Securities Litigation and Regulation
Our firm has extensive experience in every major area of securities litigation and enforcement. We regularly represent clients in federal and state courts, as well as before regulatory organizations and in arbitrations, throughout the country. Our clients include public and private companies, broker-dealers, investment banks, investment advisors, and hedge funds, as well as their respective officers, directors and employees.
We frequently appear on panels addressing securities issues, write law review articles on securities topics, and have taught securities litigation and arbitration at Tulane University Law School for more than twenty-five years.
Our notable representations include:
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Representation of an international broker-dealer as one of its national counsel in over 350 cases arising out of the collapse of the Puerto Rico bond market. Plaintiffs routinely allege the firm failed to adequately disclose the risks of certain Puerto Rico municipal bonds and bond funds, failed to disclose problems once they arose, and pushed its brokers to sell even after the problems arose.
- Representation of a large broker-dealer as one of its national counsel in over 400 cases in FINRA arbitrations and litigation in state and federal courts across the country related to six high-yield bond funds that plummeted in value at the start of the financial crisis in late 2007. The firm took dozens of arbitration cases to final award, with most resulting in outright dismissals or awards representing only a small fraction of the amounts demanded.
- Representation of national and regional broker-dealers throughout the country in hundreds of “tech wreck” cases. These cases followed the collapse of the information technology bubble that began in early 2000 and ended in the fall of 2002. Over the next five years, the firm assisted clients both in defeating numerous claims based on unsuitable trading and fraudulent and negligent misrepresentations and in negotiating favorable settlements.
- Representation of national broker-dealers in scores of “research” cases. The investors in these cases accused broker-dealers of misleading them with positive research reports about poor-performing companies. The firm consistently obtained favorable results for its clients in arbitrations and in settlements.
- Representation of multiple individuals in cases involving allegations of insider trading, market manipulation, undisclosed private securities transactions, and other sales practice violations.
- Representation of numerous clients in various court cases and arbitrations involving allegations of unsuitability, lack of due diligence, misrepresentations and omissions.
- Represented multinational brokerage firm with the largest electronic trading platform in the U.S. in a large arbitration brought by over forty former clients of an independent financial advisor who traded on the client’s platform. Obtained highly favorable settlement for client.
George C. Freeman, III and Robert J. Dressel recently secured a victory following a three-week FINRA arbitration. After a full hearing, the panel issued an award denying the claims in their entirety and fully vindicating the firm’s client.
The firm successfully defended its client in a three-week FINRA arbitration hearing in which claimants were seeking an award of approximately $24 million in compensatory damages and more than $8 million in interest, fees, and punitive damages.
- Firm Wins Rare Federal Court TRO Preventing Wrongful Termination and Defamation of Financial Advisor
The firm was retained to represent a financial advisor in an employment and FINRA regulatory dispute with his former broker-dealer. The action involved claims of bad-faith breach of contract, wrongful termination, and defamation.
The firm successfully defended a financial advisor against fiduciary duty, contract, and securities claims, obtaining pre-discovery dismissal of all claims with prejudice.
Barrasso Usdin successfully defended the Firm’s client in a two-week FINRA arbitration, where the claimants were seeking an award of approximately $24 million.
The Firm won a motion to vacate a FINRA arbitration award rendered against one of the firm’s broker-dealer clients.
- September 16, 2024
- August 15, 2024
- June 7, 2024
- March 14, 2024
- August 18, 2023
- June 2, 2023
- March 16, 2023
- February 7, 2023