James R. Carroll is global head of the firm’s litigation/controversy practices. He is recognized as a go-to litigator, successfully guiding clients through litigations and arbitrations on a range of issues, including securities, investment management, ERISA, insurance and reinsurance, antitrust and restrictive covenants.
Carroll’s decades-long jury trial experience spans courts across the country and involves bet-the-company and other complex, high-profile cases. His practice also includes representing corporations and individuals in enforcement matters before the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, the Massachusetts Securities Division and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
Lawdragon Honors
Carroll advises clients in putative class actions and shareholder derivative cases relating to alleged violations of federal and state securities laws. Among his recent representations, he won a federal court trial (together with Skadden partner Alisha Nanda) that resulted in Massachusetts being enjoined from enforcing certain laws and regulations against the airline industry. He also advised a major Massachusetts biotechnology company in two separate affirmances by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit of the dismissals of putative securities fraud class actions asserting that the defendants intentionally misled the market regarding revenue projections for a prescription medicine.
His practice also includes handling significant matters on behalf of the mutual fund and asset management industry, involving issues such as excessive fee litigation under Section 36(b) of the Investment Company Act.
Carroll has broad experience defending clients in class actions brought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) in courts throughout the U.S., including “proprietary funds” cases. Among other successful representations, he has helped secure favorable outcomes in multiple cases against investment management companies alleging violations of ERISA’s fiduciary duties in connection with their 401(k) plans.
He has represented major national life insurers in numerous cases, including a variety of purported class and individual actions in the life, disability and casualty insurance contexts. His work includes handling reinsurance disputes and other cases before panels of the AIDA Reinsurance and Insurance Arbitration Society (ARIAS), among others.
He also has litigated a variety of covenant-not-to-compete, theft of trade secrets and “employee raiding” cases on behalf of several Boston technology companies, including in the biotechnology space.