funds Investment Litigation
(D. Md.), and In re VisaCheck/MasterMoney Antitrust Litigation (S.D.N.Y.).
In addition, Mr. Benedict has had more than 30 years of experience representing mutual fund investment advisers and their
affiliates in litigation under the federal securities laws. During this period, Mr. Benedict has successfully defended
more than 100 excessive management fee suits and other actions mounted against some of the largest investment advisors in
the nation, including AllianceBernstein, American Century, Capital Research, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Dreyfus, Fidelity,
ING, Legg Mason, Merrill Lynch, Neuberger Berman, Prudential, and SunAmerica. These suits include Gartenberg v.
Merrill Lynch Asset Management, Inc., which was the first case of its kind to be tried on the merits under the
Investment Company Act of 1940 and remains the leading case in that area; and Krinsk v. Fund Asset Management Inc.,
the first case to be tried involving the propriety of a Rule 12b-1 distribution plan. Most recently, Mr. Benedict
represented American Century in Baker v. American Century Investment Management, Inc. – one of the largest
mutual fund excessive management fee actions ever filed. On July 31, 2006, after more than two and a half years of
intense discovery and only a week before trial, the plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their billion dollar case with
prejudice, admitting in official court filings that the case was without merit.
Mr. Benedict is currently handling numerous securities class actions and derivative suits resulting from the current
credit crunch and previous mutual fund scandal. These cases involve a wide variety of products and issues, including
subprime mortgages, auction rate securities, collateralized debt obligations, initial public offerings, prospectus
disclosures and mutual fund management fees.
Mr. Benedict has been active in professional and charitable activities. He is a member of the Board of Advisors of the
Mutual Fund Directors Forum, and a member of the Board of Editors of The Review of Securities and Commodities
Regulation, the Securities and Class Action Litigation Report, and the Villanova Journal of Law and
Investment Management. He is also a member of the American Bar Association (co-chairman of the Litigation Section’s
Subcommittee on Litigation under the Investment Company Act of 1940), The Association of the Bar of the City of New York,
the Federal Bar Council, and the New York State Bar Association. He is a Trustee of the United States Ski and Snowboard
Team Foundation and a member of the Board of Trustees at Albany Law School. Mr. Benedict has previously served as a
trustee for St. Lawrence University, as president of both his college and law school alumni associations, and as a
director of several other charitable and community organizations.
Mr. Benedict received a B.A. magna cum laude in 1971 from St. Lawrence University, where he was a member of Phi
Beta Kappa, and a J.D. in 1974 from Albany Law School at Union University, where he was Lead Articles Editor of the
Albany Law Review. Mr. Benedict regularly lectures at industry conferences and other forums, and has published
more than three dozen articles which have appeared in numerous publications, including the Cornell Law Review,
New York University Law Review and The Review of Securities and Commodities Regulation.
See Library Tab for articles, publications and presentations
by James Benedict
