In selecting our Litigator of the Week this week, we were impressed by Sullivan & Cromwell's Robert Giuffra Jr., who pulled off a rare feat: getting a securities class action de-certified. And not just any class: One against Goldman Sachs, with $13 billion on the line.

Colby Hamilton, who covers in financial services litigation, wrote this week's profile. But it's more than just a pat on the back for Giuffra. It's also touching tribute to Giuffra's mentor at the firm, legendary securities litigator Gandolfo “Vince” DiBlasi. He died on January 14 of complications from pneumonia.

Here's the top of Colby's story.

Litigator of the Week: This One's For You, Vince

Sullivan & Cromwell partner Robert Giuffra, Jr. doesn't want to take the credit for his latest litigation win.

It was a big one, too. The veteran corporate litigator saw the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit undo class certification against his client, Goldman Sachs, in a case born out of the now-infamous trades popularized in the book and eponymous film, “The Big Short.”

Giuffra's been leading the suit through both the district court and appellate proceedings, but he says the win was really for his former mentor and securities bar legend, Gandolfo “Vince: DiBlasi. Only two days after the Jan. 12 appellate win, DiBlasi passed away at the age of 64.

“This is sort of like winning one for Vince. He really was the star of our securities litigation practice for 20 years,” Giuffra said. “So to the extent we won this case, it's really not my victory. It's much more a victory for Vince, and all the other partners at the firm that were trained by Vince.”

Giuffra spoke by phone from Europe, where he was traveling for work. He noted that DiBlasi was still at the firm when this most recent Goldman Sachs suit came through the door back in 2010. DiBlasi was Goldman's principle litigation partner at the time, so was all but certain to have handled it initially.

“Had he not gotten sick, he very well could have argued this case,” Giuffra said.

If the results at the appellate level were any indication, DiBlasi's inspired mentoring paid off for Goldman Sachs.

To Giuffra, the suit by the Arkansas Teachers Retirement System and other investors represents a distillation of the issues behind critical areas of development in this area of the law. Plaintiffs allege that Goldman made material misrepresentations about avoiding conflicts of interest after the burst housing bubble kicked off the financial crisis.

Goldman failed to disclose short positions in funds packed with mortgage-backed assets. Most notable among them was the Abacus, from which investor John Paulson, who was involved in determining the fund's assets, walked away with $1 billion post-crisis, thanks to his short position.

The appellate court's decision in favor of Goldman was, in the end, mostly a semantic one: Judge Paul Crotty dismissed key evidence Goldman wanted reviewed in its quest to defeat class certification as inconclusive.

Read the full story here, including Giuffra's acknowledgment that it wasn't exactly the victory he was looking for, but that his strategy of pursuing multiple lines of argument paid off.

See also Veteran Sullivan & Cromwell Litigator Dead at 64

 

Getting in Front of the Story, Quinn Emanuel Style

When Philippe Selendy won Litigator of the Week for the third time in July, we dubbed him “Quinn Emanuel's $25 Billion Man” based on his recoveries for the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

So it was big news on Thursday that he and seven colleagues including Faith Gay—co-chair of Quinn Emanuel's national trial practice—are leaving Quinn Emanuel to start their own firm.

But the way the news actually broke was interesting. The announcement didn't come from Selendy or Gay—it came from Quinn Emanuel.

In a news release, name partner John Quinn said, “Our firm has never been stronger, and has never had a deeper bench of veteran and next generation talent. We of course respect our valued colleagues' decision to take their practice to a smaller platform, but we do not expect these departures to have any significant impact on our practice or our revenue.”

Reporters on Thursday morning were left scrambling to reach Selendy or Gay to find out things like the name of their new firm, its focus and who exactly would be joining. In initial stories, neither my colleague Scott Flaherty at The American Lawyer nor Bloomberg Big Law's Casey Sullivan and Elizabeth Olson were able to contact them—or get answers to those questions.

By contrast, when another big-name litigator, Beth Wilkinson, announced on Jan. 20, 2016 that she was leaving Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to form Wilkinson Walsh + Eskovitz, she did comprehensive same-day interviews with The Wall Street Journal and The American Lawyer, and the new firm promptly released a (gorgeous, color-coordinated) group portrait of its members.

By the end of the day on Thursday, Bloomberg reported the new firm will be called Selendy & Gay, and obtained statements from both name partners. Except their comments were about Quinn Emanuel, not their new firm.

As in, “Quinn Emanuel remains close to my heart, and our new firm looks forward to working closely with QE in the future.” Gay said.

Selendy offered, “Working alongside John Quinn and the rest of my Quinn Emanuel colleagues has been a terrific and rewarding experience.”

Quinn Emanuel partner Susan Estrich, who sent the firm's press release, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

Lateral Watch

After less than two years at Greenberg Traurig, Louis Solomon and fellow partners Colin Underwood and Michael Lazaroff are jumping to Reed Smith in New York.

Solomon, a former co-chair of the litigation group at Cadwalader, will head Reed Smith's international litigation group.

“I would call it a step,” Solomon told my colleague Meghan Tribe of his group's decision to move to Reed Smith. “I think it's the next and, I think, last move for us in an evolution of both our practice and maybe even our personalities.”

Read Meghan's full story here.

Partners don't often leave elite San Francisco litigation shop Keker, Van Nest & Peters, which makes Quyen Ta's jump to Boies Schiller Flexner extra-noteworthy. She said the new role will allow her more chances to do plaintiff-side work in the class action space, an area where BSF has developed a reputation.

Read Ben Hancock's full story in The Recorder here.

 

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