Lawyer Limelight: Lester Hooker

Lester Hooker began litigating securities class actions out of a sense of compassion and personal responsibility: He wanted to help as many people as possible.

Hooker’s empathy is borne out of personal experience. As a child, he and his mother immigrated from Nicaragua to escape a civil war that took his father’s life. “Stories of triumph over challenges have always struck a chord with me and our personal story has been a source of pride throughout my life,” he says. For the last 15 years, he has made it his mission to help institutional investors overcome those challenges in the plaintiffs’ securities space.

Director at noted investor-side securities firm Saxena White, Hooker has been with the firm since its nascent stages. Over the years, he has successfully represented investors in securities actions that have garnered national attention. In 2019, he helped achieve a historic $320M settlement against Wells Fargo, in an action related to the bank’s account fraud scandal. The firm notes that the settlement, which included a $240M cash component, was then the largest insurance-funded monetary component of a derivative settlement by over $100M and also included credit for significant corporate governance reforms.

Hooker’s other notable cases include a $73M securities class action settlement against Rayonier, Inc.; a $135M settlement in a case against DaVita, Inc.; and a recent $79.5M derivative action settlement against Goldman Sachs. The Goldman Sachs case, like many others he’s litigated, also led to vital governance reforms, simultaneously compensating for corporate losses while protecting investors in the future.

Lawdragon: Can you describe the mix of work you do within your practice?

Lester Hooker: From the outset of my career at Saxena White, I have been fortunate to have exposure to all aspects of our practice. I primarily focus on prosecuting securities fraud class actions and shareholder derivative actions – and also enjoy direct interaction with the firm’s pension fund clients, providing trustee education to pension boards throughout the country.

The extensive face time that I get with our institutional investor clients is a very rewarding aspect of my practice. We get to see up close their dedication to protecting the interests of their constituents and shareholders. While we help them work through and understand the issues at play in the specific cases we litigate on their behalf, we also educate them on the importance of fiduciary responsibility more generally, as well as discussing notable litigation trends. The process of providing updates on ongoing cases to members of the shareholder classes that we are representing provides a welcome reminder that our litigation efforts make a difference in the everyday lives of a lot of people across the country.

LD: What first drew you to Saxena White?

LH: Over 15 years ago, shortly after finishing law and business school, Maya Saxena and Joe White recruited me to the firm they had founded just a few months earlier. I was drawn to the idea of joining what was basically a start-up – there were only two other attorneys at the firm at the time. We barely had any support staff, and only about 30 total clients. 

I took the plunge, moved cross-country from San Diego to South Florida and jumped right in.  We were litigating major actions against some of the most well-resourced firms in the nation, and many of the firms in both the plaintiff and defense bar were skeptical we could hold our heads above water. To say that we were underdogs would be an understatement.

LD: How have you seen the firm develop since?

LH: More than fifteen years later, we have not only persevered; we have thrived. In addition to our home office in Florida, we now have offices in New York, California and Delaware and represent over 160 institutional clients across the country (with more than $3T in assets under management). We have recovered over $2B on behalf of shareholder classes around the country, now ranking among the top five plaintiffs’ firms in the nation in terms of overall settlement dollars. To see all of the hard work and long nights pay off has been one of my most satisfying achievements, both professionally and personally.

To say that we were underdogs would be an understatement.

LD: That’s incredible. And how did you first become interested in being a securities litigator? Is this the type of practice you imagined for yourself while in law school?

LH: Perhaps because of my personal background, I have always been drawn to stories of perseverance in the face of significant obstacles. 

I immigrated to the United States at a very young age to escape a civil war in Nicaragua. My father had been assassinated, and my mother and I came here with nothing. Despite the turmoil of those early years, my family was committed to hard work and education, and a belief that we could rebuild a beautiful life in the U.S. on the back of that commitment.

When I went to law school, I had a professor who, while in private practice, represented the families of dozens of individuals who had died in a plane crash. After hearing him recall various aspects of his prosecution of that case, I found myself researching notable class actions – at the time, the Enron and WorldCom cases were front-page news. I became drawn to the idea of representing the claims of a collective group of people, even if the odds were long and the opposition formidable. At that point, I knew I wanted to pursue a legal career in class action work. While in law school, I pursued a joint JD/MBA program, which sparked my interest in understanding the securities markets and eventually led to my decision to pursue a career litigating securities class actions.

