This article originally appeared in our San Francisco affiliate, The Recorder.
Disgruntled investors have filed at least 14 securities suits against Facebook Inc. in federal courts since the social network’s lackluster initial public offering on May 17.
And general counsel Theodore Ullyot’s former firm, Kirkland & Ellis, is getting at least some of the work generated by the litigation. San Francisco litigation partners James Basile, head of the firm’s litigation practice, and Elizabeth Deeley filed a notice of appearance Tuesday on behalf of the company in one of the four securities suits filed in the Northern District. They’re the first lawyers to file appearances in any of the suits filed in federal court.
Officials from Facebook declined to comment. Attorneys at Kirkland & Ellis did not respond to requests for comment.
Attorneys from Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz in San Diego and New York are representing plaintiffs Michael Spatz and Sanjay Israni in Spatz v. Facebook. Lead attorney Patrick Moran did not respond to a request for comment.
As in the other lawsuits, the plaintiffs in Spatz allege that the defendants misled investors about Facebook’s financial health, which resulted in billions of dollars of losses as the stock’s price plunged following the IPO.
It’s unclear who is representing other defendants in the case, which include Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, chief financial officer David Ebersman, company directors and IPO underwriters Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Ullyot left Kirkland & Ellis’ Washington, D.C., office to join Facebook in 2008, and the firm is handling several lawsuits for the company. Basile is also defending Facebook in an antitrust suit filed by social media app developer Sambreel Holdings filed on March 19 in San Diego federal court. The suit claims Facebook engaged in an illegal conspiracy to monopolize the market for display ads.
