Sutherland’s broker-dealer and securities litigators regularly represent broker-dealers, investment advisers, underwriters and other capital markets and financial services professionals in all types of securities disputes, from arbitrations before the FINRA to highly complex class actions and multidistrict litigation in federal and state courts. We have experience with almost every securities product and investment strategy and with virtually every type of securities-related legal claim. Our experience includes the direct representation of the securities industry clients, as well as handling insured matters through errors and omission policies.
Simply stated, we have handled so many of these cases that we not only have the tools to handle these matters efficiently and cost effectively, but have a keen understanding as to the appropriate strategy to achieve the most favorable outcome, whether it be through litigation, mediation, or settlement.
Industry Knowledge
At Sutherland, we appropriately combine the resources of our broker-dealer and securities litigation practice with those of our financial services, regulatory and enforcement practices. More than 140 of our approximately 500 lawyers firm-wide regularly represent capital markets or financial services firms and individuals in transactional, regulatory, enforcement or litigation matters. Our resources include former senior attorneys from the SEC, FINRA and the Department of Justice, in-house counsel and seasoned lawyers who have years of experience in the representation of broker-dealers, investment advisers and other financial service providers.
Broker-Dealer Arbitration
We have represented major brokerage firms, independent broker-dealers, registered representatives and compliance professionals in hundreds of arbitrations in which the amounts at stake have ranged from relatively small amounts of money to well over $100 million. We are frequently called upon to handle those cases that “must be tried.” In the past several years alone, we have tried more than 75 sales practice and other cases before FINRA arbitration panels. We have handled arbitrations involving traditional products like stocks, bonds, listed options and mutual funds as well as third-party managed products, unique derivatives and hedging tools. We have experience with virtually every legal theory and every sales practice abuse asserted in customer claims, ranging from securities fraud and breach of fiduciary duty to unsuitability, over-concentration, churning, unauthorized trading, mutual fund switching, selling away, Internet abuses, and failure to supervise, among others.
Highly publicized state or federal investigations sometimes prompt investors to flood FINRA Dispute Resolution with large groupings of similar claims, often based . A vigorous and well-coordinated defense strategy is essential in these situations, and we have the relevant and necessary experience. For example, when various plaintiffs’ counsel filed hundreds of cases involving similar claims in the hopes of extracting quick settlements from a major brokerage firm, we worked with other outside counsel to develop and execute a successful nationwide strategy for defending these cases.
When we handle an arbitration, we make it a point to know as much as possible about the arbitrators before whom we appear. We maintain a sophisticated database that contains volumes of information about nearly 6,000 arbitrators from all across the country.
Securities Litigation, Class Actions and Multidistrict Cases
We bring the same exceptional depth of knowledge and experience we have developed in handling hundreds of arbitration cases to the courtroom setting, where we are equally as strong. We have handled matters for our securities clients as complex as securities class action litigation and as mundane as interpleader and debtor-creditor matters. Our clients in these cases have included insurance companies, brokerage firms, asset managers, investment advisers, corporations, banks, individuals and others in the financial services industries.
The diverse backgrounds of our lawyers enable us to represent clients with the full range of matters arising under federal and state securities law, corporate laws and ERISA, including:
- Federal and state securities class actions
- Fraud on the market cases
- Shareholder derivative litigation
- Short swing profits cases
- Public offering litigation
- Proxy litigation and contests for corporate control
- Tender offer cases
- ERISA and trust law claims
We are used to working with our clients’ other professionals to ensure that our representation is properly coordinated along with other concurrent private claims and regulatory or criminal investigations.
The foregoing summary does not include all results in the firm’s cases and is not necessarily representative of the results obtained by the firm. Past results do not guarantee future success and are not indicative of outcomes that might be achieved in other matters for a prospective client, as the individual facts and circumstances in such other matters may differ from the cases summarized above.
© 2008 Sutherland