Scott Musoff is co-head of Skadden’s New York Complex Litigation and Trials Group and co-deputy head of the firm’s nationwide Securities Litigation Group. He represents public and private companies, financial institutions and individuals in federal and state trial and appellate courts, as well as in arbitration proceedings.
Musoff has extensive experience in securities, corporate and other complex commercial litigation. He represents clients in a wide variety of industries and of all different sizes and types, from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies, including Autoliv, Inc.; Blackberry Ltd.; BMW; Centene; Hasbro; Iconix Brand Group, Inc.; MOL Global, Inc.; Pinduoduo; News Corporation; Seadrill Limited; Sprint Corporation; Travelzoo Inc.; and Vivint Solar, Inc., among others. He also advises numerous financial institutions as both underwriters and issuers in securities litigation around the country, including for Bank of America; JPMorgan Chase; Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce; Morgan Stanley; Société Générale; and UBS. He also regularly advises and represents companies in connection with, among other representations, M&A deal litigation, non-compete litigation, post-closing disputes and breach of contract matters.
Lawdragon Honors
Musoff has successfully tried numerous cases and arbitrations and regularly argues appeals in federal and state courts, including in the New York Court of Appeals and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. For example, he successfully argued in the New York Court of Appeals and Second Circuit in defeating a turnover application against CIBC by the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. In a significant decision for the banking industry, the New York Court of Appeals held that a bank cannot be forced to extract money from offshore indirect subsidiary banks. He also successfully tried a $1.5 billion-plus excessive fee case against one of the world’s largest asset managers brought under Section 36(b) of the Investment Company Act, which was one of the largest-ever cases involving claims against mutual funds. In addition, Musoff won summary judgment in favor of Merrill Lynch in what was termed a “landmark” case addressing the interpretation of credit default swap agreements with a monoline insurer. He also was a member of the team that represented Merrill Lynch before the United States Supreme Court in the first case in which the court addressed the provisions of the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998.
Additionally, Musoff has done a substantial amount of pro bono work. Among other successes, he won the largest known federal jury verdict in a housing discrimination case against a New York City cooperative. He also successfully defended against the enforcement of a German judgment in New York brought to recoup costs for repairs to a Berlin property that the client’s family was forced to leave behind in escaping the Holocaust.