When I first met Maya and Joe, it was not only their focus on representing institutional investors in securities class actions that drew me to the firm, but also their belief that “everyone has a story” and the benefits that those stories bring to the everyday practice of law. That unique perspective resonated with me given my background and made it a very easy transition to join Saxena White.

LD: Other than bringing you to your practice area, how else has your personal background shaped the way you view the law?

LH: It instilled in me an understanding of the obstacles that women and minorities face today and an appreciation for the value of diversity within the law.

Over the course of my career, I have been privileged to work on some of the firm’s most important cases. I remember attending a mediation with 100 attorneys in a conference room, and out of all of those attorneys there were just a handful of women attorneys and even fewer minorities. These mediations reflected the upper echelon of litigators at some of the most prestigious law firms throughout the country, and it did not seem as though women and minorities were being fairly represented.

Seeing first-hand the lack of diversity in the legal industry served as motivation in my own career and reinforced my appreciation for Saxena White. Our firm’s culture places an emphasis on diversity from the top down, with nearly half of our directors being women and minorities.  We make sure that all of our young attorneys are mentored and afforded every opportunity to develop their legal skills and to grow within the firm. As a result of this culture of opportunity, I rose through the ranks and now serve as one of the litigation leaders for our firm, and several of our directors and senior attorneys have experienced similar arcs in their careers.

LD: How else has your practice changed since the early part of your career?

LH: It is a welcome change to see that a commitment to diversity is now a much greater priority for the legal industry. We not only see our institutional clients voicing their desire to see diverse litigation teams representing their interests, but we also see the judges presiding over our cases note that diversity is an increasingly important issue for them, as well.

For example, in a derivative case in the Southern District of Ohio concerning the FirstEnergy bribery scandal, Chief Judge Marbley appointed Saxena White as co-lead counsel and specifically recognized not just our track record of success in this area, but also the fact that our firm was a nationally certified minority- and woman-owned firm, which best reflected the diversity of FirstEnergy shareholders and was best suited to act on their behalf. That case went on to settle for a cash recovery of $180M – the largest ever derivative settlement in the 6th Circuit – and the adoption of groundbreaking corporate governance reforms, including the removal of six long-term members of FirstEnergy’s board of directors.

LD: That’s wonderful recognition. What other notable matters have you handled recently?

LH: Our Wells Fargo derivative case in the Northern District of California comes to mind. The case was related to the well-known “fake account” scandal at the bank, where Wells Fargo bank employees across the country were opening fake accounts with customer information – without those customers’ knowledge or consent – due to extreme pressure from executives. We litigated that case as co-lead counsel for several years, and after seven mediations, we ultimately obtained a $240M cash recovery, with the bank adopting significant and valuable corporate governance reforms as well. This was a significant result in an important case.

We continue to see more and more of our institutional clients interested in and willing to participate in these actions because they recognize the importance of having a seat at the table in negotiations that lead to good governance. 

Seeing first-hand the lack of diversity in the legal industry served as motivation in my own career and reinforced my appreciation for Saxena White.

Another interesting case that we devoted several years to developing and prosecuting was against a timber company called Rayonier. The company’s former executives promoted their business model as harvesting their tree farms sustainably – which was important for both environmental reasons and in order to provide a perpetual and consistent revenue for years to come. In reality, the company was doing the opposite: rampantly overharvesting and lying to investors about it in order to meet Wall Street estimates.

LD: What was the most noteworthy part of that case for you?

LH: There was a very important environmental component, as a key issue of first impression in the case was whether the term “sustainable” as it applied in the timber industry was meaningful in the context of a securities fraud claim. Prevailing on that issue was crucial to obtaining a recovery for shareholders.  In addition, regulators had previously investigated the company without imposing sanctions or penalties. Our action resulted in a recovery for the shareholder class of $73M , which underscores the important role that private securities litigation serves in policing the financial markets and deterring securities fraud.