Securities Litigation and Regulation

Our lawyers have been active for decades in every major area of securities litigation and enforcement. We regularly represent clients in federal and state courts, as well as before regulatory organizations, 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, in general litigation, class action suits, multidistrict litigation, and arbitrations. We have substantial experience representing both companies and individuals in regulatory proceedings brought by the Department of Justice, the SEC, FINRA, and other self-regulatory organizations.

Our lawyers 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:

  • 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.
Notable Cases
  • Firm Wins Rare Federal Court TRO Preventing Wrongful Termination and Defamation of Financial Advisor

    John W. Joyce and Chloé M. Chetta were 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. 

  • Louisiana Court Tosses All Claims Against Financial Advisor

    The firm successfully defended a financial advisor against fiduciary duty, contract, and securities claims, obtaining pre-discovery dismissal of all claims with prejudice.

  • Turnberry Capital Management L.P., et al. v. Raymond James & Associates, Inc.

    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. 

  • Zarecor v. Morgan Keegan

    The Firm won a motion to vacate a FINRA arbitration award rendered against one of the firm’s broker-dealer clients.

  • Silverman v. Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc.

    The Firm won a significant victory for a major broker-dealer client in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. 

  • Barrett Business Services, Inc. v. Morgan Keegan & Co.

    A Barrasso Usdin trial team won another victory before a FINRA arbitration panel for one of the firm’s broker-dealer clients in one of many high-yield bond funds cases the firm has tried recently. 

  • Weiss, et al. v. Morgan Keegan

    Stephen H. Kupperman and Jamie L. Berger persuaded a FINRA arbitration panel to dismiss, with prejudice, all claims against their broker-dealer client.

  • Rosenberg v. Morgan Keegan

    In a highly contested securities arbitration tried to a panel of three arbitrators in Washington, D.C., the Barrasso Usdin trial team convinced the panel unanimously to decide in the client’s favor and against the claimant, dismissing all claims in their entirety. 

  • Craig, et al. v. Morgan Keegan

    A Barrasso Usdin team persuaded a FINRA arbitration panel to dismiss, with prejudice, all claims against their broker-dealer client. 

  • Seymour v. A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc., FINRA Case No. 08-02041

    A Barrasso Usdin team convinced an arbitration panel to dismiss an arbitration claim at the close of the claimant’s evidence, based on an argument that the claim was barred by Mississippi’s statute of limitations.

  • Siegel v. SEC (D.C. Cir. 2010)

    In a rare win for a registered representative challenging a disciplinary sanction imposed by FINRA and affirmed by the SEC, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found the SEC had abused its discretion in ordering a Barrasso Usdin client to pay full restitution of $400,000 plus interest for suitability and selling-away charges stemming from two customer investments in a start-up company. 

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