Clients benefit from Steptoe's deep bench of experienced trial and appellate lawyers who have obtained significant success in securities and shareholder litigation and the follow-on private litigation that is often inspired by an enforcement action, indictment, or news of an investigation. Relying on our extensive experience with issues confronting financial market participants, clients regularly engage us to handle significant commercial disputes affecting their business interests. This includes litigation for financial institutions involving trading disputes, pooling arrangements, priority among lenders (e.g., 1L v 2L), alternative unregulated marketplaces (e.g., MERS), and challenges to vehicles for institutional investors when the investments fail to perform. Our clients include banks, brokerage firms, hedge funds, vulture funds, and private equity funds.
Representative Matters
- Defending major financial institution against claims arising from servicing of mortgage pools totaling in excess of $4 billion.
- Representing former head of a business unit of a publicly traded company in securities class actions in New York alleging financial misrepresentations and breach of fiduciary duty claims.
- Representing a major financial institution in pay-to-play investigations and related litigation arising from pension investments by governmental agencies.
- Representing Hudson's Bay Company in shareholder litigation in New York over its acquisition of Saks Fifth Avenue.
- Secured complete defense award for global financial institution against $100 million claim by hedge fund.
- Represented proprietary trading firm against putative class action filed after enforcement action by CFTC.
- Successfully resolved claims against Royal Bank of Canada’s Capital Markets unit in federal court litigation over the scope of plaintiff’s sale to RBC of a book of quarterly rankings for financial institutions and their debt offerings.
- Represented publicly traded technology company and senior executives in arbitration defending claims for securities fraud and breach of fiduciary duty brought in connection with a significant acquisition.
- Won a motion to dismiss all claims against one of the United States' largest poultry producers in a putative securities class action lawsuit.
- Won a motion to dismiss all claims against a US-listed, Australia- and London-based Fortune Global 500 mining company in a putative securities class action.
- Obtained dismissal of securities class action claims against largest investor in public company asserting failure to disclose fully both the nature of the investor's interests and his preferred position over other investors.
- Obtaining for a financial services firm an injunction that enjoined its former customer from pursuing CFTC administrative proceedings in lieu of arbitration representation of energy producer in investigation of renewable identification numbers (RIN) trading.
- Representation of the Futures Industry Association as an amicus curiae in a US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit appeal in a bankruptcy proceeding of a failed futures commission merchant.