Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs
A team at Sullivan & Cromwell fended off more than $100 million in potential damages for New York real estate investor Richard D. Cohen.
January 14, 2022 at 07:25 AM
4 minute read
Quick TakesOur first runners-up this week are Robert Sacks and Diane McGimsey of Sullivan & Cromwell who fended off claims packing more than $100 million in potential damages for New York real estate investor Richard D. Cohen. After a December bench trial, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman last week sided with Cohen finding that he wasn't personally liable for a loan used to buy a San Francisco residential apartment complex. The plaintiff, an affiliate of Carmel Partners, a major investor in multifamily real estate that acquired the underlying load, claimed that liens recorded against the property triggered carve outs in the loan agreement for certain "bad boy" acts. But Furman found that the plaintiff's reading of the loan agreement would produce a result that was "absurd" and "commercially unreasonable."
A Latham & Watkins team led by partners Michele Johnson and Colleen Smith takes home a runner-up spot for knocking out a shareholder class action against GoodRx Holdings Inc. Plaintiffs brought claims the drug discounting company failed to disclose potential competition from Amazon at the time of its 2020 initial public offering. U.S. District Judge David Carter in Santa Ana, California, dismissed the case without prejudice last week. In a point that's likely to be useful for defendants in future cases brought under Section 11 of the Securities Act, Carter concluded that Section 11 damages should be calculated based on the price the plaintiff paid for the stock rather than its alleged value. "With an undisputed IPO price of $33 and no drop below that in the entire period until the filing of this suit, there is no evidence of any loss to plaintiffs," Carter wrote. The Latham team included associates Jordan Cook, Morgan Whitworth, Sheridan Caldwell and Ashley Gebicke.
Also taking home a runner-up spot this week is Chad Hummel of Sidley Austin. Hummel and his team scored an antitrust defense win for retail client Fashion Nova on claims brought by "fast fashion" startup Honey Bum. Fashion Nova, which is known for partnering with influencers including Cardi B to get designs to market quickly, was accused of organizing a boycott of more than 30 vendors in Los Angeles to refuse to do business with Honey Bum. But U.S. District Judge Gary Klausner sided with Sidley and Fashion Nova on summary judgment last week finding that the evidence showed vendors made their own independent decisions not to do business with Honey Bum rather than entering into any horizontal agreement with one another. Fashion Nova's team on the case also included Sidley Senior Counsel Timothy Muris and Senior Managing Associate Anna Tutundjian.
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Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
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Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
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David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
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